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The modeling and simulation of heat source trajectories through phase-change materials is a relevant problem both for space exploration and for terrestrial climate research, among other fields. In space, the DLR and NASA are both interested…
Venus is known for its extreme surface temperature and its sulfuric acid clouds. But the cloud layers on Venus have similar temperature and pressure conditions to those on the surface of Earth and are conjectured to be a possible habitat…
Unmanned underwater vehicles are increasingly employed for maintenance and surveying tasks at sea, but their operation in shallow waters is often hindered by hydrodynamic disturbances such as waves, currents, and turbulence. These unsteady…
A full characterization of the water flow past a silicon superhydrophobic surface with longitudinal micro-grooves enclosed in a microfluidic device is presented. Fluorescence microscopy images of the flow seeded with fluorescent passive…
We describe a Simplified Gravitational Reference Sensor (S-GRS), an ultra-precise inertial sensor for future Earth geodesy missions. These sensors are used to measure or compensate for all non-gravitational accelerations of the host…
Measurements in the atmosphere and at the surface of Venus are required to understand fundamental processes of how terrestrial planets evolve and how they work today. While the European Venus community is unified in its support of the…
Gravity assist manoeuvres are one of the most succesful techniques in astrodynamics. In these trajectories the spacecraft comes very close to the surface of the Earth, or other Solar system planets or moons, and, as a consequence, it…
Aerocapture uses atmospheric drag to decelerate spacecraft and achieve orbit insertion. One of the significant risks associated with aerocapture is the uncertainty in the atmospheric density, particularly for outer planets. The paper…
In the context of current and future microwave surveys mainly dedicated to the accurate mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), mm and sub-mm emissions from Solar System will represent a potential source of contamination as well as an…
Cells with the same genome can exist in different phenotypes. and can change between distinct phenotypes when subject to specific stimuli and microenvironments. Some examples include cell differentiation during development, reprogramming…
With the advancement of crewed deep-space missions, Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) for lunar bases face stresses from lunar environmental factors. While microgravity and radiation are well-studied, the low-magnetic field's…
Despite numerous successful missions to small celestial bodies, the gravity field of such targets has been poorly characterized so far. Gravity estimates can be used to infer the internal structure and composition of small bodies and, as…
Living systems continuously transform matter and energy through the chemical processes that constitute their metabolism. The overall metabolic rate of an organism correlates positively with its body mass, however both the exact scaling…
This postdoctoral thesis starts by reviewing the historic development of airplane structures and high lift devices from an engineering point of view. However, the main purpose of this document is the development of a novel concept for shape…
Robotic grasping of 3D deformable objects (e.g., fruits/vegetables, internal organs, bottles/boxes) is critical for real-world applications such as food processing, robotic surgery, and household automation. However, developing grasp…
Flagellated microswimmers are ubiquitous in natural habitats. Understanding the hydrodynamic behavior of these cells is of paramount interest, owing to their applications in bio-medical engineering and disease spreading. Since the last two…
We study the role of microtubule movement in bidirectional organelle transport in Drosophila S2 cells and show that EGFP-tagged peroxisomes in cells serve as sensitive probes of motor induced, noisy cytoskeletal motions. Multiple…
Planet Mars past environmental conditions were similar to the early Earth, but nowadays they are similar to those of a very cold desert, irradiated by intense solar UV light. However, some terrestrial lifeform showed the capability to adapt…
The increasingly congested near earth environment requires accurate orbital modelling to prevent collision events that threaten access to space infrastructure. Ionospheric aerodynamics are the largest non-conservative source of orbital…
According to the Weak Equivalence Principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the $10^{-15}$ precision level, by measuring the…