From 17 to 19 July, our Gabriella Gaias and Simeng Huang attended the 10th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying, hosted at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Gabriella presented a new tool for spaceborne navigation systems based only on angular observations, and Simeng proposed an efficient strategy for the de-orbiting of large constellations.
Davide Menzio, from the COMPASS team, is carrying out a research period at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he will increase his “on the field” experience and improve the existing tools with the latest developments of his research on trajectory design and optimization.
Stefan Frey and Matteo Romano from the COMPASS team are carrying out their last visiting periods at the European Space Operations Centre of ESA, where they will once more work “on the field” to improve the existing tools with the latest developments from their researches.
Being Italy’s leading academic institution in aerospace engineering, Politecnico di Milano has many projects with the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. As a testament of this long relation, the new president of ASI Giorgio Saccoccia visited our Department of Aerospace Science and Technology this Thursday. The COMPASS team introduced him to our virtual reality tools for outreach activities, aimed at raising awareness about the challenges and benefits of space utilization.
Camilla Colombo was selected to attend the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China as part of the delegation of the ERC.
Every year, the European Space Agency organizes its Space Engineering and Technology Final Presentation Days, a remarkable occasion to look back on the recent achievements from its technology programmes. This year, the event took place 2-4 July at ESTEC, with ESOC joining on 3 July. Juan Luis Gonzalo from COMPASS was on ESOC to present our recent work on the use of sails and tethers as passive deorbiting devices, developed in collaboration with 4 other European partners.
The COMPASS team attended the 8th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences to present recent developments on low-thrust geostationary station-keeping.
Narcís Miguel from the COMPASS team participated in the Conference New Trends in Celestial Mechanics (NTCM), in a special session dedicated to applied problems.
As complex as scientific research can be, getting the general public excited about science can be even more challenging. This is why the annual conference of the European network of science centres and museums (Ecsite) is a must-attend event to all professionals working to engage audiences with science and technology. The European Research Council joined the event for the very first time this year, and they invited the COMPASS team to come along.
A journal article led by Marco Nugnes of the COMPASS team presents a new refined procedure for the determination of the coverage area in view of an orbiting satellite, modelling the Earth’s surface as an oblate ellipsoid of rotation instead of the classical perfect sphere.