Continuing with their US adventures, COMPASS members Ioannis Gkolias, Juan Luis Gonzalo and Narcis Miguel travel south from the mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah, to the desert of Tucson, Arizona. There they joined a Symposium on Astrodynamics organized by the University of Arizona at Tucson, hosted by Profs. Aaron J. Rosengren and Roberto Furfaro.
Ioannis opened the symposium with an engaging talk about new trends and techniques aimed “Towards a sustainable exploitation of the geosynchronous orbital region”. Next, Mortiz Aschenbrenner, from the University of Arizona, delivered his talk on “The dynamical placement of mega-constellations”.
After a refreshing coffee break, Juan Luis presented the audience the “Challenges and possibilities in the design of collision avoidance maneuvers involving sails”. Continuing with sails, Narcis closed the symposium with a technical yet entertaining presentation on the “Small oscillations of a helio-stable solar sail under gravity gradient torque”.
The symposium displayed an outstanding balance of scientific content and technical applications, and the COMPASS team was delighted by the opportunity to meet the faculty and fellow researchers at Arizona. Thank you for the invitation, and we hope to meet you again soon!