Space & Exploration Technology

Pioneering the technologies that will shape future space missions and exploration

Staff

The Space & Exploration Technology research cluster brings together expertise in access to space, in-orbit systems, and planetary exploration technologies. Our work supports the design and delivery of future missions through a combination of simulation, laboratory-scale demonstration, and terrestrial analogue testing.

Centred around the Integrated Space and Exploration Technologies Laboratory (I-SET), the cluster has access to advanced facilities including an air-bearing platform, Helmholtz coil system, vacuum chamber, cleanroom space, and 3D printing. A newly installed ESA-funded space environment chamber enables critical research on rocket plume-regolith interaction for lunar, Mars, and asteroid exploration.

This cluster connects interdisciplinary research across the James Watt School of Engineering and welcomes collaboration with academic, commercial, and space agency partners.


Researchers

Research Assistants

PhD candidates

Visitors

Dr James Beeley Luca Löttgen Emanuele Borghi
Dr Litesh Sulbhewar Christopher Teale  
Dr Iain Moore Majid Alhajeri  
Satyam Bhatti Jack Tufft  
Vaibhav Somaji Anuse Zitong Lin  
Khaldon Al-Areqi Claudia Jimenez Cuesta  
Robbie Gordon Matthew Deans  
Jonathan Draper  Edward Tomanek-Volynets  
  Jack Davies  
  Abdullah Akdogan  
  Miguel Rosa Morales  
  Fabienne Seibert  

 

Selected publications

Arnot, C.S., McInnes, C.R. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-8854, McKay, R.J., Macdonald, M. and Biggs, J. (2018) Orbit period modulation for relative motion using continuous low thrust in the two-body and restricted three-body problems. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 130, 12. (doi: 10.1007/s10569-017-9807-3)

Tan, Minghu, McInnes, Colin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-8854 and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2017) Direct and indirect capture of near-Earth asteroids in the Earth-Moon system. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 129(1-2), pp. 57-88. (doi: 10.1007/s10569-017-9764-x)

Peloni, Alessandro ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1903-9816, Dachwald, Bernd and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2018) Multiple near-earth asteroid rendezvous mission: solar-sailing options. Advances in Space Research, 62(8), pp. 2084-2098. (doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2017.10.017)

Budzyń, D. H. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0824-1947, Zare-Behtash, H. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4769-4076, Cowley, A. and Cammarano, A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8222-8150 (2023) Compliant Mechanisms for Dust Mitigation in Lunar Hardware Development: Technology and Material Considerations. In: Materials in the Space Environment (ISMSE-15 and ICPMSE-13), Leiden, The Netherlands, 18-23 Sep 2022, 012001. (doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/1287/1/012001)

Sullo, Nicola ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2835-317X, Peloni, Alessandro ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1903-9816 and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2017) Low-thrust to solar-sail trajectories: a homotopic approach. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 40(11), pp. 2796-2806. (doi: 10.2514/1.g002552)

McInnes, Colin R. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-8854 (2016) A continuum model for the orbit evolution of self-propelled 'smart dust' swarms. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 126(4), pp. 501-517. (doi: 10.1007/s10569-016-9707-y)

Budzyń, Dorota ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0824-1947, Tuohy, Eóin, Garrivier, Natan, Schild, Timon, Cowley, Aidan, Cruise, Reuben, Adachi, Masato, Zare-Behtash, Hossein ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4769-4076 and Cammarano, Andrea ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8222-8150 (2022) Lunar Dust: Its Impact on Hardware and Mitigation Technologies. In: 46th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, Houston, TX, USA, 11-13 May 2022, (In Press)

Budzyń, Dorota ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0824-1947, Zare-Behtash, Hossein ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4769-4076, Cowley, Aidan and Cammarano, Andrea ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8222-8150 (2023) Implicit lunar dust mitigation technology: compliant mechanisms. Acta Astronautica, 203, pp. 146-156. (doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.11.042)

Snodgrass, C. et al. (2018) The Castalia mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro. Advances in Space Research, 62(8), pp. 1947-1976. (doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2017.09.011)

Felicetti, Leonard, Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 and Harkness, Patrick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9930-6012 (2016) Attitude stability and altitude control of a variable-geometry Earth-orbiting solar sail. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 39(9), pp. 2112-2126. (doi: 10.2514/1.G001833)

Yarr, Neil and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2018) Optimization of intersatellite routing for real-time data download. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 54(5), pp. 2356-2369. (doi: 10.1109/TAES.2018.2815880)

Viale, Andrea ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4076-6284, McInnes, Colin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-8854 and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2018) Analytical mechanics of asteroid disassembly using the Orbital Siphon effect. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 474(2220), 20180594. (doi: 10.1098/rspa.2018.0594)

De Iuliis, Alessia, Ciampa, Francesco, Felicetti, Leonard and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2021) Sailing with solar and planetary radiation pressure. Advances in Space Research, 67(9), pp. 2795-2811. (doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2019.11.036)

White, Craig ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8208-5049, Zare-Behtash, Hossein ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4769-4076, Kontis, Konstantinos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4984-9166, Ukai, Takahiro, Merrifield, Jim, Evans, David, Coxhill, Ian, Langener, Tobias and Van den Eynde, Jeroen (2019) Test Facility to Investigate Plume-Regolith Interactions. International Conference on Flight Vehicles, Aerothermodynamics and Re-entry Missions and Engineering (FAR 2019), Monopoli, Italy, 30 Sept - 3 Oct 2019.

Sousa Silva, Priscilla, Terra, Maisa O. and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2018) Fast Earth-Moon transfers with ballistic capture. Astrophysics and Space Science, 363, 210. (doi: 10.1007/s10509-018-3431-x)

Liu, Xiaoyu, McInnes, Colin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-8854 and Ceriotti, Matteo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178 (2018) Strategies to engineer the capture of a member of a binary asteroid pair using the planar parabolic restricted three-body problem. Planetary and Space Science, 161, pp. 5-25. (doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2018.05.018)