News

Photo Credit: Humberto Nicoletti Serra

2025

Sep 2025 - Ruthvik Bommena and Robyn Woollands publish: PATH-CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL 6-DOF MOTION FOR MULTI-AGENT IN-SPACE SERVICING AND ASSEMBLY in Acta Astronautica.
Aug 2025 - Kristian Jamieson (PhD student) and William Skamser (PhD Student) join the research group.
Aug 2025 - Great attendance by our COSMOS research group at the 2025 AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Boston!

Aug 2025 - Congratulations to Himmat Panag (advised by Dr. Woollands) for winning the John V. Breakwell Student Paper Award for his paper (co-authored with Ruthvik Bommena and Robyn Woollands) titled: THRUSTER POINTING CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL 6-DOF PROXIMITY OPERATIONS USING INDIRECT OPTIMIZATION, to attend the 2025 AAS/AIAA Astodynamics Specialist Conference in Boston, MA. UIUC News Article.
Aug 2025 - Congratulations to Bryan Cline (advised by Dr. Woollands) for winning the AFOSR Student Travel Award for his paper (co-authored with Robyn Woollands) titled: CONSISTENT MODELING OF THIRD-BODY PERTURBATIONS WITH EPHEMERIS DATA, to attend the 2025 AAS/AIAA Astodynamics Specialist Conference in Boston, MA. UIUC News Article.
Aug 2025 - Marin Hubert attended the 2025 AAS/AIAA Astodynamics Specialist Conference in Boston, MA, and presented a paper titled: ELLIPSOIDAL THRUSTER POINTING CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL TRAJECTORIES FOR SATELLITE SERVICING AT SEL2, co-authored with Himmat Panag and Robyn Woollands.
Aug 2025 - Dr. Woollands attended the 2025 AAS/AIAA Astodynamics Specialist Conference in Boston, MA, where she chaired a session and served on the technical committee.
Aug 2025 - Congratulations to Dr. Woollands for being named to the Spring 2025 List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for AE 508: Optimal Space Trajectories!
Oct 2024 - Daniel Engel, Zachary Putnam, Robyn Woollands, and Soumyo Dutta publish: OPTIMAL CONTROL COMPARISON OF BANK-ANGLE AND ALPHA-BETA STEERING FOR MARS ENTRY SYSTEMS in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.
July 2025 - Nitya Jagadam (MS student, co-advised by Prof. Matt Hausman) joins the research group.
Jun 2025 - Congratulations to Dr. Alex Pascarella for successfully defending his PhD dissertation!

May 2025 - Dr. Woollands gave an invited seminar in the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Vienna titled: SPACE MISSION SUSTAINABILITY LEVERAGING PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS AND OPTIMAL CONTROL.
May 2025 - Ruthvik Bommena starts a summer internship at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Apr 2025 - Dr. Woollands and the UIUC Department of Aerospace Engineering hosted Dr. John Junkins from Texas A&M University on April 21st and 22nd. Dr. Junkins met with students, faculty, and gave a departmental seminar titled: What does Meryl Streep and Heartbreak Hotel have to do with Computational Methods in Nonlinear Mechanics and Control?
Mar 2025 - Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Engel for successfully defending his PhD dissertation!

Mar 2025 - Dr. Woollands hosted Dr. Jacob Englander from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for a virtual guest lecture in AE 508: Optimal Space Trajectories on March 10th. Dr. Englander's lecture was titled: Optimization of Interplanetary Trajectories using Direct Two Point Shooting.
Feb 2025 - Congratulations to Himmat Panag for winning first place in the Aerospace Department's annual graduate student research poster competition!
Feb 2025 - Congratulations to Ruthvik Bommena for passing the PhD Preliminary Exam!
Feb 2025 - J.B. Bouvier, Himmat Panag, Robyn Woollands and Melkior Ornik publish: DELAYED RESILIENT TRAJECTORY TRACKING AFTER PARTIAL LOSS OF CONTROL in the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics.
Feb 2025 - Ruthvik Bommena attended the 47th Annual AAS Guidance Navigation and Control Conference in Breckenridge, CO, and presented a paper titled: OPTIMAL 6-DOF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR IN-SPACE SERVICING AND ASSEMBLY MISSIONS AT SUN-EARTH L2, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2025 - Marin Hubert (B.S. exchange student from EPFL in Switzerland) joins the research group.
Jan 2025 - Strong turn out for our COSMOS research group at the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Hawaii!

Jan 2025 - Congratulations to Ruthvik Bommena (advised by Dr. Woollands) for winning the John V. Breakwell student paper and travel award for his paper titled: PATH-CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL 6-DOF MOTION FOR MULTI-AGENT IN-SPACE SERVICING AND ASSEMBLY, to attend the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Hawaii! UIUC News Article.

Jan 2025 - Alex Pascarella attended the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Kauai, HI, and presented a paper titled: MULTI-PARAMETER VIRTUAL HOMOTOPY FOR OPTIMIZATION OF MANY REVOLUTION LOW-THRUST TRANSFERS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2025 - Daniel Engel attended the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Kauai, HI, and presented a paper titled: GUIDANCE PERFORMANCE OF BANK-ANGLE AND ALPHA-BETA STEERING FOR A LARGE ROBOTIC MARS ENTRY VEHICLE, co-authored with Zach Putnam, Robyn Woollands, Soumyo Dutta, and Brandon Smith.
Jan 2025 - Bryan Cline attended the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Kauai, HI, and presented a paper titled: OPTIMAL LOW-THRUST TRAJECTORIES WITH REFERENCE FRAME SWITCHING, co-authored with Joshua Rovey and Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2025 - David Stanley attended the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Kauai, HI, and presented a paper titled: PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS WITH ADAPTIVE SEGMENTATION FOR PROPAGATION OF GENERAL DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2025 - Dr. Woollands attended the 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Kauai, HI, where she chaired two sessions and participated in a panel discussion.

2024

Dec 2024 - Ruthvik Bommena and Robyn Woollands publish: INDIRECT TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION WITH PATH CONSTRAINTS FOR MULTI-AGENT PROXIMITY OPERATIONS in the The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. UIUC News Article.
Dec 2024 - Dr. Woollands gave an invited seminar in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich, titled: SPACE MISSION SUSTAINABILITY LEVERAGING PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS AND OPTIMAL CONTROL.
Nov 2024 - Alex Pascarella, Ruthvik Bommena, Siegfried Eggl, and Robyn Woollands publish: MISSION DESIGN FOR SPACE TELESCOPE SERVICING AT SUN-EARTH L2 in Acta Astronautica. UIUC News Article.
Oct 2024 - Dr. Woollands and the UIUC Department of Aerospace Engineering hosted Dr. Carolin Frueh from Purdue University on October 21st. Dr. Frueh met with students, faculty, and gave a departmental seminar titled: Gathering Knowledge on Human-made Space Objects.
Oct 2024 - Bryan Cline, Alex Pascarella, Joshua Rovey, and Robyn Woollands publish INDIRECT OPTIMAL CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR MULTIMODE PROPULSION MISSION DESIGN in Acta Astronautica. UIUC News Article.
Oct 2024 - Himmat Panag and Robyn Woollands publish: THRUSTER POINTING CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL CONTROL FOR SATELLITE SERVICING USING INDIRECT OPTIMIZATION in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.
Oct 2024 - Daniel Engel starts NSTGRO Visiting Technologist Experience at APL.
Sep 2024 - Dr. Woollands and three students, David Stanley, Ruthvik Bommena, and Himmat Panag, were invited to visit and present work at the 2024 Joint Physics of Sensing/Astrodynamics Program Review.
Sep 2024 - Dr. Woollands gave an invited seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley titled: SPACE MISSION SUSTAINABILITY LEVERAGING PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS AND OPTIMAL CONTROL.
Sep 2024 - Dr. Woollands and four students, Alex Pascarella, Bryan Cline, Brandon Crane, and David Stanley, were invited to visit and present work at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA.
Aug 2024 - Ruthvik Bommena attended the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Broomfield, CO, and presented a paper titled: FUEL-OPTIMAL MULTI-AGENT OPERATIONS WITH PATH INEQUALITY CONSTRAINTS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Aug 2024 - David Stanley attended the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Broomfield, CO, and presented a paper titled: GAUSS-RADAU: AN INVESTIGTION INTO VARYING THE POLYNOMIAL DEGREE FOR APPLICATIONS IN ASTRODYNAMICS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Aug 2024 - David Stanley attended the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Broomfield, CO, and presented a paper titled: EFFICIENT SATELLITE CONSTELLATION ORBIT PROPAGATION USING PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Aug 2024 - Congratulations to David Stanley for passing the PhD Preliminary Exam!
Aug 2024 - Congratulations to Himmat Panag for being selected as a recipient of the H.S. Stillwell Fellowship in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at UIUC.
Jul 2024 - David Stanley, Robyn Woollands, Amir Rahmani, Federico Rossi, Changrak Choi, and Anthony Davis publish: ENABLING SPACE-BASED COMPUTED CLOUD TOMOGRAPHY WITH A MIXED INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAMMING SCHEDULER in the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. UIUC News Article.
May 2024 - Daniel Engel starts NSTGRO Visiting Technologist Experience at JPL.
May 2024 - David Stanley starts a summer internship at AFRL.
May 2024 - Congratulations to Bryan Cline for passing the PhD Preliminary Exam!
May 2024 - Congratulations to David Stanley for being selected to participate in the NASA-JPL Planetary Science Summer School!
May 2024 - Dr. Woollands gave a presentation titled "Charting Dual Trajectories: Career Optimization to Spacecraft Optimization" to the Illinois Scholars Undergraduate Research cohort.
Apr 2024 - Congratulations to Bryan Cline for being selected as the recipient of the Kenneth Lee Herrick Memorial Award, which is given to an aerospace engineering graduate student who demonstrates outstanding academic and research performance!
Apr 2024 - Dr. Woollands participated in UIUC's Engineering Open House, spending an afternoon talking with high school girls who are interested in pursuing a career in engineering.
Mar 2024 - Dr. Woollands participated in the Fly Girls panel discussion hosted by UIUC's Aerospace Engineering Department.
Mar 2024 - Congratulations to Daniel Engel for winning the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Student Paper Competition! UIUC News Article.
Mar 2024 - Daniel Engel attended the IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, MT, and presented a paper titled: OPTIMAL MARS ENTRY TRAJECTORIES FOR BANK ANGLE STEERING AND ALPHA-BETA STEERING, co-authored with Zach Putnam (co-advisor), Robyn Woollands, and Souymo Dutta (NASA Langley co-advisor).
Feb 2024 - Congratulations to Alex Pascarella for passing the PhD Preliminary Exam!
Feb 2024 - Congratulations to Bryan Cline for being selected to participate in the NASA-JPL Heliophysics Mission Design School! UIUC News Article.
Feb 2024 - Daniel Engel attended the 46th Annual AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference in Breckenridge, CO, and presented a paper titled: FLIGHT PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF BANK ANGLE STEERING AND ALPHA-BETA STEERING FOR MARS ENTRY SYSTEMS, co-authored with Zach Putnam (co-advisor), Robyn Woollands, and Souymo Dutta (NASA Langley co-advisor).
Jan 2024 - Dr. Woollands gave a virtual invited talk at the 2024 International Forum on Deep Space Missions and Trajectory Optimization and 12th edition of Global Trajectory Optimization Workshop, titled: SPACE MISSION SUSTAINABILITY LEVERAGING PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS AND OPTIMAL CONTROL.
Jan 2024 - Bryan Cline attended the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando, FL, and presented a paper titled: INDIRECT OPTIMAL CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR MULTIMODE PROPULSION MISSION DESIGN, co-authored with Alex Pascarella, Robyn Woollands, and Joshua Rovey (co-advisor).
Jan 2024 - Alex Pascarella attended the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando, FL, and presented a paper titled: ADAPTIVE PICARD-CHEBYSHEV METHODS FOR BANG-BANG CONTROL DYNAMICS, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2024 - Dr. Woollands attended the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando, FL, and presented a paper titled: THRUSTER POINTING CONSTRAINED OPTIMAL CONTROL FOR SATELLITE SERVICING USING INDIRECT OPTIMIZATION, co-authored with Himmat Panag.
Jan 2024 - Brandon Crane (MS student) joins the research group.
Jan 2024 - Congratulations to Himmat Panag for being selected as a recipient of the American Australian Association - Arthur Sinodinos Scholarship!
Jan 2024 - Congratulations to Ruthvik Bommena and Himmat Panag for passing the PhD Qualifying Exam!
Jan 2024 - Congratulations to Dr. Woollands for being selected as a recipient of the 2024 Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Young Investigator Career Award! UIUC News Article.

2023

Dec 2023 - Congratulations to Pallavi Ravada and Joshua Fofrich for graduating with their MS degrees! Both Pallavi and Joshua will start as GNC Engineers at The Aerospace Corporation in 2024.
Nov 2023 - Congratulations to Daniel Engel for passing the PhD Preliminary Exam!
Aug 2023 - Brian Patrick, Alex Pascarella, and Robyn Woollands publish: HYBRID OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH-FIDELITY LOW-THRUST TRANSFERS TO THE LUNAR GATEWAY in the The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences.
May 2023 - Daniel Engel starts a summer internship at JSC.
May 2023 - Alex Pascarella starts a summer internship at Continuum Space Systems.
May 2023 - David Stanley and Joshua Fofrich each start a summer internship at AFRL.
May 2023 - Pallavi Ravada starts a summer internship at Aerospace Corporation.
May 2023 - Congratulations to Brian Patrick, Himmat Panag, and Ruthvik Bommena for graduating with their MS degrees! Brian will start as a GNC Engineer at Aerospace Corporation in June, while Ruthvik and Himmat will continue at UIUC as PhD students.
May 2023 - Congratulations to Varsha Krisnakumar for graduating with her BS degree! Varsha has accepted a position as a GNC Engineer at Northop Grumman.
Feb 2023 - Alex Pascarella, Dr. Woollands, and JPL colleagues publish: "LOW-THRUST TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM PONY EXPRESS" in Acta Astronautica.
Feb 2023 - Brian Patrick attended the 45th AAS GNC Conference in Breckenridge, CO, and presented a paper titled: HYBRID OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH-FIDELITY LOW-THRUST TRANSFERS TO THE LUNAR GATEWAY, co-authored with Alex Pascarella and Robyn Woollands.
Feb 2023 - Himmat Panag attended the 45th AAS GNC Conference in Breckenridge, CO, and presented a paper titled: REDUCING THRUSTER PLUME CONTAMINATION FOR SATELLITE SERVICING USING CONVEX OPTIMIZATION, co-authored with Robyn Woollands and JPL collaborators: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Amir Rahmani.
Jan 2023 - Alex Pascarella attended the 33rd AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Austin, TX, and presented a paper titled: LOW THRUST TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION FOR TRANSPORTING GATEWAY’S POWER AND PROPULSION ELEMENT TO A NEAR-RECTILINEAR HALO ORBIT, co-authored with Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2023 - David Stanley attended the 33rd AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Austin, TX, and presented a paper titled: ENABLING SPACE-BASED COMPUTED CLOUD TOMOGRAPHY WITH A MIXED INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAMMING SCHEDULER, co-authored with Robyn Woollands and JPL collaborators: Amir Rahmani, Federico Rossi, and Changrak Choi.
Jan 2023 - Joshua Fofrich attended the 33rd AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Austin, TX, and presented a paper titled: OPTIMAL LOW THRUST TRAJECTORY FROM NRHO TO LLO USING HIGH-FIDELITY DYNAMICS, co-authored with Alex Pascarella and Robyn Woollands.
Jan 2023 - Bryan Cline (PhD student, co-advised by Prof. Joshua Rovey) and Daniel Engel (PhD student, co-advised by Prof. Zach Putnam) join the research group.

2022

May 2022 - Dr. Woollands and the UIUC Department of Aerospace Engineering hosted Dr. Federico Rossi from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on October 17th. Dr. Rossi met with students, faculty, and gave a departmental seminar titled: Multi-Robot Systems for Planetary Exploration: NASA's Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Explorers.
Aug 2022 - Congratulations to David Stanley for passing the PhD Qualifying Exam!
Aug 2022 - Congratulations to Jean-Baptiste Bouvier (co-advised by Dr. Woollands) for winning the John V. Breakwell student paper and travel award for his paper titled: RESILIENCE OF ORBITAL INSPECTIONS TO PARTIAL LOSS OF CONTROL AUTHORITY OF THE CHASER SATELLITE, co-authored with Himmat Panag, Robyn Woollands, and Melkior Ornik, to attend the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina!
Aug 2022 - Ruthvik Bommena (MS student) and Paul Jeon (MS student) join the research group.
May 2022 - Alex Pascarella, David Stanley, and Himmat Panag start summer internships at JPL.
May 2022 - Joshua Fofrich starts a summer internship at AFRL.
Feb 2022 - Congratulations to Alex Pascarella for winning 2nd place in the student paper competition at the 44th AAS GNC Conference in Colorado! His paper titled: LOW THRUST TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM PONY EXPRESS, was co-authored with Robyn Woollands and JPL collaborators.

Jan 2022 - Congratulations to Alex Pascarella for passing the PhD Qualifying Exam!
Jan 2022 - Brian Patrick (MS student) joins the research group.

2021

Nov 2021 - Dr. Woollands and the UIUC Department of Aerospace Engineering hosted Dr. Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on November 8th. Dr. Bandyopadhyay met with students, faculty, and gave a departmental seminar titled: Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT): A Multi-Agent Robotic Mission to Peek at the Early Universe from the Far-Side of the Moon.
Aug 2021 - David Stanley (PhD student), Himmat Panag (MS student), and Pallavi Ravada (BS student) join the research group.
Aug 2021 - Alex Psacarella attended the AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Virtual Conference and presented a paper titled: SOLAR ELECTRIC PROPULSION MISSION DESIGN FOR SPACE TELESCOPE REFUELING AND SERVICING, co-authored with Dr. Woollands.
Jun 2021 - Alex Pascarella starts a summer internship at JPL (Project: Solar System Pony Express).
May 2021 - Joshua Fofrich (MS student) joins the research group.
Feb 2021 - Mars 2020 (Perseverence Rover) successfully lands on Mars on February 18th. Dr. Woollands was part of JPL's Navigation Team for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that provided bent-pipe communication to Mars 2020 during entry, descent, and landing (EDL).
Feb 2021 - Dr. Woollands hosted Dr. Martin Lo from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a virtual guest lecture in AE 502: Advanced Orbital Mechanics on February 16th. Dr. Lo's lecture was titled: Missions that have made use of the CRTBP & Manifolds.
Jan 2021 - Dr. Woollands attends the AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Virtual Conference and presented a paper titled: MAXIMIZING DUST DEVIL FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS ON MARS USING CUBESATS AND ONBOARD SCHEDULING, co-authored with JPL collaborators.
Jan 2021 - Alex Pascarella (PhD student), Sahisth Chhabra (MS student), and Varsha Krishnakumar (BS student) join the research group.
Jan 2021 - Dr. Woollands joins the UIUC Aerospace Department as an Assistant Professor. UIUC News Article.