- Mar 2024 - Congratulations to Daniel Engel for winning the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Student Paper Competition!
- 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!
- 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 gives 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!
- December 2023 - Congratulations to Pallavi Ravada and Joshua Fofrich
for graduating with their MS degrees! Both Pallavi and Joshua will start as GNC Engineers at 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 Journal of 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.
- 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.
- 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. 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).
- 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.
