Research

The core of my research activity is carried out at the "Michele D. Sirinian" Flight Mechanics Lab of the School of Aerospace Engineering, Via Salaria 851, 00138, Roma.  These and Stage activities are available here. 

The Lab includes the following facilities

• Helmholtz Cage, recreating on-ground the magnetic field acting on an orbiting spacecraft and used for testing magnetic ADCS, to calibrate on-board magnetometers and characterize magnetic actuators.

• 3 x spherical air bearings, recreating free rotation conditions of a spacecraft in micro-gravity.

• CubeSat platforms (3U/6U/12U), equipped with On-Board Computer, Telecommunication and Attitude Determination and Control Systems to test absolute (i.e. detumbling and nadir pointing) and relative (up to 3 satellites) attitude control algorithms.

• Complete ADCS setup (reaction wheels, magnetorquers, nadir and sun sensors, magnetometers) for Hardware-in-the-Loop testing.

• 3-D printer and CNC milling machine.

• ISO 7+ clean room for integration and testing of flight hardware

And the following ones are under development (within the Lab or in the Lab network)

• 3-axis robotic arm, for testing guidance and control algorithms for in-orbit servicing.

• Faciliy for Education and Research on Re-entry Instability (FERRI), aimed at studying the instabilities that can occur in parachutes and parafoils during interplanetary re-entry.