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All Outputs (22)

Planetary sunshade for solar geoengineering: Preliminary design of a precursor system and mission (2025)
Journal Article
Coco, M., Matonti, C. L., Cappelletti, C., Chesley, B., Fuglesang, C., Governale, G., Pushparaj, N., Romano, M., Tibert, G., & Wilk, L. (2025). Planetary sunshade for solar geoengineering: Preliminary design of a precursor system and mission. Acta Astronautica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.031

The increasing urgency of climate change mitigation necessitates innovative solutions beyond terrestrial efforts. Space-based solar geoengineering - particularly a Planetary Sunshade System (PSS) positioned near the photo-gravitational equilibrium po... Read More about Planetary sunshade for solar geoengineering: Preliminary design of a precursor system and mission.

Modelling and numerical optimisation of refractive surface patterns for transmissive solar sails (2025)
Journal Article
Thompson, S. M., Tuck, C., Pushparaj, N., & Cappelletti, C. (2025). Modelling and numerical optimisation of refractive surface patterns for transmissive solar sails. Acta Astronautica, 233, 99-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.03.039

Transmissive solar sail designs have been proposed with performance and utility benefits over traditional solar sails, particularly in low Earth orbit. The functional element of these new sails is their refractive or diffractive surface pattern. This... Read More about Modelling and numerical optimisation of refractive surface patterns for transmissive solar sails.

Use of the Earth-Moon Lagrange Points for Improving Lunar Navigation Performance (2025)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Cormier, L., Pushparaj, N., Blunt, P., & Cappelletti, C. (2025, January). Use of the Earth-Moon Lagrange Points for Improving Lunar Navigation Performance. Presented at 7ᵗʰ Winter Satellite Workshop with Remote Sensing Days and Space Science Workshop, Espoo Dipoli, Finland

Real-Time Contrail Monitoring and Mitigation Using CubeSat Constellations (2024)
Journal Article
Pushparaj, N., Cormier, L., Cappelletti, C., & Portapas, V. (2024). Real-Time Contrail Monitoring and Mitigation Using CubeSat Constellations. Atmosphere, 15(12), Article 1543. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15121543

Contrails, or condensation trails, left by aircraft, significantly contribute to global warming by trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite their critical role in climate dynamics, the environmental impact of contrails remains underexplored.... Read More about Real-Time Contrail Monitoring and Mitigation Using CubeSat Constellations.

Roles, effects, and ramifications of in-person interactions in a digital team (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Bonfitto, F., Fayon, G., Gallucci, A., Iorga, M. B., Nigro, F., Pushparaj, N., Alqattan, Y., Sadhukhan, D., Rümmler, L., & Soulard, N. (2024, October). Roles, effects, and ramifications of in-person interactions in a digital team. Presented at 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2024), Milan, Italy

The democratisation of Agile and SAFe development approach in the IT sector following the social web deployment in the second half of the 2000’s led in parallel to the emergence of the digital transformation concept. In order to ease the collaboratio... Read More about Roles, effects, and ramifications of in-person interactions in a digital team.

Teleoperated Astropharmaceutical Payload for Long-Duration Space Missions: Project VITA! (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Izcan, S., Tsinidis, M., Pushparaj, N., Williams, P., & Cappelletti, C. (2024, October). Teleoperated Astropharmaceutical Payload for Long-Duration Space Missions: Project VITA!. Presented at 75th International Astronautical Congress, Milan, Italy

The VITA (Visualizing In-space Tx-Tl Astropharmaceuticals) mission is a teleoperated Astropharmaceutical cube-payload that will launch a biological experiment to the ICE Cubes Facility (ICF) on board the International Space Station (ISS) as a selecte... Read More about Teleoperated Astropharmaceutical Payload for Long-Duration Space Missions: Project VITA!.

Preliminary Design of a GNSS Interference Mapping CubeSat Mission: JamSail (2024)
Journal Article
Cormier, L., Yousif, T., Thompson, S., Arcia Gil, A., Pushparaj, N., Blunt, P., & Cappelletti, C. (2024). Preliminary Design of a GNSS Interference Mapping CubeSat Mission: JamSail. Aerospace, 11(11), Article 901. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11110901

The JamSail mission is an educational CubeSat aiming to design, develop, and demonstrate two new technologies on a small satellite, tentatively scheduled for launch no earlier than 2026. When launched, JamSail will demonstrate the functionality of tw... Read More about Preliminary Design of a GNSS Interference Mapping CubeSat Mission: JamSail.

CubeSats for Contrail Monitoring and Environmental Impact Reduction (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Pushparaj, N., Cormier, L., Cappelletti, C., & Portapas, V. (2024, October). CubeSats for Contrail Monitoring and Environmental Impact Reduction. Presented at 75th International Astronautical Congress, Milan, Italy

Contrails, or condensation trails, are cloud-like trails left by aircraft under certain atmospheric conditions. They are known to exacerbate global warming by trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite the significant role of contrails in clima... Read More about CubeSats for Contrail Monitoring and Environmental Impact Reduction.

Alternative Orbits for Improving Lunar Navigation Services (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Cormier, L., Arcia, A., Pushparaj, N., Blunt, P., & Cappelletti, C. (2024, October). Alternative Orbits for Improving Lunar Navigation Services. Presented at 75th International Astronautical Congress, Milan, Italy

With the renewed interest in missions to the Moon, key technologies are required to ensure the success of these missions. In particular, the demand for reliable, accurate positioning and navigation services will be fundamental for the successful outc... Read More about Alternative Orbits for Improving Lunar Navigation Services.

Optimization of MMX relative quasi-satellite transfer trajectories using primer vector theory (2024)
Journal Article
Pushparaj, N., Baresi, N., & Kawakatsu, Y. (2024). Optimization of MMX relative quasi-satellite transfer trajectories using primer vector theory. Acta Astronautica, 225, 390-401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.09.031

Quasi-satellite orbits (QSO) are stable retrograde parking orbits around Phobos that are currently being considered for JAXA’s upcoming robotic sample return mission Maritan Moons Exploration (MMX). During the proximity operations o... Read More about Optimization of MMX relative quasi-satellite transfer trajectories using primer vector theory.

Use of stable Lagrange points for improving Lunar GNSS (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Cormier, L., Pushparaj, N., Blunt, P., & Cappelletti, C. (2024, July). Use of stable Lagrange points for improving Lunar GNSS. Presented at 34th Workshop on JAXA Astrodynamics Symposium and Flight Mechanics, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS), Sagamihara, Kanagawa Japan and online

Reflective and transmissive solar sails: Dynamics, flight regimes and applications (2024)
Journal Article
Thompson, S. M., Cappelletti, C., & Pushparaj, N. (2024). Reflective and transmissive solar sails: Dynamics, flight regimes and applications. Acta Astronautica, 220, 478-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.04.032

Refractive and diffractive solar sails have been cited to yield benefits in both performance and utility over reflective sails, but their range of viable flight regimes and future applications have not been fully explored. In this paper, a flight mod... Read More about Reflective and transmissive solar sails: Dynamics, flight regimes and applications.

Quasi-solar Synchronous Orbit around the Moon based on Spatial Distant Retrograde Orbits (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Peng, L., Liang, Y., Pushparaj, N., & Shi, P. (2023, October). Quasi-solar Synchronous Orbit around the Moon based on Spatial Distant Retrograde Orbits. Presented at 74th International Astronautical Congress. Symposium A5. 26th IAA SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, Baku, Azerbaijan

The last several decades have witnessed the rapid development of lunar exploration, promoting researches on various types of lunar orbits including Distant Retrograde Orbits (abbr. DRO) that are feasible for orbiting tasks due to their stability. Man... Read More about Quasi-solar Synchronous Orbit around the Moon based on Spatial Distant Retrograde Orbits.

Frequent Deep-Space Access Strategy for Venus Aeronomic Exploration Mission using Earth-Synchronous Orbits (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ito, D., Pushparaj, N., & Kawakatsu, Y. (2023, October). Frequent Deep-Space Access Strategy for Venus Aeronomic Exploration Mission using Earth-Synchronous Orbits. Presented at 74th International Astronautical Congress. Symposium B4. 30th IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SMALL SATELLITE MISSIONS, Baku, Azerbaijan

Geostationary transfer orbits (GTO) are earth-centric orbits widely used for kick-stage operations of satellites for deep space exploration missions. A rideshare spacecraft parked or deployed in GTOs usually requires minimal transfer cost compared to... Read More about Frequent Deep-Space Access Strategy for Venus Aeronomic Exploration Mission using Earth-Synchronous Orbits.

Breaking the Cycle: Novel Capture Mechanisms for Active Space Debris Removal (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Taggart, A., Harris, J., Pushparaj, N., & Cappelletti, C. (2023, October). Breaking the Cycle: Novel Capture Mechanisms for Active Space Debris Removal. Presented at 74th International Astronautical Congress. Symposium A6. 21st IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SPACE DEBRIS, Baku, Azerbaijan

Since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, over 6000 rockets and more than 11,300 satellites have been launched into space, resulting in a high number of artificial space debris in orbit around Earth. Of this debris, there are over one million objects be... Read More about Breaking the Cycle: Novel Capture Mechanisms for Active Space Debris Removal.

Optimal Transfer Trajectories between Relative Quasi-Satellite Orbits (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Pushparaj, N., Hiraiwa, N., & Bando, M. (2023, October). Optimal Transfer Trajectories between Relative Quasi-Satellite Orbits. Presented at 74th International Astronautical Congress, Baku, Azerbaijan

In recent years, there has been growing interest in space exploration, particularly in exploring the Martian system. The moons Phobos and Deimos of Mars may hold the key to understanding how the Solar system formed. As a result, space agencies like N... Read More about Optimal Transfer Trajectories between Relative Quasi-Satellite Orbits.

Stabilization of Spacecraft in Spatial Periodic Orbits using Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Pushparaj, N., Hayashi, Y., & Bando, M. (2023, June). Stabilization of Spacecraft in Spatial Periodic Orbits using Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). Paper presented at 34th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science & 12th Nano-Satellite Symposium, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan

Mission design for exploring minor celestial bodies and planetary satellites presents significant technical challenges, particularly in highly perturbed dynamical environments. The weak and complex gravitational fields of small bodies, along with per... Read More about Stabilization of Spacecraft in Spatial Periodic Orbits using Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR).