UB Space System
Dynamics and Control Lab

Please see the following text and figure for the TAES paper website post: "Our latest article, "Surrogate-aided Learning of Active Tether-Net Maneuver to Capture Rotating Space Debris," has been published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems! In the article, co-written with Dr. Souma Chowdhury's ADAMS lab, we present neural network-based policies to guide the thrust actions of a robotic tether-net system used for space debris capture, trained u

Achira Boonrath represented the SSDC Lab at the NSF FRR-NRI Annual Meeting last week. Our poster demonstrated recent findings on modeling, design, and operation of robotic tether-net systems for the reliable capture of uncooperative targets. Sample video results were also prepared alongside the poster; the videos can be viewed at the following link: adamslab-ub/Learning-Tether-Net-Maneuver-IEEE-TAES-2025

Members of the SSDC lab attended the 2025 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Regional Student Conference which...

Our latest article, "Robustness and Safety of Net-Based Debris Capture Under Deployment and Environmental Uncertainties," has been published on the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets! In the article, we analyzed the limitations and operational envelope of tethered net systems in capturing space debris, focusing particularly on robustness and safety. The success of capture in nonnominal conditions was investigated, with errors considered in the target position, angular vel

The UB SSDC Lab recently participated in the 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on 14-18 October 2024. Ph.D. students from...

Congratulations to  Derek Bourabah  for successfully defending his PhD thesis "Principal Moment of Inertia Estimation of Tethered...

Our recent work titled “Q-Law Control with Sun-Angle Constraint for Solar Electric Propulsion” has been accepted for publication in IEEE...

Grant Hecht  presented two works at the 2024 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, that took place in Broomfield, Colorado. 1....

Last week, Dr Botta and Grant Hecht attended the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Big Sky, Montana. Grant presented the...

Our paper "Particle Swarm Optimization-based co-state initialization for low-thrust minimum-fuel trajectory optimization" has been...

The 2023 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Regional Student Conference took place at UB on 31 March - 1 April....

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences honored faculty and staff with the SEAS Awards and Service Recognition Reception on March...

Undergraduate student Haley Parker was awarded the Bauer Foundation Experiential Learning Fund by UB Women in Science and Engineering...

After his second place at the MAE Student Poster competition, Grant Hecht presented his research at the Poster Competition of the UB...

Four students from the UB SSDC Lab (Liam Field, Grant Hecht, Derek Bourabah, and Achira Boonrath) participated in the 2023 MAE Poster...

Last week, we presented 2 papers at the AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, that took place in Austin, TX. We also spent time with...

Last week, we talked about #spacedebris, tether-nets, and tethered satellite systems to high school students interested in STEM. Thanks...