Radio Science and Planetary Exploration Laboratory

❗❗❗ We’re pleased to welcome three new PhD students to our Lab, each bringing expertise and fresh perspectives. Here’s a look at their upcoming research: Davide Banzi – Holding an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Padova, Davide will focus on advanced radiometric navigation techniques for Space It Up, with a particular emphasis on the LUMIO mission. 🌖 Matteo Fonsetti – With an MSc in Astrophysics and Cosmology from the University of Bologna, Matteo joins us to study gas giants through gravity and radio occultation experiments. 🪐 Giuliano Vinci – Former research fellow in Space Plasma Physics at IRAP-CNRS in Toulouse, Giuliano will be working on advanced navigation and communication techniques for Space It Up, focusing on Uranus, Saturn, and Enceladus. 🛰 We look forward to the insights and discoveries they’ll bring to our team. Welcome aboard, Davide, Matteo, and Giuliano! 🚀

An amazing liftoff took place yesterday as NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration #EuropaClipper spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 🚀 Europa Clipper is now on its journey to the Jovian system, where it is expected to arrive in 2030. The spacecraft will conduct 49 flybys of Europa, investigating whether the ocean believed to exist beneath the moon’s icy crust could support life. 🛰🦠 We can't wait to analyze the data!📡 Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

And liftoff for Hera on a SpaceX Falcon9! 🚀😍 Hera is now on its two year journey to the Didymos binary asteroid system! 🛰️

T-15 minutes, Hera is GO for launch! 🚀🛰️ Follow the ESA live here: https://lnkd.in/dTktZBXe

We are proud to contribute to the science behind the upcoming European Space Agency - ESA #HERA and NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration #EuropaClipper missions! Our team is on-site at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, ready to attend the launches. Hera windows open tomorrow, while the one for Clipper starts Thursday. 🛰  • For Hera, we lead the radio science experiment, critical for planetary defence and asteroid science.  • For Europa Clipper, we are part of the gravity and radio science team, exploring Europa’s potential habitability and signs of life. See you at Cape Canaveral! 🚀 Paolo Tortora, Marco Zannoni, Riccardo Lasagni Manghi, Andrea Magnanini, Edoardo Gramigna Image credits: ESA, NASA.

We had an amazing week at #EPSC2024 in Berlin!🪐 Researchers from our lab shared exciting updates on their projects, including satellite tidal models, #Juno's radio occultations, and the #Hera and #Ramses radio science experiment designs. Check out some images from their presentations! 🚀 Europlanet Society, European Space Agency - ESA Andrea Magnanini, Andrea Caruso, Riccardo Lasagni Manghi, Edoardo Gramigna

Excited to announce that our lab will be well-represented at the 2024 AAS/AIAA #AstrodynamicsSpecialistConference, taking place from August 11-15 in Broomfield, Colorado! 🚀 We have four team members presenting their work: Tuesday 13 August - 📍Centennial F (local times) 🔸 12:00 pm: Riccardo Lasagni Manghi will show "Ephemeris Reconstruction for Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during Rosetta’s Proximity Phase from Radiometric Data Analysis"; 🔹 4:15 pm: David Bernacchia will present "A novel pointing technique for the enhancement of tropospheric delay calibration system performances"; 🔸 4:30 pm: Edoardo Gramigna will talk about "Hera Orbit Determination Covariance Analysis of Didymos Binary Asteroid with the Full Two-Body Problem". Thursday 15 August, 📍Centennial E (local time) 🔹 11:30 am: Aurel Zeqaj will introduce you to "AI-assisted detection and tracking of particles orbiting around small bodies". We’d love to connect and discuss our research further—see you at the conference! 🛰☄🪐 American Astronautical Society #AAS #AIAA #Astrodynamics #OrbitDetermination #RadioScience

Excited to announce that our lab will be well-represented at the 2024 AAS/AIAA #AstrodynamicsSpecialistConference, taking place from August 11-15 in Broomfield, Colorado! 🚀 We have four team members presenting their work: Tuesday 13 August - 📍Centennial F (local times) 🔸 12:00 pm: Riccardo Lasagni Manghi will show "Ephemeris Reconstruction for Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during Rosetta’s Proximity Phase from Radiometric Data Analysis"; 🔹 4:15 pm: David Bernacchia will present "A novel pointing technique for the enhancement of tropospheric delay calibration system performances"; 🔸 4:30 pm: Edoardo Gramigna will talk about "Hera Orbit Determination Covariance Analysis of Didymos Binary Asteroid with the Full Two-Body Problem". Thursday 15 August, 📍Centennial E (local time) 🔹 11:30 am: Aurel Zeqaj will introduce you to "AI-assisted detection and tracking of particles orbiting around small bodies". We’d love to connect and discuss our research further—see you at the conference! 🛰☄🪐 American Astronautical Society #AAS #AIAA #Astrodynamics #OrbitDetermination #RadioScience

We are happy to share a new piece of work from our lab entitled “Spectral Properties of Bistatic Radar Signals Using the Ray Tracing Technique and a Facet Approach”. 🚀 Herein, the 3D scattering model from a gaussian rough surface is reproduced by means of a facet-based simulator to address the relationship between surface RMS slope and spectral broadening of the reflected echoes in a downlink #bistatic geometry. Numerical findings from two scenarios of practical interest at #Mars and #Ganymede are validated with analytical models commonly used in bistatic radar literature. Congratulations to the lead authors Mingcheng Zuo, Paolo Tortora, and the entire team: Rukiah Mitri, Igor Gai and Giancorrado Brighi.   Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/dNN9aehj

Check out the latest special issue published today by Nature Communications and titled "Planetary Defense, Space Debris, and Near-Earth Asteroids"!☄️🛰 It includes five articles examining the characteristics and geological history of the two Near-Earth S-type asteroids observed by the DART-LICIACube mission, #Didymos and #Dimorphos. Congratulations to Alice Lucchetti and Maurizio Pajola from INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, who are the lead authors of two of the articles. Marco Zannoni, Paolo Tortora, Dario Modenini, Riccardo Lasagni Manghi, Igor Gai, Luis Gómez Casajús, Marco Lombardo and Edoardo Gramigna from our Lab contributed to three of the articles! 🚀 While the #DART and #LICIACube missions provided significant information about Didymos and Dimorphos, many questions remain unanswered. The ESA's #Hera mission, launching in October 2024 and arriving in late 2026, will fully characterize the asteroids. The radio science experiment, led by our laboratory, will measure their mass and gravity fields and study their dynamics. Special issue: https://lnkd.in/dzghaM6p Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana