Loose capture at Europa from Halo Orbits
Capture at Europa from staging Halo orbits
Moon gravity field exaggerated
Geopotential
geometry of three dimensional flybys
Spacecraft shape modelling (2)
Periodic orbits at Europa (2)
Small body SLAM
Stark
Periodic orbits at Europa (1)
Spacecraft shape modelling
Europa periodic orbits
Ganymede periodic orbits

About

Ryan P. Russell smiling

Welcome! Thank you for visiting our site.  We are a research group that solves orbital mechanics problems as they relate to space utilization and exploration.  We consist mainly of a professor, graduate students and occasional visiting scholars.  We are in the Orbital Mechanics discipline area … Read More

Research

Areas of Interest: Spaceflight mechanics / Astrodynamics; Optimal control / Optimization / Numerical methods; Orbit determination; Multi-body dynamics; Periodic orbits and general orbit stability (high-fidelity repeat ground track design, constellation design, cyclers, planetary … Read More

Lab News

Summer 2023: Congrats to Shubam Singh for completing the PhD!  Shubham works for Shift Robotics in Austin. Summer 2022: Congrats to David Ottesen and Sean McArdle for completing their PhDs!  Sean works as a civil servant at NASA JSC, and David works for Leo Labs in CA.   … Read More

NASA Image of the Day

  • The exhaust plumes of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft are seen illuminated by sunlight against the predawn sky during the launch of NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 mission, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, as seen from Cocoa Beach, Florida. The light makes the plumes look like a jellyfish in the sky.

spacenews

  • When the European thermal-imagery company constellr began working with Space Inventor on its next generation of satellites, some of the most important details of the spacecraft had yet to be […] The post How mini-constellations could more quickly bring new tech to Europe, and to orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

nasa

  • APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 15 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The Milky […]