In order to apply for any of the following theses or internships, the candidate must have no more than 3 exams left.
In orbit around Mars since 2004, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has conducted radio science experiments to study the planet’s atmosphere, surface, lithosphere and interior structure.
During its mission, Mars Express has performed more than 70 radio science bistatic radar (BSR) observations in S- and X-band. These experiments use the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna to transmit a right-circularly polarized unmodulated carrier toward the specular reflection point between Earth and Mars, which spans various longitudes and latitudes as the spacecraft moves along its trajectory. The resulting specular reflections, collected by 70-meter ground-based antennas, contain relevant information about roughness and dielectric properties of the Martian surface.
The project focuses on investigating the coverage and the returns of Mars Express bistatic radar experiments, discussing their scientific potential based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria. The candidate will become familiar with the radio science data archive of a European Space Agency mission, learn the fundamentals of bistatic radar experiments and use the SPICE toolkit to model the radio link of BSR observations. Finally, the candidate will apply creative thinking and scientific judgement to meaningfully classify and characterize the numerous observations of the extensive Mars Express BSR campaign.
Topic: Radar Science
Tutor: Giancorrado Brighi
Uploaded: 08/09/2025
The increasing demand for continuous and high-resolution Earth observation has driven the development of satellite constellations capable of monitoring key environmental and geophysical parameters. Variables such as soil moisture, vegetation indices, precipitation and surface temperature are fundamental for agriculture, hydrology and climate science. To meet these needs, future missions require constellation architectures that maximize coverage and observation accuracy while ensuring efficient communication with the ground segment. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate different constellation designs, including Walker delta, polar and sun-synchronous configurations, in terms of their ability to provide continuous coverage of regions of interest. Metrics such as satellite visibility and Dilution of Precision (DOP) will be computed to quantify the effectiveness of each geometry in supporting high-quality Earth observation. In addition, a link budget analysis will be performed to assess the quality of signal transmission between satellites and ground stations. This will serve as a complementary indicator of constellation performance. The methodology will involve a literature review and the implementation of numerical analyses in MATLAB or Python. Candidate constellations will be modeled and their performance will be assessed in terms of the aforementioned coverage, DOP metrics and communication link budget. The thesis will conclude with a comparative evaluation of different constellation architectures, identifying trade-offs between coverage performance, communication efficiency and orbital configuration.
Topic: Navigation / Earth observation
Tutor: Giacomo Paialunga
Uploaded: 16/09/2025
The Vera Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will revolutionize astronomy by delivering an unprecedented dataset on Solar System small bodies, crucial for understanding their population and dynamics. To support this effort, tools like Sorcha (https://sorcha.space/) provide a simulation environment to study how LSST will observe these objects. This thesis will explore the use of Sorcha for orbit propagation and validation.
Activities:
Learn the fundamentals of Python programming and Sorcha’s functionalities.
Use Sorcha’s ephemeris generator to propagate the trajectories of selected small bodies.
Compare these trajectories with reference solutions generated by external services (e.g., JPL’s Horizons).
Analyze and evaluate the performance and accuracy of Sorcha’s propagator relative to established tools.
The project provides hands-on experience in computational astronomy and prepares students to contribute to the analysis of LSST Solar System data.
Topic: Computational Astronomy
Tutor: Riccardo Lasagni Manghi
Uploaded: 17/09/2025
The ESA Gaia mission is best known for its unprecedented stellar catalog, but it has also provided precise observations of thousands of Solar System objects (SSOs). These measurements, released in Gaia Data Release 3, include highly accurate astrometry (right ascension and declination) that are critical for refining the orbital parameters of asteroids and characterizing the overall population of small bodies. By combining Gaia’s data with dynamical models, researchers can evaluate the quality of orbital predictions and gain deeper insight into Solar System dynamics.
Activities:
Conduct a short literature review on the Gaia Focused Product Release and the methods for processing Solar System observations.
Learn how to access Gaia astrometry using API tools and query relevant SSO datasets.
Compute the expected astrometric positions of selected targets using the SPICE toolkit.
Perform a direct comparison between Gaia-reported measurements and computed positions.
Analyze the distribution of residuals and discuss implications for orbital accuracy and Gaia’s contribution to small body characterization.
This project combines data analysis, programming, and orbital dynamics, providing practical experience with one of the most advanced astrometric datasets available.
Topic: Orbital Dynamics / Data Analysis
Tutor: Riccardo Lasagni Manghi
Uploaded: 17/09/2025