Dr. Pablo Machuca
Assistant Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
College of Engineering
Academic Affairs
SDSU
Primary Email: [email protected]
Phone/Fax
Primary Phone: 619-594-0637
Building/Location
Professional Studies and Fine Arts - 444
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego,
CA
92182
Files
Bio
Pablo’s research interests lie in the field of (deep-) space exploration, involving areas like astrodynamics, trajectory design, (autonomous) guidance, navigation and control (GNC), spacecraft attitude dynamics, (small-spacecraft) mission design and analysis, and systems design.
Current projects focus on the development, assessment, and testing of autonomous optical navigation algorithms, involving areas like image generation, image processing (i.e., feature detection, matching, and identification), Kalman filtering, Monte Carlo simulations, trajectory design, etc., with applications to cislunar missions (Earth-Moon system), and missions to asteroids and comets.
- Detection of Earth coastline features via convolutional neural networks (CNNs),
- Detection and matching of lunar craters via CNNs and pattern recognition algorithms,
- Detection of background stars within the dust environment of a comet via optical flow,
- Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of optical navigation missions,
- In-house design, build and fly of a drone.
If you are interested in undergraduate or graduate research in these or similar topics, feel free to reach out via email at [email protected]. Research can count towards AE499 or AE799 course electives, and towards your Master’s thesis.
- AE460A/B Spacecraft Senior Design
- AE600 Modeling of Spacecraft and of their Environment
- AE629 Trajectory Design in Cislunar Space
Education
- Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering – Cranfield University, UK (2017–2021)
- M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics (Astrodynamics and Space Applications) – Purdue University, USA (2015–2017)
- Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering – Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain (2011–2014)
Areas of Specialization
- Astrodynamics and Trajectory Design
- Deep-space Exploration, Mission Analysis, and Systems Design
- Autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control, and Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics
Publications
Machuca, P., Ozaki, N., Sánchez, J.P., Felicetti, L., “Dust Impact and Attitude Analysis for JAXA’s Probe on the Comet Interceptor Mission,” Advances in Space Research, May 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.
Machuca, P., Sánchez, J.P., “CubeSat Autonomous Navigation and Guidance for Low-cost Asteroid Fly-by Missions,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, November 2021, https://doi.org/10.2514/1.
Machuca, P., Sánchez, J.P., Masdemont, J.J., Gómez, G., “High-fidelity Trajectory Design to Fly-by Near-Earth Asteroids Using CubeSats,” Acta Astronautica, February 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Machuca, P., Sánchez, J.P., Greenland, S., “Asteroid Fly-by Opportunities Using Semi-autonomous CubeSats: Mission Design and Science Opportunities,” Planetary and Space Science, January 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.