Advance in Mathematical Methods for Space Dynamics and Spacecraft Systems Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

Space technologies are becoming extremely popular in the modern world, satisfying many needs of our society, which are increasing in quantity, variety, and complexity. Accordingly, space system designs must cope with a larger number of more stringent requirements and goals to be accomplished. Nowadays, satellites are capable of complex operations, including flying close to the Earth or in deep space with a high level of autonomy. Small spacecraft and CubeSats are also experiencing rapid development, reaching a level of maturity that is comparable to larger space systems. Analogously, formations, large constellations, and swarms of satellites are being designed to achieve distributed services. In all these examples and similar cases, advanced design methods, accurate dynamical simulations, effective system modelling and optimization are necessary and must be based on solid mathematical methods.

Therefore, I am pleased to invite you to submit your manuscript to a Special Issue of the journal Mathematics entitled “Advance in Mathematical Methods for Space Dynamics and Spacecraft Systems Engineering” that aims to explore, from a broad perspective, the most recent advances in the mathematical developments and methods that support space system design, considering both space dynamics and spacecraft system engineering. This includes the study of modern astrodynamics methods, trajectory optimization tools and original numerical schemes to analyse spacecraft orbital and attitude dynamics and efficient long-term propagation methods. The list also includes the study of innovative navigation filters, optimization techniques for on-board and ground-based guidance solutions, robust control laws, accurate system modelling methods and mathematical tools to analyse and optimise complex system design, among so many others. Indeed, the previous topics shall be considered as a limited, but not exhaustive, list of example topics.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, short communications, and review papers. Potential topics include theoretical studies, in addition to analyses of applied methods in practical space dynamics and space system design. Moreover, both analytical and numerical mathematical methods are of interest.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Andrea Colagrossi
Dr. J. Guo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Mathematics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• astrodynamics tools and techniques
• trajectory optimization tools
• orbital and attitude dynamics
• orbital propagation methods
• guidance, navigation and control
• attitude and orbit control methods
• space system analysis and design
• complex systems’ simulation and optimization
• dynamical system modelling
• spacecraft system modelling
• application in spacecraft system engineering