CRADLE TEAM
The CRADLE Project originates from the idea of exploring novel missions alternative for the collection of samples about asteroids and other small bodies. This idea has brought together the expertise and experience of the COMPASS group of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Principal Researcher
MIRKO TRISOLINI
MSCA Research Fellow, Politecnico di Milano
Mirko Trisolini is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano. He is currently working on his MSCA Individual Fellowship on asteroid exploration and exploitation. He was awarded his PhD in Space Engineering in 2019 at the University of Southampton and has been part of the COMPASS ERC project since 2018. His research interests include astrodynamics, fragmentations, space debris, re-entry, space environment sustainability, modelling, and simulations.
Supervisory Team
Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano
Camilla Colombo is Associate Professor of Orbital Mechanics at the Politecnico di Milano. He is the principal investigator of the ERC funded project COMPASS. Her research areas range from orbital dynamics, trajectory design and optimisation, dynamical system analysis and control, and space mission analysis and design.
Associate Professor | Hayabusa2 Project Manager, ISAS JAXA
Yuichi Tsuda received his PhD degree in aeronautics and astronautics from University of Tokyo in 2003 and joined Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2003 as a research associate. He became an associate professor in 2014, and a professor in 2020 of ISAS/JAXA. He was a visiting scholar of Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan and Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder in 2008-2009. He was the deputy lead of the IKAROS, the world’s first interplanetary solar sail technology demonstration mission in 2009-2013. Since 2015, he has been the project manager of Hayabusa2, the asteroid sample-return mission. Hayabusa2 successfully landed twice for sample collection, deployed four mobile rovers, and generated a large artificial crater on the surface of ever-unexplored asteroid Ryugu, and then returned to Earth in December 2020 under his leadership. His research interests are astrodynamics, spacecraft system and deep space exploration.