On November 21, during IEEE Engineering Day 2025, António Nunes was awarded the “IEEE Outstanding MSc Thesis Award”. Following the distinction of Outstanding Master’s Thesis, awarded by DEEC, the work of the alumnus of Aerospace Engineering was once again recognised, this time by the Portuguese Section of IEEE.

The thesis “Orbital Station-Keeping in the Circular and Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problems” focuses on the development of control strategies for the operation of autonomous space vehicles in unstable orbits of the Earth–Moon system, addressing “continuous control compatible with electric propulsion technologies, aiming to increase efficiency compared to conventional solutions based on impulsive propulsion,” explains António Nunes. The methodologies developed were evaluated numerically, allowing their effectiveness in maintaining different types of orbits to be quantified.

The work was supervised by Professor Pedro Batista, a DEEC faculty member and researcher at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisbon), and by Sérgio Brás (ESA), and resulted in the award of a research fellowship funded by the NEURASPACE project, coordinated by Técnico professor Rodrigo Ventura. In collaboration with the same supervisory team, António Nunes is now seeking to develop “even more ambitious and realistic control methodologies,” with the aim of further exploring this topic in the context of a PhD.

[This award is] another important recognition of the work developed which, above all, motivates and fosters the continuation of research in this field of study.

News: Técnico

Photo: António Nunes