MAURO PONTANI

Advanced Spacecraft Dynamics

Starting on Mon 23 February 2026, the lectures of the course Advanced Spacecraft Dynamics will be given in class, according to the official time schedule, published at
https://ici.web.uniroma1.it/it/orari 

All students interested in attending the course are invited to fill and submit the google form at
https://forms.gle/1ot4MUwyYwKiGFFw7
for their inclusion in the mailing list.

Further info (on the class time schedule, lecture rooms, and so on) are provided in the personal website at
https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/mauropontani-eng/info-and-announc...

Spaceflight Mechanics

The course program, exam info, together with the lecture notes, are available at
https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/mauropontani-eng/courses

In case of strikes, if lectures are given (which is usual), then the related recording (covered in a.y. 21/22) is uploaded in a shared folder. The same folder also includes the material and recordings of the tutoring (of current a.y.) and is updated every 2 weeks. To enter the shared folder, please fill and submit the following google form:
https://forms.gle/npnKsVxHidsGxXVu7

For students with specific justification (e.g., working students, international students with pending visa, students with upcoming B.S. graduation), recordings of a.y. 21/22 are available. These are updated every 4 weeks. To enter the shared folder with these recordings, please fill and submit the following google form:
https://forms.gle/N3zFAQNUqwb9U4KT7

Office hours

The students can ask for an appointment by email (to send to mauro.pontani@uniroma1.it), for (a) clarifications on lectures, (b) available Theses, and (c) development of ongoing Theses.
The office is located in via Salaria 851, San Marco building (near the main gate), second floor. Meetings with students can be set up also at the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, via Eudossiana 18, upon request (to send to mauro.pontani@uniroma1.it).
Meetings with students are arranged either (i) in presence or (ii) via videomeeting, using (a) Google meet or (b) Zoom. Appointments can be asked by email.

Mauro Pontani currently covers the position of Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a member of the Astrodynamics Committee of the International Astronautical Federation. He was Visiting Scholar and Visiting Researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, and at Rice University, Houston, TX, several times from 2004 through 2017. He earned the Italian National Qualification for the position of Full Professor of Aerospace Engineering in 2017. He is a member of the Academic Board of the Ph.D. Course in Aeronautical and Space Engineering at Sapienza and coordinator of the Astrodynamics Research Group at Sapienza.
His research interests are in the field of astrodynamics and aerospace trajectory optimization, and specifically include aerospace mission analysis and design, analytical and numerical methods for trajectory optimization, guidance and control of aerospace vehicles, dynamic game theory applied to aerospace trajectories, satellite constellations, launch, ascent and descent vehicles, and satellite release systems. He is author of more than 120 scientific publications (including 1 book and 72 journal papers), and currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Acta Astronautica, Aerotecnica Missili e Spazio, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, and the International Journal of Aerospace Engineering. He took part to more than 20 research projects, as researcher or principal investigator.