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About

Joseph A. Starek is a leading researcher at the intersection of spacecraft autonomy, robotics, and real-time motion planning. His work addresses critical challenges in next-generation space missions, particularly in enabling spacecraft to make safe, propellant-optimized decisions without constant human oversight. Starek’s most influential work, "Spacecraft Autonomy Challenges for Next-Generation Space Missions" (106 citations), provides a foundational framework for the field. He has pioneered the use of sampling-based motion planning algorithms—borrowed from terrestrial robotics—for autonomous spacecraft trajectory generation, as demonstrated in his work on Clohessy-Wiltshire-Hill dynamics (18 citations). A key contribution is his development of a machine learning approach for real-time reachability analysis (65 citations), which allows spacecraft to rapidly determine whether a state is reachable within cost constraints—a core capability for safe autonomous maneuvering. His 2015 paper on safe autonomous maneuvering with safety specifications (8 citations) further advances the use of robotic planning techniques for in-orbit rendezvous scenarios. Starek’s work is instrumental in bridging the gap between theoretical control theory and practical, real-time autonomous operations in space.