About
Professor Sandeep Singh joined the Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in July 2022. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2022 where his thesis focused on leveraging manifolds and manifold-analogues to generate efficient, ephemeris-driven, piecewise optimal trajectories with eclipse consciousness. Professor Singh was also a graduate fellow during Summer 2020 at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology where he spent the previous summer as an intern. During his doctoral studies, he was awarded several university fellowships as well as the John V. Breakwell Student Award conferred by the American Astronautical Society. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, he was employed as a Scientist at Space Applications Center, Indian Space Research Organization where he served as Program Manager for Mechanical Design of the ASTROSAT mission. He also supported efforts for optical assembly design and was responsible for developing innovative, low-risk, space-qualification testing methods like the Force Limited Vibration Testing for fragile remote sensing payloads. He actively serves as a referee for several international journals and conferences and has published several journal articles and conference papers. He serves as a member of the AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee and is the RPI representative to the Universities Space Research Association.
Ph.D. Texas A&M University, 2022
Scientist/Engineer, Space Applications Center, Indian Space Research Organization, 2013-2017
B. Tech. Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, 2013
Research
Research conducted in the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory (ASCLab) is in the following areas:
Spacecraft Trajectory Design and Optimization
Space Domain Awareness - Constellation Design and Characterization in cislunar space
Guidance, Navigation, and Control - Terrain Relative Navigation, Autonomous Deep Space Guidance
Manifold Theory and Chaotic Dynamics - Aiding Trajectory Design for Interplanetary Spacecraft
Computer Vision - Multi-View Stereo Algorithms, Optimal Sensor Placement
Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory (ASCLab), Learn more at: asclabrpi.com
Teaching
ENGR 2090, Engineering Dynamics; MANE 4100, Spaceflight Mechanics; MANE 6961 Advanced Spaceflight Mechanics
Recognition
- 2024 OVPR Research Catalyst Grant Recipient
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Class of 1951 Outstanding Teaching Award, 2024
- John V. Breakwell Award, American Astronautical Society (AAS), 2021
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA - JPL Graduate Fellowship, 2020 and 2019
- Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Texas A&M University, Fall & Spring 2019; Fall & Spring 2020; Summer 2021
- HEEP Fellowship, Texas A&M University, Summer 2018
Publications
Journal Publications:
Alvarado, K.I.*; Singh, S.K. Exploring the Design Space of Low-Thrust Transfers with Ballistic Terminal Coast Segments in Cis-Lunar Space. Aerospace 2025, 12, 217. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace12030217
Kim, I.*, Singh, S.K. 3D point cloud denoising via Gaussian processes regression. Vis Comput (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-025-04049-7
Kim, I.*, Singh, S. Probabilistic regression for autonomous terrain relative navigation via multi-modal feature learning. Scientific Reports 14, 29966 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-81377-z.
Alvarado K.I.*, Singh S.K., Exploration and Maintenance of Homeomorphic Orbit Revs in the Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem. Aerospace. 2024; 11(5):407. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11050407
Singh, S.K., Junkins, J.L. Stochastic learning and extremal-field map based autonomous guidance of low-thrust spacecraft. Scientific Reports 12, 17774 (2022).
Singh, S.K., Junkins, J. L., Majji, M., Taheri, E. (2022). Rapid accessibility evaluation for ballistic lunar capture via manifolds: A Gaussian process regression application. Astrodynamics, 1-23.
Singh, S.K., Anderson, B.D., Taheri, E. & Junkins, J. Low-Thrust Transfers to Southern L2 Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbits Facilitated by Invariant Manifolds. Journal of Optimization Theory & Applications, DOI.
McElreath, J., Majji, M., Singh, S.K., Junkins, J. L. (2021).Optimal Bi-Impulse Orbital Transfers: Station Keeping Applications. Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 1-10, DOI.
Singh, S.K., Anderson, D.B., Taheri, E. & Junkins, J. Eclipse-Conscious Transfers to Lunar Gateway Using Ephemeris-Driven Terminal Coast Arcs, Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 1-17, DOI.
Singh, S.K., Anderson, D.B., Taheri, E. & Junkins, J. (2021). Exploiting Manifolds of L1 Halo Orbits for End-to-End Earth-Moon Low-Thrust Trajectory Design, Acta Astronautica, 183, 255-272.
Singh, S.K., Woollands, R., Taheri, E., & Junkins, J. (2020). Feasibility of quasi-frozen, near-polar and extremely low-altitude lunar orbits, Acta Astronautica, 166, 450-468.
Sahu, R., Patel, V., Singh, S.K., Munjal, B S, Structural optimization of a space mirror to selectively constrain optical aberrations, Structural and Multi-Disciplinary optimization, Springer Publication, Article 1616, DOI: 10.1007/s00158-016-1616-x.
Singh, S.K., Sahu, R., Constrained Optimisation of Passive Tuned Mass Damper using simulated annealing and artificial neural network, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, SSME, Volume 11, ISSN:2249 -0531.
Conference Publications:
Blender, S., Singh, S.K., AAS 25-524 Uncertainty-Aware Guidance for Continuous Thrust Transfers Using Gradient Boosting and Temporal Convolutional Networks, 2025 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Boston, MA.
Alvarado, K., Earl, H., Singh, S.K., AAS 25-774 Cislunar Space Object Maneuver Identification through Innovation in Reduced Order Modal Space, 2025 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Boston, MA.
Chan, C., Singh, S.K., AAS 25-906 Heuristics-Informed Optimization for Constellation Design: Tracking Trajectories in Cislunar Space, 2025 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Boston, MA.
Nguyen, N., Kim, I., Singh, S.K., AAS 25 -749 Multi-Modal Deep Learning for Terrain Relative Navigation near Lunar South Pole, 2025 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Boston, MA.
Alvarado, K., Singh, S.K., AAS 24-209 MANIFOLD DRIVEN CONTINUOUS-THRUST TRANSFERS BETWEEN L1 AND L2 PERIODIC ORBITS IN CIS-LUNAR SPACE, 2024 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Broomfield, CO.
Kim, I., Singh, S.K., Probabilistic Regression for Autonomous Terrain Relative Navigation via Multi-Modal Feature Learning, 2024 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Broomfield, CO.
Kim, I., & Singh, S. (2024, February). Novel Random Consensus - Bayesian Regression based Point Cloud Denoising. 46th Rocky Mountain AAS GN&C Conference, Breckenridge, Colorado.
Rolen, A., & Singh, S. (2023, October). Autonomous Navigation via a Cascading CNN Framework Leveraging Synthetic Terrain Images. In International Symposium on Visual Computing (pp. 529-540). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Kim, I., & Singh, S. (2023, October). Bayesian Fusion Inspired 3D Reconstruction via LiDAR-Stereo Camera Pair. In International Symposium on Visual Computing (pp. 299-310). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Alvarado, Kevin, Singh, Sandeep Kumar, AAS 23-131 Orbit Maintenance via Homeomorphic, Periodic Orbit Revs in the Elliptical Restricted Three Body Problem, AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Big Sky, Montana, August 2023.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Anderson, Brian, Taheri, Ehsan, Junkins, John, AAS 21-547 Eclipse-Conscious Transfers to Lunar Gateway Using Ephemeris-Driven Terminal Coast Arcs, Proceedings of the 2021 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Big Sky, Montana
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Anderson, Brian, Taheri, Ehsan, Junkins, John, AAS 20-565 Low-Thrust Transfers to Candidate Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbits facilitated by Invariant Manifolds, Proceedings of the 2020 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Virtual Lake Tahoe Conference.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Anderson, Brian, Taheri, Ehsan, Junkins, John, AAS 20-014 Low-Thrust Earth-Moon Transfers via Manifolds of a Halo orbit in the Cis-Lunar Space, Proceedings of the 3rd Annual AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, Breckenridge, Colorado.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Woollands, Robyn, Taheri, Ehsan, Junkins, John, AAS 19-510 Feasibility study of Quasi-Frozen, Near-Polar and Extremely Low-Altitude Lunar Orbits, Advances in Astronautical Sciences (168), ISBN: ISBN 978-0-87703-660-9, pp. 1291-1311, 2019, Univelt.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Taheri, Ehsan, Junkins, John, AAS 18-331 A Hybrid Optimal Control Method for Time-Optimal Slewing Maneuvers of Flexible Spacecraft, Advances in Astronautical Sciences (167), ISBN: 978-0-87703-657-9, pp. 2659-2679, 2019, Univelt.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Taheri, Ehsan, Woollands, Robyn, Junkins John, IAC C.1.1.11 Mission Design for Close-Range Lunar Mapping by Quasi-Frozen Orbits, presented at 70th International Astronautical Congress, Washington DC, October 2019.
Singh, Sandeep Kumar, et al. Analytical Evaluation of Design Margins for Force Limited Vibration Testing of Electro-optical Payloads., Procedia Engineering 114 (2015): 369-376.
The following is a selection of recent publications in Scopus. Sandeep Singh has 17 indexed publications in the subjects of Engineering, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Mathematics.
Professional Service
1. Editorial Board Member, Discover Space, Springer
2. AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee Member
3. COI Representative from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to the Universities Space Research Association