CV
Open to PhD positions in spacecraft GNC & autonomy

Stefano Bossolasco

Aerospace engineer working on guidance, navigation & control for small spacecraft

I'm finishing my M.Sc. at Politecnico di Torino and collaborating with NASA JPL on fault-tolerant Model Predictive Control for close-proximity operations. Before and alongside research, I wrote ESA proposals at a space start-up and co-founded a tech company that grew to 100,000+ users.

  • Research collaborator, NASA JPL
  • M.Sc. Aerospace Eng., PoliTo
  • Space business development
  • Startup co-founder
View research Download CV Get in touch
Portrait of Stefano Bossolasco
Worked & studied at
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Politecnico di Torino Avio Aero Eventvm
Profile

One engineer, three perspectives

My core is research in spacecraft GNC. Industry and entrepreneurship taught me how technology gets funded, scoped and shipped — which shapes the problems I choose to work on.

Research

Spacecraft GNC & control

Fault-tolerant, scenario-based MPC for small free-flying spacecraft inspecting space structures, in collaboration with NASA JPL.

69.3%clean success under faults
6-DoFvalidation
Research experience
Space industry

Proposals, TRL & engineering

Technical proposals for ESA and national space-agency tenders at Revolv Space; aero-engine pump simulation at Avio Aero.

ESAtenders & funding
2companies
Industry experience
Entrepreneurship

Co-founder & product lead

Co-founded Eventvm: led a team of 10, built the event-aggregation engine and raised early capital.

100k+active users
€240kcapital raised
Startup experience
Research

Making autonomous spacecraft safe when hardware fails

I'm interested in control methods that keep guarantees under uncertainty and faults, and that are cheap enough to run on real flight computers.

Current research

The GSAT sled flying a square trajectory around an obstacle at JPL
NASA JPL · GNCM.Sc. thesis03/2025 – present

Scenario-based MPC for free-flyer inspection with thruster failures

  • ProblemA small free-flyer inspecting an uncrewed outpost must stay collision-safe even when thrusters fail, deciding on board within every control step.
  • ApproachOne shared input sequence that satisfies every constraint across a tree of failure scenarios, picking the most critical failures to hedge each step and adding residual-based fault identification.
  • Results69.3% clean success over 648 runs with up to four failed thrusters, against 26.4% for nominal MPC and on par with a controller told the failure in advance. On JPL's GSAT air-bearing sled: 14 of 19 runs on target with thrusters disabled, vs 3 of 9 for nominal.
Scenario-based MPCFault identificationCasADiPython / C++F´
Read the project summary

Research interests

  1. 01

    Robust & fault-tolerant control

    Scenario-based and stochastic MPC with safety guarantees under actuator faults.

  2. 02

    Proximity operations

    Inspection, rendezvous and servicing around large space structures.

  3. 03

    Onboard autonomy

    Computationally tractable optimisation for resource-limited flight hardware.

  4. 04

    Rendezvous, docking & ADCS

    Relative-motion guidance and attitude control for small satellites, from simulation to validation.

Publications & talks

  • M.Sc. thesis · in progress
    Scenario-based MPC for free-flyer inspection with thruster failures. NASA JPL; mentors Dr. F. Rossi and Dr. D. Sternsberg. Final presentation delivered at JPL.
Experience

Where I've worked

Grouped by track so each one can be read on its own.

Research

Spacecraft GNC

03/2025 – Present

Research Collaborator — Spacecraft GNC

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · Pasadena, CA / Remote

  • Developing a fault-tolerant, scenario-based MPC framework for close-proximity inspection by small free-flying spacecraft around space structures.
  • Designed and analysed geometric, temporal and learning-based scenario-pruning algorithms, reducing scenario trees from 2.5 billion paths to a size tractable for flight computers.
  • Validated relative-dynamics performance in the high-fidelity SmallSatSim 6-DoF environment and wrote test protocols for the GSAT (GNC Spacecraft Autonomy Testbed) planar air-bearing facility.
MPCCasADiSmallSatSimGSAT testbed

Space industry & engineering

Proposals, systems, simulation

06/2025 – 01/2026

Business Developer Engineer — Space Systems

Revolv Space · Torino, Italy / Hybrid

ESA & national agency tendersTRL justification
  • Led the preparation of technical proposals for competitive tenders and public funding programmes from national and European space agencies.
  • Defined system-level technical scopes and justified Technology Readiness Levels using experimental and test data.
  • Structured preliminary work packages, allocated technical resources and ran budget analyses for mission programmes.
ESA ITTEuropean fundingWork packagesProject management
02/2023 – 08/2023

Mechanical Engineering Intern & B.Sc. Thesis Student

Avio Aero (a GE Aerospace company) · Torino, Italy

  • Numerical analysis and simulation of oil aeration effects in external gear pumps for aero-engines.
  • Quantified the impact of trapped gear volume on pump suction efficiency through custom simulations.
  • Tuned fluid-dynamic parameters to improve pump component performance.
SimulationMATLAB & SimulinkFluid dynamics

Entrepreneurship

Product, team, fundraising

04/2022 – 05/2025

Co-Founder & Product Lead — Tech & BD

Eventvm Srl · Torino, Italy

100k+ active users€240k raisedTeam of 10
  • Co-founded the company and set the technology roadmap and platform architecture, leading a team of 10 developers and designers.
  • Built the core event-aggregation engine: custom crawlers, scrapers and API integrations that ingest and deduplicate feeds from dozens of platforms in real time.
  • Led B2B partnerships with regional ticketing networks, venues and organisers.
  • Owned financial modelling, budgeting and investor decks to raise early capital.
ProductData pipelinesFundraisingTeam leadership
Projects

Technical projects

Research and academic work, each with a short write-up of the problem, method and tools.

M.Sc. thesis · NASA JPL2025 –

Scenario-based MPC with thruster failures

Keeps an inspection free-flyer safe when thrusters fail: 69.3% clean success across 648 runs, on par with a controller that knows the failure.

PythonCasADiGNC
Read more
Academic · PoliTo2024 – 25

6-DoF CubeSat docking simulator

A 3U CubeSat docking with a target in LEO via Hohmann transfer, radial boost and cone approach. APF + LQR compared against sliding-mode control.

MATLABSimulinkLQR / SMC
Read more
Systems Engineer · PoliTo2025

H-ADES: dual-mission 12U CubeSat

Phase 0/A design of a CubeSat that tests deep-space navigation, laser communication and ML power management in LEO while monitoring urban heat islands. I coordinated system design, integration, requirements and budgets in a 13-person team.

Systems engineeringBudgetsECSS
Read more
Company challenge · Thales Alenia Space

Lunar Rover Payload Challenge

A rover payload that lays power and data cables between lunar bases and buries them in the regolith.

CADMechanismsTechnical budgets
Read more
Education

Education & certifications

09/2024 – Present

M.Sc. Aerospace Engineering

Politecnico di Torino

Space systems, flight dynamics, GNC, space mission analysis and system-level modelling, with a focus on numerical methods. Thesis on robust scenario-based MPC, carried out in collaboration with NASA JPL.

09/2020 – 09/2023

B.Sc. Aerospace Engineering

Politecnico di Torino

Mathematics, aerodynamics, structures, orbital mechanics, propulsion and control. Thesis carried out at Avio Aero on oil aeration in aero-engine gear pumps.

2014 – 2018

Scientific High School Diploma — Applied Sciences

I.I.S. "G. Vallauri", Fossano

National finalist, Italian Astronomy Olympiad (2016); participant in the Physics and Natural Sciences Olympiads.

Certifications

  • STK Master Certification — Level 2

    Systems Tool Kit (AGI / Ansys): orbital mechanics & mission design

  • IELTS Academic — Band 7.0

    CEFR level C1

Skills

Toolbox

GNC & control

Model Predictive ControlScenario-based / robust MPCLQRSliding-mode controlPIDADCSRelative dynamics (Hill / CW)Artificial potential fields6-DoF simulation

Software & tools

PythonCasADiMATLABSimulinkSTKCADWeb crawlers & APIs

Space systems & business

Systems engineeringRequirements & ECSSMission analysisMass, power & link budgetsTRL assessmentESA proposalsWork packages & budgetsFundraisingTeam leadership

Languages

  • ItalianNative
  • EnglishC1 (IELTS 7.0)

Beyond work

Treasurer & volunteer

Movimento Giovanile di Centallo · 2022 – present

Manage the association's finances and help organise cultural, educational and social activities.

Scuba diving

Sub-Rec Diver 1* (TSA)
Contact

Let's talk research

I'm looking for PhD opportunities in spacecraft GNC, robust control and autonomy. I'm also happy to discuss collaborations, space-sector projects or startups.

Email me Download CV
Emailstefano.bossolasco.01@gmail.com
LinkedInstefano-bossolasco
ReferencesAvailable on request
Based inTorino, Italy