Our research

MSL is the most advanced aerospace research centre for satellite thermal management in Australia. MSL is leading research for active thermal control on nanosatellites through miniaturised coolers, deployable radiators, and efficient thermal design. MSL activities are underpinned by extensive knowledge from large and small space missions, and supported by state-of-the-art tools (ESATAN TMS).

MSL has more than 30 years of experience in spacecraft systems, and thermal and mechanical engineering, with over 16 years experience in thermal control system design and manufacture on 15+ ESA missions, including Rosetta, LISA Pathfinder and Solar Orbiter, as well as more than 5 Australian nanosatellites.

As nanosatellites emerge as disruptive technologies to compete with larger spacecraft for broader scientific, commercial and defense applications, advanced and dependable on-board data processing becomes critical. On-board electronics also need to withstand the harsh radiation environments experienced during polar orbit crossings and the South Atlantic Anomaly during multi-year missions. MSL’s interdisciplinary team of researchers include experts on radiation resistant integrated circuits (FPGAs and CPUs) and memory, with a track record of contributions and achievements in academia and space industry.

Low-latency high-availability communications between spacecraft and mission control centers enables the design of satellites which can both respond rapidly to commands, as well as react to observations made in orbit. MSL is leading research activities to expand these capabilities, traditionally present only in larger satellites, into the nanosatellite format.

MSL is developing the Mercury subsystem, a low-latency communication solution for nanosatellites to autonomously and optimally connect to multiple existing orbital communication infrastructures, informed by the knowledge of the relative orbital positions to select the best channel for rapid data transmission. Mercury is developed by an interdisciplinary team that includes experts in satellite communications, optimisation, and artificial intelligence.

MSL's research into the miniaturisation of thermal management subsystems and the accompanying radiation-hardened control electronics for infrared focal plane arrays is a key system enabler in the development of a sovereign Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) for Earth observation applications and space-based Space Situational Awareness.

MSL's research into the miniaturisation of thermal management subsystems and the accompanying radiation-hardened control electronics for infrared focal plane arrays is a key system enabler in the development of sovereign Space Based Infrared Observation Systems for astrophysical research.

Infrared light is an ideal probe for both the most distant objects in the Universe, as well as the intergalactic gas of the early Universe, both key open questions of Australia's Astronomy Decadal plan. The expertise and new technologies being developed by MSL will facilitate the development of sovereign orbital astrophysical research facilities.

Caddy, Sarah E., and Lee R. Spitler. 2025. “Daytime Photometry of Starlink Satellites with the Huntsman Telescope Pathfinder.” Journal of the Astronautical Sciences 72(3):25. doi:10.1007/s40295-025-00502-w.

Caddy, Sarah, Stephen Catsamas, Michele Trenti, Miguel Ortiz del Castillo, Airlie Chapman, and Robert Mearns. 2025. “Remotely Monitoring the Activity of Satellites from Thermal Infrared Imaging.” P. 27 in The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance (AMOS) Technologies Conference

Caddy, Sarah, Lee Spitler, Sam Kirkwood, James Allworth, and Stuart Bartlett. 2025. “Coordinated Ground and Space-Based Observations of Resident Space Objects.” P. 73 in The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance (AMOS) Technologies Conference

Catsamas, Stephen, Sarah Caddy, and Michele Trenti. 2025. “Monitoring Satellites by Comparing Infrared Observations to a Multi-Component Thermal Model.” P. 74 in The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance (AMOS) Technologies Conference

Catsamas, Stephen, Sarah Caddy, Michele Trenti, Benjamin Metha, Simon Barraclough, Robert Mearns, Airlie Chapman, and Rachel Webster. 2026. “Thermal Infrared Characterization of Spatially Unresolved Resident Space Objects: Prospects from Analytical Two-Component Modelling.” Advances in Space Research 77(2):1920–43. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.071.

Catsamas, Stephen, Robert Mearns, Benjamin Metha, Sarah Caddy, Michele Trenti, Airlie Chapman, and Rachel Webster. 2025. “Thermpy: A Rapid Space Thermal Simulation Design Tool and Its Potential Application to Unresolved Infrared Space Domain Awareness Research.” Pp. 1292–97 in 23rd IAA Symposium on Space Debris. International Astronautical Federation.

Auchettl, Katie, Michele Trenti, Matthew Thomas, and Fabrizio Fiore. 2022. “The SpIRIT Mission: Multiwavelength Detection and Follow-up of Cosmic Explosions with an Australian Space Telescope.” P. 305.02 in AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division. Vol. 19, AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division.

Baroni, G., R. Campana, Y. Evangelista, A. Guzmán, P. Hedderman, G. Dilillo, E. J. Marchesini, G. Della Casa, M. Trenti, J. McRobbie, R. Mearns, M. Ortiz Del Castillo, M. Thomas, C. Therakam, A. Chapman, S. Pirrotta, S. Puccetti, M. Perri, A. Santangelo, W. Leone, S. Trevisan, M. Citossi, and F. Fiore. 2024. “The Commissioning and Early Operations of the High-Energy HERMES Payload Onboard SpIRIT.” P. 130935O in Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Vol. 13093, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, edited by J.-W. A. den Herder, S. Nikzad, and K. Nakazawa.

Fiore, F., M. Trenti, Y. Evangelista, R. Campana, G. Baroni, F. Ceraudo, M. Citossi, G. Della Casa, G. Dilillo, M. Feroci, M. Fiorini, G. Ghirlanda, C. Labanti, G. La Rosa, E. J. Marchesini, G. Morgante, L. Nava, P. Nogara, A. Nuti, M. Perri, F. Russo, G. Sottile, M. Lavagna. A. Colagrossi, S. Silvestrini, M. Quirino, M. Bechini, L. Bianchi, A. Brandonisio, F. De Cecio, A. Dottori, I. Troisi, G. Bertuccio, F. Mele, B. Negri, R. Bertacin, C. Grappasonni, R. Piazzolla, S. Pirrotta, S. Puccetti, M. Rinaldi, A. Tiberia, L. Burderi, A. Sanna, A. Riggio, C. Cabras, A. Tsvetkova, A. Santangelo, A. Guzman, P. Hedderman, S. Pliego Cagallero, C. Tenzer, A. Vacchi, N. Zampa, R. Crupi, P. Bellutti, E. Demenev, F. Ficorella, D. Novel, G. Pepponi, A. Picciotto, N. Zorzi, M. Grassi, P. Malcovati, T. Di Salvo, W. Leone, S. Trevisan, I. Rashevskaya, A. Rachevski, G. Zampa, T. Chen, N. Gao, S. Xiong, S. Yi, S. Zhang, M. Ortiz del Castillo, R. Mearns, J. McRobbie, A. Chapman, M. Thomas, A. Woods, J. Morgan, S. Barraclough, N. Werner, J. Ripa, F. Munz, A. Pal, D. Gacnik, A. Hudrap, D. Selkan, and G. Molera Calves. 2025. “HERMES Pathfinder & SpIRIT: A Progress Report.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:2502.17952. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2502.17952.

Leone, Wladimiro, R. Mearns, T. Di Salvo, L. Burderi, M. Thomas, M. Trenti, F. Fiore, E. J. Marchesini, R. Campana, G. Baroni, M. Dafcikova, A. Anitra, Y. Evangelista, A. Sanna, S. Puccetti, R. Iaria, S. Barraclough, M. Ortiz del Castillo, R. Bertacin, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, A. Chapman, G. Cabras, F. Ceraudo, T. Chen, M. Citossi, R. Crupi, G. Della Casa, E. Demenev, G. Dilillo, M. Feroci, F. Ficorella, M. Fiorini, N. Gao, A. Guzman, P. Hedderman, A. Hudrap, C. Labanti, G. La Rosa, P. Malcovati, J. McRobbie, F. Mele, G. Molera Calves, J. Morgan, G. Morgante, B. Negri, D. Novel, P. Nogara, A. Nuti, E. O’Brien, G. Pepponi, M. Perri, A. Picciotto, R. Piazzolla, S. Pirrotta, S. Pliego Caballero, A. Rachevski, I. Rashevskaya, A. Riggio, F. Russo, A. Santangelo, G. Sottile, C. Tenzer, Y. Tao, S. Trevisan, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, S. Xiong, S. Yi, A. Woods, S. Zhang, and N. Zorzi. 2026. “CubeSats Reach the Millisecond X-Ray Domain: Crab Pulsar Timing with SpIRIT/HERMES.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:2603.09588. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2603.09588.

Ortiz del Castillo, Miguel, Clint Therakam, Jack McRobbie, Andrew Woods, Robert Mearns, Simon Barraclough, Stephen Catsamas, Mika Ohkawa, Jonathan Morgan, Airlie Chapman, and Michele Trenti. 2024. “Unlocking the Potential of Small Satellites: TheMIS’s Active Cooling Technology on the SpIRIT Mission.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:2407.14031. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2407.14031.

Ortiz del Castillo, Miguel, Jack McRobbie, Andrew Woods, Robert Mearns, Jonathan Morgan, Michele Trenti, Simon Barraclough, Yijie Tao, Clint Therakam, Eric Schoof, Airlie Chapman, Fabrizio Fiore, Yuri Evangelista, Alejandro Guzman, and Paul Hedderman. 2025. “The SpIRIT Payload Management System: A Paradigm for Smallsats Multi Payload Integration.” Acta Astronautica 236:359–70. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.06.050.

Sanna, Andrea, Giuseppe Dilillo, Fabrizio Fiore, Luciano Burderi, and Michele Trenti. 2024. “The HERMES/SpIRIT Project: Hunting for Gravitational Wave Electromagnetic Counterparts.” P. 1475 in 45th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Vol. 45.

Thomas, M., M. Trenti, A. Sanna, R. Campana, G. Ghirlanda, J. Řípa, L. Burderi, F. Fiore, Y. Evangelista, L. Amati, S. Barraclough, K. Auchettl, M. O. del Castillo, A. Chapman, M. Citossi, A. Colagrossi, G. Dilillo, N. Deiosso, E. Demenev, F. Longo, A. Marino, J. McRobbie, R. Mearns, A. Melandri, A. Riggio, T. Di Salvo, S. Puccetti, and M. Topinka. 2023. “Localisation of Gamma-Ray Bursts from the Combined SpIRIT+HERMES-TP/SP Nano-Satellite Constellation.” \pasa 40:e008. doi:10.1017/pasa.2023.4.

Trenti, Michele. 2021a. “The SpIRIT CubeSat: High Energy Astrophysics in Harsh Radiation Environments and New Technology Demonstration.” P. 1507 in 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February. Vol. 43.

Trenti, Michele, Miguel Ortiz del Castillo, Robert Mearns, Jack McRobbie, Clint Therakam, Airlie Chapman, Andrew Woods, Jonathan Morgan, Simon Barraclough, Ivan Rodriguez Mallo, Giulia Baroni, Fabrizio Fiore, Yuri Evangelista, Riccardo Campana, Alejandro Guzman, and Paul Hedderman. 2024. “SpIRIT Mission: In-Orbit Results and Technology Demonstrations.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:2407.14034. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2407.14034.

Mearns, Robert, Airlie Chapman, and Michele Trenti. 2024. “Characterisation of SATCOM Networks for Rapid Message Delivery: Early In-Orbit Results.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:2407.19623. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2407.19623.

Adams, David, Robert Content, Jon Lawrence, Helen McGregor, Anthony Horton, Mike Ireland, Lee Spitler, Ross Zhelem, Jochen Greiner, Sylvio Klose, Uwe Laux, and Michele Trenti. 2022. “Skyhopper CubeSat: A Multi-Band NIR Telescope for Precise Intensity Measurements.” P. 121802Y in Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave. Vol. 12180, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, edited by L. E. Coyle, S. Matsuura, and M. D. Perrin.

Mearns, Robert, and Michele Trenti. 2018. “Near Real-Time Telecommand Solutions for CubeSats: State of the Art and Applications to the SkyHopper Mission.” arXiv E-Prints arXiv:1808.06746. doi:10.48550/arXiv.1808.06746.

Thomas, M., M. Trenti, J. Greiner, M. Skrutskie, Duncan A. Forbes, S. Klose, K. J. Mack, R. Mearns, B. Metha, E. Skafidas, G. Tagliaferri, and N. Tanvir. 2022. “SkyHopper Mission Science Case I: Identification of High Redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts through Space-Based near-Infrared Afterglow Observations.” \pasa 39:e032. doi:10.1017/pasa.2022.22.

Dilillo, G., E. J. Marchesini, G. Baroni, G. Della Casa, R. Campana, Y. Evangelista, A. Guzmán, P. Hedderman, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, F. Ceraudo, M. Citossi, D. Cirrincione, I. Dedolli, E. Demenev, M. Feroci, F. Ficorella, M. Fiorini, M. Gandola, M. Grassi, G. La Rosa, G. Lombardi, P. Malcovati, F. Mele, P. Nogara, A. Nuti, M. Perri, S. Pliego-Caballero, S. Pirrotta, S. Puccetti, I. Rashevskaya, F. Russo, G. Sottile, C. Tenzer, M. Trenti, S. Trevisan, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, and F. Fiore. 2024. “The Ground Calibration of the HERMES-Pathfinder Payload Flight Models.” Experimental Astronomy 58(3):14. doi:10.1007/s10686-024-09958-4.

Evangelista, Y., F. Fiore, R. Campana, G. Baroni, F. Ceraudo, G. Della Casa, E. Demenev, G. Dilillo, M. Fiorini, G. Ghirlanda, M. Grassi, A. Guzmán, P. Hedderman, E. J. Marchesini, G. Morgante, F. Mele, L. Nava, P. Nogara, A. Nuti, S. Pliego Caballero, I. Rashevskaya, F. Russo, G. Sottile, M. Lavagna, A. Colagrossi, S. Silvestrini, M. Quirino, M. Bechini, A. Brandonisio, F. De Cecio, A. Dottori, I. Troisi, R. Bertacin, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, L. Burderi, T. Chen, M. Citossi, T. Di Salvo, M. Feroci, F. Ficorella, N. Gao, C. Grappasonni, C. Labanti, G. La Rosa, W. Leone, P. Malcovati, B. Negri, G. Pepponi, M. Perri, R. Piazzolla, A. Picciotto, S. Pirrotta, S. Puccetti, A. Rashevsky, A. Riggio, M. Rinaldi, A. Sanna, A. Santangelo, C. Tenzer, A. Tiberia, M. Trenti, S. Trevisan, A. Vacchi, S. Xiong, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, S. Zhang, N. Zorzi, J. Ripa, and N. Werner. 2024. “The HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Pathfinder Mission.” P. 130931Z in Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Vol. 13093, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, edited by J.-W. A. den Herder, S. Nikzad, and K. Nakazawa.

Ghirlanda, G., L. Nava, O. Salafia, F. Fiore, R. Campana, R. Salvaterra, A. Sanna, W. Leone, Y. Evangelista, G. Dilillo, S. Puccetti, A. Santangelo, M. Trenti, A. Guzmán, P. Hedderman, G. Amelino-Camelia, M. Barbera, G. Baroni, M. Bechini, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, G. Borghi, A. Brandonisio, L. Burderi, C. Cabras, T. Chen, M. Citossi, A. Colagrossi, R. Crupi, F. De Cecio, I. Dedolli, M. Del Santo, E. Demenev, T. Di Salvo, F. Ficorella, D. Gačnik, M. Gandola, N. Gao, A. Gomboc, M. Grassi, R. Iaria, G. La Rosa, U. Lo Cicero, P. Malcovati, A. Manca, E. J. Marchesini, A. Maselli, F. Mele, P. Nogara, G. Pepponi, M. Perri, A. Picciotto, S. Pirrotta, J. Prinetto, M. Quirino, A. Riggio, J. Řípa, F. Russo, D. Selčan, S. Silvestrini, G. Sottile, M. L. Thomas, A. Tiberia, S. Trevisan, I. Troisi, A. Tsvetkova, A. Vacchi, N. Werner, G. Zanotti, and N. Zorzi. 2024. “HERMES: Gamma-Ray Burst and Gravitational Wave Counterpart Hunter.” Ap 689:A175. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450006.

Trenti, Michele. 2021b. “Tiny but Powerful: Opportunities for Rapid-Response Infrared Observations from CubeSats.” P. 1532 in 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February. Vol. 43.