Adam Zufall

Adam Zufall

Position Title
CSER Satellite Lab Manager
Chief Scientist

he/him
Bio

Since graduating from UC Davis, Adam has worked as an Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) Engineer and Systems Engineer (SE) for the Millennium Integration & Engineering Co. at the NASA Ames Research Center. During this time, he has been a part of several CubeSat projects spanning the entire life cycle of space missions: initial concept and feasibility, design and development, integration and testing, and launch and mission operations. Adam's dissertation topic is the Guidance, Navigation, and Control algorithms for a deployable, autonomous inspection small satellite. Adam also serves as the Satellite Lab Manager, acting as a resource for the many technology development projects, and the Chief Scientist, providing guidance on the lab's many research projects.

Education and Degree(s)
  • M.S. Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2019
  • B.S. Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, UC Davis, 2017
Honors and Awards
  • Teaching Assistant Excellence Award, UCD College of Engineering, 2023
  • Best Student Paper, AIAA ASCEND Conference, 2024
Courses
  • EAE140, Rocket Propulsion
  • EAE143A, Space Vehicle Design
  • EAE143B, Space Mission Design
Publications
  • "Preliminary Results from the CHOMPTT Laser Time-Transfer Mission", Small Satellite Conference, 2019
  • "NASA's Surface Deformation and Change Mission Study", IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2021
  • "Optical Time-Transfer for Bistatic SAR Small Spacecraft", Small Satellite Conference, 2021
  • "Design and Flight of an Autonomous Rogallo Glider for Recovery of High-Altitude Balloon Payloads and Data", AIAA ASCEND Conference, 2024
  • "Safe and Minimal-Thrust Trajectories for In-Space Inspection and Proximity Operations", AIAA SciTech Conference, 2026
  • "Enabling Technologies for a Low-Cost, Deployable Inspection Satellite", AIAA SciTech Conference, 2026
  • "Machine Learning Detection of Lithium Plating in Lithium-Ion Cells: A Gaussian Process Approach", American Control Conference, 2026