About

Hi! I’m Nicholas (Nick) LaFarge. I’m interested in the intersection of astrodynamics, numerical methods, and software engineering, and am currently a mission design and navigation engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

Graduate research

As a MS/PhD student in the Multi-Body Dynamics Research Group at Purdue University under Professor Kathleen Howell, I pursued research in leveraging reinforcement learning techniques to enable autonomous low-thrust maneuver planning within cislunar space. I am particularly interested in autonomous systems, and understanding where neural networks fit into safety-critical GN&C architectures. Some of my other research interests include multi-body dynamics trajectory design, machine learning, and developing software tools for spaceflight applications.

Here is a fun animation - from my paper at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) - that shows a neural network generating recovery maneuver plans to return a low-thrust spacecraft to a baseline Earth-Moon 9:2 NRHO.

My background

I received a BA in Mathematics and Japanese from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2014, with a minor in Computer Science. Upon graduating with my bachelors, I spent several years as a software engineer, building both Python tools for data analytics research and various Android applications, including spending 2.5 years as the sole developer of the OpenSnow Android application. I eventually found my way toward the intersection of my many interests by studying astrodynamics at Purdue, pursuing both an MS and PhD in the Multi-Body Dynamics Research Group. In 2017 I participated in an internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on an interactive tool for computing multi-body orbit connections in MONTE. Starting in 2018, I became a Graduate Pathways Co-Op at NASA Johnson Space Center, and have completed three work rotations focusing on automated onboard GN&C processes for Orion including trajectory targeting and relative navigation for rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking. Since 2019 I have pursued a PhD under a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF/NSTGRO), including three 10-12 week visiting technologist experiences with the Navigation and Mission Design Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.