Rahul Rughani is a PhD candidate in Astronautical Engineering at the University of Southern California. He is working on orbital optimization techniques for swarm rendezvous. The focus of his research is to enable in-orbit manufacturing, satellite aggregation, and close-quarters robotic inspection of satellites, using small and medium sized satellites in Earth orbit. His most recent work involves the use of Genetic Algorithms to generate and optimize trajectories for large swarms of spacecraft engaged in cooperative manufacturing in low-Earth orbit. He has also worked as a system engineer on Cubesat projects for the University of Southern California’s Space Engineering Research Center, led by Professor David Barnhart.