Aerospace Planetary Exploration Laboratory (APEX)

Aerospace Planetary Exploration Laboratory (APEX), led by Professor Anton Ermakov, bridges planetary science and aerospace engineering research. APEX performs planetary science research focusing on studying planetary internal structure and evolution using a diverse range of spacecraft data (e.g., radiometric tracking, stereo-imaging, magnetometry, microwave radiometry, geologic mapping). This works is accompanied with geophysical and orbital dynamics modeling. APEX leads the development of future geophysical space mission targeted at answering priority planetary science questions.

Professor Ermakov is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His research lies at the intersection of planetary science and geophysics and focuses on studying the internal structure and evolution of Solar System bodies ranging from asteroids to gas giants. In his work, he combines a diverse range of spacecraft data (e.g., radiometric tracking, stereo-imaging, magnetometry, microwave radiometry) with geophysical and orbital dynamics modeling, allowing him to probe the interiors and histories of Solar System bodies.

He has participated in NASA’s Dawn mission, the first spacecraft to orbit two small bodies: asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Small bodies act as a time machine that lets scientists explore the environment in which planets formed, and his research within the Dawn mission team highlighted how lively and diverse that environment was. He is currently a participating scientist in NASA’s Juno mission to the Jupiter system. From 2021 to 2024, Juno performed one flyby of Ganymede and Europa and two flybys of Io—the satellites of Jupiter—collecting gravity and magnetic field data. In addition, for the first time, Juno conducted microwave radiometric observations of the Jupiter moons, which can be used to study their subsurface thermal structure and composition.

Prior to joining Stanford, he was a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a research scientist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley.