Related papers: Surviving on Mars: test with LISA simulator
We report on the development of the LISA Technology Package (LTP) experiment that will fly on board the LISA Pathfinder mission of the European Space Agency in 2008. We first summarize the science rationale of the experiment aimed at…
Operating mechanical devices in low earth orbit (LEO) environment presents unique challenges due to adverse effects of the LEO environment on lubricants and materials in tribo-mechanisms. These challenges include corrosion due to atomic…
The biosignatures of life on Earth do not remain static, but change considerably over the planet's habitable lifetime. Earth's future biosphere, much like that of the early Earth, will consist of predominantly unicellular microorganisms due…
Models of terrestrial planet formation for our solar system have been successful in producing planets with masses and orbits similar to those of Venus and Earth. However, these models have generally failed to produce Mars-sized objects…
Numerous laboratory experiments, starting in the Viking Lander era, have reported that frictional interactions between Martian analog dust grains can catalyze electrostatic processes (i.e. triboelectrification). Such findings have been…
The presence of liquid water at the base of the Martian polar caps has long been suspected but not observed. We surveyed the Planum Australe region using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, a low-frequency radar…
The climate of early Mars remains a topic of intense debate. Ancient terrains preserve landscapes consistent with stream channels, lake basins, and possibly even oceans, and thus the presence of liquid water flowing on the Martian surface 4…
Experiments, analyses, and simulations have shown that the engine exhaust plume of a Mars lander large enough for human spaceflight will create a deep crater in the martian soil, blowing ejecta to approximately 1 km distance, damaging the…
Habitability is a measure of an environment's potential to support life, and a habitable exoplanet supports liquid water on its surface. However, a planet's success in maintaining liquid water on its surface is the end result of a complex…
Recent results have shown that many of the known extrasolar planetary systems contain regions which are stable for massless test particles. We examine the possibility that Saturn-mass planets exist in these systems, just below the detection…
The colonisation of extraterrestrial planets requires sustainable food production independent of Earth-based supplies. Due to the high costs and complicated logistics of food transport, in-situ cultivation will be essential. Growing plants…
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) has now made continuous in-situ meteorological measurements for several martian years at Gale crater, Mars. Of importance in the search for liquid formation are…
This paper investigates the deterministic extinction and permanence of a family of SEIRS malaria models with multiple random delays, and with a general nonlinear incidence rate. The conditions for the extinction and permanence of the…
We review how tides may impact the habitability of terrestrial-like planets. If such planets form around low-mass stars, then planets in the circumstellar habitable zone will be close enough to their host stars to experience strong tidal…
We investigate the origin and stability of extrasolar satellites orbiting close-in gas giants, focusing on whether these satellites can survive planetary migration within a protoplanetary disk. To address this question, we used Posidonius,…
Computing the tidal deformations of Mars, we explored various Mars internal structures by examining profiles that include or exclude a basal molten layer within the mantle and a solid inner core. By assessing their compatibility with a…
Recent observations have evidenced traces of methane CH4 heterogeneously distributed in the martian atmosphere. However, because the lifetime of CH4 in the atmosphere of Mars is estimated to be around 300-600 years on the basis of…
The ongoing searches for exoplanetary systems have revealed a wealth of planets with diverse physical properties. Planets even smaller than the Earth have already been detected, and the efforts of future missions are placed on the…
Telescope missions are currently being designed which will make direct imaging of habitable exoplanets possible in the near future, and studies are needed to quantify the detectability of biosignature features in the planet's reflectance…
In the early days of space exploration, when Sally Ride was offered 100 tampons for a week-long mission, menstrual medical devices first began to be used in space conditions. Since then, hormonal menstrual suppression has become the…