Related papers: Toxicity of lunar dust
The lunar surface is extremely harsh and current mineral processing and metal extraction technologies are not adequately equipped to address this environment. In this paper we review the metals available for extraction and conditions at the…
Issues for transport facilities on the lunar surface related to science, engineering, architecture, and human-factors are discussed. Logistic decisions made in the next decade may be crucial to financial success. In addition to outlining…
Dust grains play a central role in the physics and chemistry of cosmic environments. They influence the optical and thermal properties of the medium due to their interaction with stellar radiation; provide surfaces for the chemical…
We investigate the prospects for the past or current existence of habitable conditions deep underneath the surfaces of the Moon and Mars as well as generic bound and free-floating extrasolar rocky objects. We construct a simple model that…
Achieving a comprehensive understanding of the star and planet formation process is one of the fundamental tasks of astrophysics, requiring detailed knowledge of the physical conditions during the different phases of this process. During…
Dust is the main driver of Mars' atmospheric variability. The determination of Martian dust aerosol properties is of high relevance for radiative modelling and calculating its weather forcing. In particular, the light scattering behaviour…
Mars exploration motivates the search for extraterrestrial life, the development of space technologies, and the design of human missions and habitations. Here we seek new insights and pose unresolved questions relating to the natural…
A circumsolar dust ring has been recently discovered close to the orbit of Mercury. There are currently no hypotheses for the origin of this ring in the literature, so we explore four different origin scenarios here: the dust originated…
The lunar surface has historically been considered an optimal site for a broad range of astronomical telescopes. That assumption, which has come to be somewhat reflexive, is critically examined in this paper and found to be poorly…
We present a statistical approach to assess the dust environment for a yet unknown comet (or when its parameters are known only with large uncertainty). This is of particular importance for missions such as ESA's Comet Interceptor mission…
We present spatial and temporal distributions of dust on Mars from Ls = 331 in MY26 until Ls = 80 in MY33 retrieved from the measurements taken by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) aboard Mars Express. In agreement with previous…
Long-standing unexplained Venus atmosphere observations and chemical anomalies point to unknown chemistry but also leave room for the possibility of life. The unexplained observations include several gases out of thermodynamic equilibrium…
Influence of the meteoroid bombardment on properties of the lunar exosphere has been confirmed. Quick increase in the zenith column density of Na atoms above the lunar north pole on August 13, 2009 at 0-1 UT is detected and explained by…
The habitability of exoplanets can be strongly influenced by the presence of an exomoon, and in some cases the exomoon itself could be a possible place for life to develop. For moons outside of the habitable zone, significant tidal heating…
Asteroid mining can become an enabling technology to establish a sustainable manned colony on Mars, which requires metallic materials more often than they are readily available in shipments from Earth. This paper describes a feasibility…
Emission of dust up to a few micrometer in size by impacts of sand grains during saltation is thought to be one source of dust within the Martian atmosphere. To study this dust fraction, we carried out laboratory impact experiments. Small…
This paper provides an overview of the radiation aspects of manned space flight to Moon and Mars. The expected ionizing radiation dose for an astronaut is assessed along the Apollo 11 flight path to the Moon. With the two dose values, the…
Mankind has not yet explained dark matter, the accelerating expansion of the Universe, the 'knee' and 'ankle' of the cosmic ray energy spectrum graph, the low star formation rates of low surface brightness (LSB) dwarf galaxies, the ignition…
Transient lunar phenomena (TLPs) have been reported for centuries, but their nature is largely unsettled. A review of TLP reports shows regularities in the observations; a key question is whether this structure is imposed by human observer…
Tenuous dust clouds of Jupiter's Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto have been detected with the in-situ dust detector on board the Galileo spacecraft. The majority of the dust particles have been sensed at altitudes below five…