Related papers: The Breakthrough Starshot System Model
We describe the space observatory architecture and mission design of the SALTUS mission, a NASA Astrophysics Probe Explorer concept. SALTUS will address key far-infrared science using a 14-m diameter <45 K primary reflector (M1) and will…
A long-lived civilization will inevitably have to migrate towards a nearby star as its home star runs out of nuclear fuel. One way to achieve such a migration is by transforming its star into a stellar engine, and to control its motion in…
Solar flares are events of intense scientific interest. Although certain solar conditions are known to be associated with flare activity, the exact location and timing of an individual flare on the Sun cannot as yet be predicted with…
The Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters (CATCH) space mission is an intelligent constellation consisting of 126 micro-satellites in three types (A, B, and C), designed for X-ray observation with the objective of studying the…
We have designed and developed a compact ultraviolet imaging payload to fly on a range of possible platforms such as high altitude balloon experiments, cubesats, space missions, etc. The primary science goals are to study the bright UV…
THESEUS is a space mission concept, currently under Phase A study by ESA as candidate M5 mission, aiming at exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts for investigating the early Universe and at providing a substantial advancement of multi-messenger and…
Nearby giant exoplanets offer an opportunity to search for moons (exomoons) orbiting them. Here, we present a simulation framework for investigating the possibilities of detecting exomoons via their astrometric signal in planet-to-star…
For the first time, systematic studies of dwarf galaxies are being conducted throughout the Local Volume, including the dwarf satellites of the nearby giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128). Given Centaurus As mass (roughly ten…
(Abridged) We discuss the design considerations of the EXPLORE (EXtra-solar PLanet Occultation REsearch) project, a series of transiting planet searches using 4-m-class telescopes to continuously monitor a single field of stars in the…
SuperBIT was a 0.5-meter near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wide-field telescope that launched on a NASA superpressure balloon into the stratosphere from New Zealand for a 45-night flight. SuperBIT acquired multi-band images of galaxy…
e-ASTROGAM is a concept for a breakthrough observatory space mission carrying a gamma-ray telescope dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from 0.15 MeV to 3 GeV. The lower energy limit can be pushed…
The bow shocks of runaway stars with strong stellar winds of over 2000 km s$^{-1}$ can serve as particle acceleration sites. The conversion from stellar wind luminosity into particle acceleration power has an efficiency of the same order of…
Imaging the direct light signal from a faint exoplanet against the overwhelming glare of its host star presents one of the fundamental challenges to modern astronomical instrumentation. Achieving sufficient signal-to-noise for detection by…
This paper presents the preliminary design of the descent and landing trajectory of the ESA Argonaut lunar lander. The mission scenario and driving system constraints are presented and accounted for in the design of a fuel-optimal…
The primary instrument of the proposed EXIST mission is a coded mask high energy telescope (the HET), that must have a wide field of view and extremely good sensitivity. It will be crucial to minimize systematic errors so that even for very…
Seventy-five billion low-mass stars in our galaxy host at least one small planet in their habitable zone (HZ). The stellar ultraviolet (UV) radiation received by the planets is strong and highly variable, and has consequences for…
Large-scale science instruments, such as the distributed radio telescope LOFAR, show that we are in an era of data-intensive scientific discovery. Such instruments rely critically on significant computing resources, both hardware and…
The Gaia mission has led to the discovery of over 100 stellar streams in the Milky Way, most of which likely originated from globular clusters (GCs). As the upcoming wide-field surveys can potentially continue to increase the number of…
We investigate the feasibility and scientific potential of the Cosmic Positioning System (CPS), a space mission concept enabling purely geometric distance measurements to sources at hundreds of megaparsecs by directly detecting…
We propose an object detection algorithm which is efficient and fast enough to be used in (almost) real time with the limited computer capacities onboard satellites. For stars below the saturation limit of the CCD detectors it is based on a…