Related papers: The Spaceline: a practical space elevator alternat…
Normally a passive object launched from the Moon at less than the escape velocity orbits the Moon once and then crashes back to the launch site. We show that thanks to lunar gravity anomalies, for specific launch sites and directions, a…
Galactic Internet may already exist, if all stars are exploited as gravitational lenses. In fact, the gravitational lens of the Sun is a well-known astrophysical phenomenon predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. It implies…
The rapid cost growth of flagship space missions has created a crisis for astronomy and planetary science. We have hit the funding wall. For the past 3 decades scientists have not had to think much about how space technology would change…
Rescue missions in mountain environments are hardly achievable by standard legged robots-because of the high slopes-or by flying robots-because of limited payload capacity. We present a concept for a rope-aided climbing robot which can…
Although wheeled robots have been predominant for planetary exploration, their geometry limits their capabilities when traveling over steep slopes, through rocky terrains, and in microgravity. Legged robots equipped with grippers are a…
A close partnership between people and partially autonomous machines has enabled decades of space exploration. But to further expand our horizons, our systems must become more capable. Increasing the nature and degree of autonomy - allowing…
Recent successful lunar landing missions have generated significant interest among space agencies in establishing a permanent human settlement on the Moon. Building a lunar base requires multiple and frequent landing missions to support…
The Lunar Gateway is expected to be positioned on-orbit around the Moon or in a Halo orbit at the L2 Lagrange point. The proposed Lunar Gateway is a game-changer for enabling new, high-priority lunar science utilizing Cu-beSats and presents…
Future infrastructure construction on the lunar surface will require semi- or fully-autonomous operation from robots deployed at the build site. In particular, tasks such as electrical outfitting necessitate transport, routing, and fine…
The Sun's gradual brightening will seriously compromise the Earth's biosphere within ~ 1E9 years. If Earth's orbit migrates outward, however, the biosphere could remain intact over the entire main-sequence lifetime of the Sun. In this…
In general relativity, traversable wormholes are possible provided they do not represent shortcuts in the spacetime. Einstein equations, together with the achronal averaged null energy condition, demand to take longer for an observer to go…
The next generation of space-based experiments will go hunting for answers to cosmology's key open questions which revolve around inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Low earth orbit and lunar missions within the European Space Agency's…
Planet 9 is an hypothetical object in the outer Solar system, which is as yet undiscovered. It has been speculated that it may be a terrestrial planet or gas/ice giant, or perhaps even a primordial black hole (or dark matter condensate).…
One of the major pillars of modern cosmology theory is a period of accelerating expansion in the early universe. This accelerating expansion, or inflation, must be sustained for at least 30 e--foldings. One mechanism used to drive the…
The Moon is a unique platform for fundamental astrophysical measurements of gravitation, the Sun, and the Universe. Lacking a permanent ionosphere and, on the farside, shielded from terrestrial radio emissions, a radio telescope on the Moon…
The Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna (LILA) is a next-generation gravitational-wave (GW) facility on the Moon. By harnessing the Moon's unique environment, LILA fills a critical observational gap in the mid-band GW spectrum ($0.1 - 10$…
Large geographical regions of our planet remain uncovered by terrestrial network connections. Sparse and dense constellations of near-Earth orbit satellites can bridge this gap by providing Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity on a…
Many rocky exoplanets are heavier and larger than the Earth, and have higher surface gravity. This makes space-flight on these worlds very challenging, because the required fuel mass for a given payload is an exponential function of…
The lunar geological record contains a rich archive of the history of the inner Solar System, including information relevant to understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and…
Enabling the integration of aerial mobile users into existing cellular networks would make possible a number of promising applications. However, current cellular networks have not been designed to serve aerial users, and hence an…