Related papers: Prospective Lava Tubes at Hellas Planitia
Some human mission trajectories to Mars include flybys of Venus. These flybys provide opportunities to practice deep space human operations, and offer numerous safe-return-to-Earth options, before committing to longer and lower-cadence…
Mars provides a critical analog to once habitable exoplanets that have since lost their surface liquid water. The current atmospheric state of Mars retains the chemical fingerprints of that transition, including isotopic signatures of…
NASA and ESA are preparing a series of human exploration missions using the four-person Orion crew vehicle, launched by NASA's Space Launch System, and a Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) that enable long duration (>30 days)…
The space challenges do exist at every stride on a human expedition to Mars that arise due to galactic natural phenomena and artificial technologies. This paper emphasizes on Mars orbital and planetary challenges encountered from orbit to…
Small convective vortices occur ubiquitously on Mars, frequently as dust devils, and they produce detectable signals in meteorological data -- in pressure, temperature, and wind speed and direction. In addition to being important…
The MURAVES experiment aims at the muographic imaging of the internal structure of the summit of Mt. Vesuvius, exploiting muons produced by cosmic rays. Though presently quiescent, the volcano carries a dramatic hazard in its highly…
HD3167b is a transiting super-Earth that has a density which is consistent with a rocky composition. The planet is exposed to strong radiation, intense stellar wind, and likely strong tidal forces and induction heating. According to theory,…
Planet Mars past environmental conditions were similar to the early Earth, but nowadays they are similar to those of a very cold desert, irradiated by intense solar UV light. However, some terrestrial lifeform showed the capability to adapt…
The Curiosity rover recently detected a background of 0.7 ppb and spikes of 7 ppb of methane on Mars. This in situ measurement reorients our understanding of the Martian environment and its potential for life, as the current theories do not…
Lightning in planetary atmospheres is now a well-established concept. Here we discuss the available detection techniques for, and observations of, planetary lightning by spacecraft, planetary landers and, increasingly, sophisticated…
A central question surrounding possible human exploration of Mars is whether crewed missions can be supported by available technologies using in situ resources. Here, we show that photovoltaics-based power systems would be adequate and…
We characterize mission profiles for human expeditions to near-Earth asteroids, Venus, and Mars. Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are the closest destinations beyond cis-lunar space and present a compelling target with capabilities already under…
As one of the most detectable types of terrestrial planets, lava worlds are highly prioritized targets for exoplanet atmosphere characterization since their atmospheres may reveal what they are made of and how. Our work examines the…
Carbon is one of the most essential elements to support a sustained human presence in space, and more immediately, several large-scale methalox-based transport systems will begin operating in the near future. This raises the question of…
The intense debate about the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere has stimulated the study of methanogens adapted to terrestrial habitats that mimic Martian environments. We examinate the environmental conditions, energy sources…
Lucus Planum, extending for a radius of approximately 500 km around 181{\deg} E, 5{\deg} S, is part of the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF), a set of several discontinuous deposits of fine-grained, friable material straddling across the…
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 radio telescope placed in lunar orbit, or on the surface of the Moon's farside, could be of great value to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The advantage of such a telescope is that it would be shielded by the body of…
Two observational results, the density profile from simulations performed in the $\Lambda$CDM scenario and the observed flat galactic rotation curves, are taken as input with the aim of showing that the galactic halo possesses some of the…
This paper presents the first structured evaluation of Solar System bodies hypothetically relocated to Earth orbit (1 AU) to assess their potential as alternative habitats. Using comparative criteria, planetary size and gravity, atmospheric…