Related papers: Exploring the Outer Solar System with Solar Sailin…
With the rapid development of connecting massive devices to the Internet, especially for remote areas without cellular network infrastructures, space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGINs) emerge and offload computation-intensive tasks. In…
Studies on small-scale jets' formation, propagation, evolution, and role, such as type I and II spicules, mottles, and fibrils in the lower solar atmosphere's energetic balance, have progressed tremendously thanks to the combination of…
Achieving relativistic flight to enable extrasolar exploration is one of the dreams of humanity and the long term goal of our NASA Starlight program. We derive a fully relativistic solution for the motion of a spacecraft propelled by…
The study of extrasolar planets and of the Solar System provides complementary pieces of the mosaic represented by the process of planetary formation. Exoplanets are essential to fully grasp the huge diversity of outcomes that planetary…
Solar System observations that serve as analogs for exoplanet remote sensing data can provide important opportunities to validate ideas and models related to exoplanet environments. Critically, and unlike true exoplanet observations, Solar…
The Daedalus 2 mission aboard REXUS 29 is a technology demonstrator for an alternative descent mechanism for very high altitude drops based on auto-rotation. It consists of two probes that are ejected from a sounding rocket at an altitude…
Placing the architecture of the Solar System within the broader context of planetary architectures is one of the primary topics of interest within planetary science. Exoplanet discoveries have revealed a large range of system architectures,…
The solar atmosphere is full of complicated transients manifesting the reconfiguration of solar magnetic field and plasma. Solar jets represent collimated, beam-like plasma ejections; they are ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere and…
A new electrostatic ramjet space engine is proposed and analyzed. The upper atmosphere (85 -1000 km) is extremely dense in ions (millions per cubic cm). The interplanetary medium contains positive protons from the solar wind. A charged ball…
The surge of deep-space probes makes it unsustainable to navigate them with standard radiometric tracking. Self-driving interplanetary satellites represent a solution to this problem. In this work, a full vision-based navigation algorithm…
Microwave propelled sails are a new class of spacecraft using photon acceleration. It is the only method of interstellar flight that has no physics issues. Laboratory demonstrations of basic features of beam-driven propulsion, flight,…
The number of space objects will grow several times in a few years due to the planned launches of constellations of thousands microsatellites. It leads to a significant increase in the threat of satellite collisions. Spacecraft must…
Due to the high performance and safety requirements of self-driving applications, the complexity of modern autonomous driving systems (ADS) has been growing, instigating the need for more sophisticated hardware which could add to the energy…
In this paper we outline the range of probes and scientific instruments that will be required in order for Icarus to fulfill its scientific mission of exploring a nearby star, its attendant planetary system, and the intervening interstellar…
There is growing interest towards the use of AI directly onboard satellites for quick analysis and rapid response to critical events such as natural disasters. This paper presents a blueprint to the mission designer for the development of a…
A propulsion concept in which a spacecraft interacts with high-velocity pellets and the interstellar medium is proposed. The pellets are slower than the spacecraft and are accelerated backwards as they are overtaken, imparting a forward…
Advances in robotic automation, high-performance computing (HPC), and artificial intelligence (AI) encourage us to conceive of science factories: large, general-purpose computation- and AI-enabled self-driving laboratories (SDLs) with the…
This paper explores the intermediate-time dynamics of newly formed solar systems with a focus on possible mechanisms for planetary migration. We consider two limiting corners of the available parameter space -- crowded systems containing…
Conceptually exoplanet research has one foot in the discipline of Astrophysics and the other foot in Planetary Science. Research strategies for exoplanets will require efficient access to data and information from both realms. Astrophysics…
The history of the outer solar system is intrinsically related to the Giant Planets migration. A massive disk of material within a radius of 30~au was scattered during the planetary migration, creating different dynamic populations in the…