Related papers: Exploring the near-surface at the lunar South Pole…
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
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…
With NASA's planned return to the moon and possibly with lunar outposts being formed, repeated landings at the same site will be necessary. Understanding rocket plume interaction with lunar and Martian surfaces is of paramount importance in…
Exploration of terrestrial planets such as Mars are conducted using orbiters, landers and rovers. Cameras and instruments onboard orbiters have enabled global mapping of Mars at low spatial resolution. Landers and rovers such as the Mars…
Future Moon bases will likely be constructed using resources mined from the surface of the Moon. The difficulty of maintaining a human workforce on the Moon and communications lag with Earth means that mining will need to be conducted using…
The active broadband (1 kHz-100 MHz) tripole antenna now envisaged to be placed on the European Lunar Lander located at the Lunar South Pole allows for sensitive measurements of the exosphere and ionosphere, and their interaction with the…
NASA's Artemis Mission aims to return astronauts to the Moon and establish a base at the lunar south pole. A key challenge is understanding the threat from micrometeoroid impacts, which are too small to monitor directly. Using NASA's…
Robotic prospecting for critical resources on the Moon, such as ilmenite, rare earth elements, and water ice, requires robust exploration methods given the diverse terrain and harsh environmental conditions. Although numerous analog field…
The European Moon Rover System (EMRS) Pre-Phase A activity is part of the European Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P) that seeks to develop a versatile surface mobility solution for future lunar missions. These missions include: the Polar…
Mars, lacking an intrinsic dynamo, is an ideal laboratory to comparatively study induced magnetospheres, which can be found in other terrestrial bodies as well as comets. Additionally, Mars is of particular interest to further exploration…
Global localization is necessary for autonomous operations on the lunar surface where traditional Earth-based navigation infrastructure, such as GPS, is unavailable. As NASA advances toward sustained lunar presence under the Artemis…
After the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, both NASA and ESA initiated a selection process for potential landing sites for the Mars2020 and ExoMars missions, respectively. Two ellipses located in the Mawrth Vallis…
The NASA InSight mission has helped to measure the deep interior of Mars using observations of seismic waves excited by marsquakes. Currently, installation of seismometers on the moon is foreseen. We review the case for seismic experiments…
In this paper, a control approach called Artificial Neural Tissue (ANT) is applied to multirobot excavation for lunar base preparation tasks including clearing landing pads and burying of habitat modules. We show for the first time, a team…
One of the frontier research fields of exoplanetary science is the study of the composition and variability of exoplanetary atmospheres. This field is now moving from the gas giant planets towards the smaller and colder telluric planets,…
In Papers II and III we show that Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs) are likely related to lunar outgassing, albeit in ways not fully understood. Here we propose a path forward, in which current and forthcoming technologies provide a more…
Accurate 3D reconstruction of lunar surfaces is essential for space exploration. However, existing stereo vision reconstruction methods struggle in this context due to the Moon's lack of texture, difficult lighting variations, and atypical…
This white paper recognizes gaps in observations that will, when addressed, much improve solar radiation hazard and geomagnetic storm forecasting. Radiation forecasting depends on observations of the entire "Solar Radiation Hemisphere" that…
One objective of Artemis science is to determine the impact human activities have on the lunar environment, which might compromise science objectives and measurements. We perform a preliminary analysis of the contamination associated with…
Exploration of Mars has been made possible using a series of landers, rovers and orbiters. The HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured high-resolution images covering large tracts of the surface. However, orbital…