Related papers: Tall Towers on the Moon
Significant proton fluxes were detected in the near wake region of the Moon by an ion mass spectrometer on board Chandrayaan-1. The energy of these nightside protons is slightly higher than the energy of the solar wind protons. The protons…
Using viscoelastic mass spring model simulations to track heat distribution inside a tidally perturbed body, we measure the asymmetry of heating in the crust of a spin synchronous Moon in eccentric orbit about the Earth. With the Moon…
The Sun is expected to increase its radiant output by about 10% per billion years. The rate at which the radius of the Earth's orbit would need to increase in order to keep the present value of the Sun's radiant flux at the Earth constant…
Subsequent to the Moon's formation, late accretion to the terrestrial planets strongly modified the physical and chemical nature of silicate crusts and mantles. This alteration came in the form of melting through impacts, as well as the…
It is generally accepted that silicate-metal (`rocky') planet formation relies on coagulation from a mixture of sub-Mars sized planetary embryos and (smaller) planetesimals that dynamically emerge from the evolving circum-solar disc in the…
Many rocky exoplanets are heavier and larger than Earth, so-called "Super-Earths". Some of these may be habitable, and a few may be inhabited by Super-Earthlings. Due to the higher surface gravity on these worlds, space-flight is much more…
There are many indications that anthropogenic global warming poses a serious threat to our civilization and its ecological support systems. Ideally this problem will be overcome by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Various space-based…
While the Earth and Moon are generally similar in composition, a notable difference between the two is the apparent depletion in moderately volatile elements in lunar samples. This is often attributed to the formation process of the Moon…
A recent analysis of a Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data record spanning 38.7 yr revealed an anomalous increase of the eccentricity of the lunar orbit amounting to de/dt_meas = (9 +/- 3) 10^-12 yr^-1. The present-day models of the dissipative…
The content of $\mathrm{OH/H_2O}$ molecules in the tenuous exosphere of the Moon is still an open issue at present. We here report an unprecedented upper limit of the content of the OH radicals, which is obtained from the in-situ…
Detecting primordial fluctuations from the cosmic dark ages requires extremely large low-frequency radio telescope arrays deployed on the far side of the Moon. The antenna of such an array must be lightweight, easily storable and…
The memo is exploring possibilities to set up extraterrestrial experimental facilities to study particles physics. The Moon is considered as the most promising location for artificial particle sources outside the Earth. This natural…
We present a high-power continuous-wave (CW) lunar laser ranging (LLR) technique that has the potential to significantly improve Earth--Moon distance measurements. Using a 1 kW CW laser at 1064 nm and a 1 m-aperture telescope as an example,…
Estimating surface properties such as porosity and grain sizes is key for planning lander missions and landing site selection on icy moons. However, spaceborne instruments do not measure the regolith properties directly: instead, they…
Advances in robotics and additive manufacturing have become game-changing for the prospects of space industry. It has become feasible to bootstrap a self-sustaining, self-expanding industry at reasonably low cost. Simple modeling was…
Surface liquid water is essential for standard planetary habitability. Calculations of atmospheric circulation on tidally locked planets around M stars suggest that this peculiar orbital configuration lends itself to the trapping of large…
Understanding the Moon's formation mechanism is necessary for studying not only the Moon itself, but also the evolution, formation, habitability, and structure of other planets and the moons in the Solar system and in extrasolar planetary…
Processing the data of lunar laser ranging (LLR), whose accuracy now reaches a few millimeters, points to the effect of anomalous increase in the lunar semimajor axis (with an excessive rate 1.3 cm/yr), which cannot be attributed to the…
The solar system planets are benchmarks for the planet formation theory. Yet two paradigms coexist for the four terrestrial planets: the prolonged collisional growth among planetesimals lasting $>100$ million years (Myr) and the fast…
An exomoon on a non perfectly circular orbit experiences tidal heating that is capable to significantly contribute to the thermal brightness of the moon. Here we argue that the thermal heat is unevenly distributed on the moon's surface, the…