Related papers: Concentrated Lunar Resources: Imminent Implication…
The multiple impact hypothesis proposes that the Moon formed through a series of smaller collisions, rather than a single giant impact. This study advances our understanding of this hypothesis, as well as moon collisions in other contexts,…
All four giant planets and several minor bodies in the Solar System host rings. However, rings around moons have yet to be observed. A host planet can produce magnetic fields that affect its moons, adding a wealth of dynamical phenomena…
The particle and radiation environment in cis-lunar space is becoming increasingly important as more hardware and human assets occupy various orbits around the Earth and space exploration efforts turn to the Moon and beyond. Since 2020, the…
Impact craters, as "lunar fossils", are the most dominant lunar surface features and occupy most of the Moon's surface. Their formation and evolution record the history of the Solar System. Sixty years of triumphs in the lunar exploration…
No surface is perfectly planar at all scales. The notion of flatness of a surface therefore depends on the size of the probe used to observe it. As a consequence rough interfaces are abundant in nature. Here the old, but still active field…
A 'planetary park' system has been suggested as a way for Mars to 'preserve' land for a multitude of purposes. These parks would represent a diverse portion of martian terrain and would be regulated to minimize human contamination and…
Mars is the next destination after Earth to support terrestrial life. Decades of Mars exploration has fascinated space explorers to endeavour for a human expedition. But human Mars enterprise is complicated than conventional mission as the…
On 2032 December 22 the 60 m diameter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4% chance of impacting the Moon. Such an impact would release 6.5 MT TNT equivalent energy and produce a ~1 km diameter crater. We estimate that up to 10^8 kg of lunar material…
The exquisite photometric precision of the Kepler space telescope now puts the detection of extrasolar moons at the horizon. Here, we firstly review observational and analytical techniques that have recently been proposed to find exomoons.…
The meeting of two spacecraft in orbit around a planet or moon involves a delicate dance that must carefully the balance the gravitational, Coriolis, and centrifugal forces acting on the spacecraft. The intricacy of the relative motion…
Space weathering is an important surface process occurring on the Moon and other airless bodies, especially those that have no magnetic field. The optical effects of the Moon's space weathering have been largely investigated in 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…
Commercial lunar activity is accelerating the need for reliable surface infrastructure and routine operations to keep it functioning. Maintenance tasks such as inspection, cleaning, dust mitigation, and minor repair are essential to…
This paper presents a novel method for mapping spectral features of the Moon using machine learning-based clustering of hyperspectral data from the Moon Mineral Mapper (M3) imaging spectrometer. The method uses a convolutional variational…
While the solar system contains as many as about 20 times more moons than planets, no moon has been definitively detected around any of the thousands of extrasolar planets so far. The question naturally arises why an exomoon detection has…
The search for exomoons in time-domain photometric data has to-date generally consisted of fitting transit models that are comprised of a planet hosting a single moon. This simple model has its advantages, but it may not be particularly…
Recent observations have confirmed the existence of rings around minor bodies in the outer Solar System. These objects may possess satellites as well. Here we analytically investigate the interaction between such rings and satellites. We…
In Part I we recount the history of observation and laboratory measurement culminating with the excavation of water from a permanently shadowed region near the lunar South Pole by the impact of the LCROSS mission in 2009. In this…
Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. Their continued usefulness for laser-ranging might suggest that the lunar environment does not damage optical devices. However, new…
A co-orbital asteroid shares the orbit of a secondary body about its primary. Though more commonly encountered as an asteroid that shares a planet's orbit around the Sun, a co-orbital asteroid could similarly share the orbit of the Moon…