Related papers: Feasibility Study of Aerocapture at Mars with an I…
The Ingenuity helicopter test flights on Mars in April 2021 marked the first time a powered aircraft has flown on another world. Students who have access to model helicopters and drones may wonder, how well could those hover on the Red…
Reducing atmospheres have recently emerged as a promising scenario to warm the surface of early Mars enough to drive the formation of valley networks and other ancient aqueous features that have been detected so far on the surface of Mars.…
Interest in the exploration of, and the establishment of a human settlement, on Mars is rapidly growing. To achieve this, rapid transit will be required to bring crucial cargo. Current missions to Mars take 150 days, which would be too long…
Transportation missions in aerospace are limited to the capability of each aerospace robot and the properties of the target transported object, such as mass, inertia, and grasping locations. We present a novel decentralized adaptive…
The goal of the Mars Sample Return campaign is to collect soil samples from the surface of Mars and return them to Earth for further study. The samples will be acquired and stored in metal tubes by the Perseverance rover and deposited on…
Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft. To extend the lifetime of such missions, an efficient propulsion system is required. One solution is…
Deep subsurface access on Mars could enable sampling of ancient lacustrine deposits, volatile-rich horizons, and other geologic targets beyond the reach of current shallow drilling systems. This study evaluates a wireline pneumatic…
This review describes the dynamic phenomena in the atmosphere of Mars that are visible in images taken in the visual range through cloud formation and dust lifting. We describe the properties of atmospheric features traced by aerosols…
Aeolian sediment transport is observed to occur on Mars as well as other extraterrestrial environments, generating ripples and dunes as on Earth. The search for terrestrial analogues of planetary bedforms, as well as environmental…
The Mars thermosphere holds clues to the evolution of the Martian climate, and has practical implications for spacecraft visiting Mars, which often use it for aerobraking upon arrival, or for landers, which must pass through it.…
It is a long-standing open question whether electrification of wind-blown sand due to tribocharging - the generation of electric charges on the surface of sand grains by particle-particle collisions - could affect rates of sand transport…
Modular Aerial Robot Systems (MARS) comprise multiple drone units with reconfigurable connected formations, providing high adaptability to diverse mission scenarios, fault conditions, and payload capacities. However, existing control…
The increasing velocity and frequency of space missions necessitate advancements in spacecraft protection technologies to ensure mission success and the safety of onboard systems and personnel. Existing shielding solutions, including…
In current models used to interpret exoplanet atmospheric observations, the planet mass is treated as a prior and is estimated independently with external methods, such as RV or TTV techniques. This approach is necessary as available…
Several physical mechanisms are involved in excavating granular materials beneath a vertical jet of gas. These occur, for example, beneath the exhaust plume of a rocket landing on the soil of the Moon or Mars. A series of experiments and…
Recent miniaturization of electronics in very small, low-cost and low-power configurations suitable for use in spacecraft have inspired innovative small-scale satellite concepts, such as ChipSats, centimeter-scale satellites with a mass of…
Computing the tidal deformations of Mars, we explored various Mars internal structures by examining profiles that include or exclude a basal molten layer within the mantle and a solid inner core. By assessing their compatibility with a…
Ensuring safety for spacecraft operations has become a paramount concern due to the proliferation of space debris and the saturation of valuable orbital regimes. In this regard, the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) has emerged as a…
Autonomous hazard detection and avoidance is a key technology for future landing missions in unknown surface conditions. Current state-of-the-art stochastic algorithms assume simple Gaussian measurement noise on dense, high-fidelity digital…
Nowadays, space science is facing increasing problems with the amount of data collected from sensors in space and its transmission back to Earth. In this paper we introduce the novel Holographic Orbital Return Storage Technology (HORST) and…