Related papers: Communications for the Planet Mars: Past, Present,…
Space debris, also known as "space junk," presents a significant challenge for all space exploration activities, including those involving human-onboard spacecraft such as SpaceX's Crew Dragon and the International Space Station. The amount…
Two way ranging data for spacecraft tracking of China's first Martian mission Tianwen-I is analysed. Shortly before the spacecraft entered the Mars parking orbit, the two way coherent microwave link between the spacecraft and the Earth…
As humans venture deeper into space, the need for a lunar settlement, housing the first group of settlers, grows steadily. By means of new technologies such as in situ resource utilisation (ISRU) as well as computational design, this goal…
The current knowledge of Mercury orbit has mainly been gained by direct radar ranging obtained from the 60s to 1998 and by five Mercury flybys made by Mariner 10 in the 70s, and MESSENGER made in 2008 and 2009. On March 18, 2011, MESSENGER…
We document how the narrative and the policies of space exploration in the U.S. have changed over the past 50 years. We first examine the history of the U.S. space exploration program and also assess three current conditions of space…
Experience in exploring our own solar system has shown that direct investigation of planetary bodies using space probes invariably yields scientific knowledge not otherwise obtainable. In the case of exoplanets, such direct investigation…
In this chapter we examine how our knowledge of present day Venus can inform terrestrial exoplanetary science and how exoplanetary science can inform our study of Venus. In a superficial way the contrasts in knowledge appear stark. We have…
The Kepler Mission is exploring the diversity of planets and planetary systems. Its legacy will be a catalog of discoveries sufficient for computing planet occurrence rates as a function of size, orbital period, star-type, and insolation…
After nearly three decades of discovery, many exoplanetary systems have been studied and characterized in detail with one important exception: exoplanet magnetism. Although many surveys sought to detect magnetospheric radio emissions from…
Searching for life in the universe will make use of several large space missions in the visible and thermal infrared, each with increasing spectral and angular resolution. They will require long-term planning over the coming decades. We…
Understanding a planet's atmosphere is a necessary condition for understanding not only the planet itself, but also its formation, structure, evolution, and habitability, This puts a premium on obtaining spectra, and developing credible…
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications have attracted significant attention from both academia and industry. To facilitate the large-scale usage of UAVs for various applications in practice, we provide a comprehensive survey on the…
In this Letter, we make use of sophisticated 3D numerical simulations to assess the extent of atmospheric ion and photochemical losses from Mars over time. We demonstrate that the atmospheric ion escape rates were significantly higher (by…
The Time-Domain And MultiMessenger (TDAMM) Communications Science Analysis Group (TDAMMCommSAG) was formulated to describe the unique technical challenges of communicating rapidly to and from NASA astrophysics missions studying the most…
All three terrestrial planets with atmospheres support O3 layers of some thickness. While currently only that of Earth is substantial enough to be climatically significant, we hypothesize that ancient Mars may also have supported a thick O3…
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…
The study of exoplanetary atmospheres is one of the most exciting and dynamic frontiers in astronomy. Over the past two decades ongoing surveys have revealed an astonishing diversity in the planetary masses, radii, temperatures, orbital…
Future spacecraft will require a paradigm shift in the way the information is transmitted due to the continuous increase in the amount of data requiring space links. Current radiofrequency-based communication systems impose a bottleneck in…
There is ever growing demand for satellite constellations that perform global positioning, remote sensing, earth-imaging and relay communication. In these highly prized orbits, there are many obsolete and abandoned satellites and components…
In recent years, free space optical communication has gained significant importance owing to its unique features: large bandwidth, license-free spectrum, high data rate, easy and quick deployability, less power and low mass requirements.…