Related papers: Lunar Cold Trap Contamination by Landing Vehicles
In this paper, we consider a trajectory planning problem arising from a lunar vertical landing with minimum fuel consumption. The vertical landing requirement is written as a final steering angle constraint, and a nonnegative regularization…
The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-Gateway, or simply Gateway) is a crewed platform that will be assembled and operated in the vicinity of the Moon by NASA and international partner organizations, including ESA, starting from the…
Global dust storms are the most thermodynamically significant dust events on Mars. They are produced from the combination of multiple local and regional lifting events and maintained by positive radiative-dynamic feedbacks. The most recent…
The classical theory of cold-trapped ice on the Moon and some modern theories are reviewed and compared with observational constraints. The "standard model" for lunar ice posits that ice has accumulated in polar cold traps after the spin…
We report observations of the lunar helium exosphere made between December 29, 2011, and January 26, 2012, with the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) ultraviolet spectrograph on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission (LRO). The…
It is currently uncertain as to whether methane exists on Mars. Data from the Curiosity Rover suggests a background methane concentration of a few tenths parts per billion whereas data from the Trace Gas Orbiter suggest an upper limit of…
Volatile elements - those that vaporize at low temperatures - are depleted in lunar rocks relative to terrestrial rocks. This systematic chemical depletion is evidence for vaporization and preferential removal of vapor from proto-lunar…
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has monitored the Martian environment in Gale crater since landing in 2012. This study reports the record of optical depth derived from visible and near-infrared images of the Sun. Aerosol optical…
We perform the first tests of various proposed explanations for observed features of the Moon's argon exosphere, including models of: spatially varying surface interactions; a source that reflects the lunar near-surface potassium…
Nanophase metallic iron ( $\mathrm{npFe}^0$ ) is a key indicator of space weathering on the lunar surface, primarily attributed to solar wind irradiation and micrometeoroid impacts. Recent discoveries of hematite ( $\mathrm{Fe}_2…
Martian planet-encircling dust storms or global dust storms (GDS), resulting from the combined influence of local and regional storms, are uncommon aperiodic phenomena: with an average frequency of approximately one every 3-4 MY, they…
Several lunar missions are planned ahead and there is an increasing demand for efficient photovoltaic power generation in the moon. The knowledge of solar cell operation in the lunar surface obtained during early seventies need to be…
The Lunar landing has drawn great interest in lunar exploration in recent years, and autonomous lunar landing navigation is fundamental to this task. AI is expected to play a critical role in autonomous and intelligent space missions, yet…
This paper refines model predictions for the production of methane from UV-irradiated interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) now that the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) instrument onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover…
Soil assessment is important for mobile robot planning and navigation on natural and planetary environments. Terramechanic characteristics can be inferred from the thermal behaviour of soils under the influence of sunlight using remote…
Impact cratering is likely a primary agent of regolith generation on airless bodies. Regolith production via impact cratering has long been a key topic of study since the Apollo era. The evolution of regolith due to impact cratering,…
We use numerical models, supported by our laboratory data, to predict the dust densities of ejecta outflux at any altitude within the Hill spheres of Europa and Ganymede. The ejecta are created by micrometeoroid bombardment and five…
Uncontrolled spacecraft will disintegrate and generate a large amount of debris in the reentry process, and ablative debris may cause potential risks to the safety of human life and property on the ground. Therefore, predicting the landing…
The wind-driven hopping motion of sand grains, known as saltation, forms dunes and ripples and ejects fine dust particles into the atmosphere on both Earth and Mars. While the wind speed at which saltation is initiated, the fluid threshold,…
Three principal concepts regarding lunar formation have been examined: the accretion hypothesis, the mega-impact theory, and the multi-impact model. The multi-impact model amalgamates the salient facets of the mega-impact theory and the…