Related papers: ADEPT Drag Modulation Aerocapture: Applications fo…
Warm Saturn type exoplanets orbiting M-dwarfs are particularly suitable for in-depth cloud characterisation through transmission spectroscopy due to their favourable stellar to planetary radius contrast. However, modelling cloud formation…
Wind dynamics play a pivotal role in governing transport processes within planetary atmospheres, influencing atmospheric chemistry, cloud formation, and the overall energy budget. Understanding the strength and patterns of winds is crucial…
The magnetosphere of an exoplanet has yet to be unambiguously detected. Investigations of star-planet interaction and neutral atomic hydrogen absorption during transit to detect magnetic fields in hot Jupiters have been inconclusive, and…
In the future, extraterrestrial expeditions will not only be conducted by rovers but also by flying robots. The technical demonstration drone Ingenuity, that just landed on Mars, will mark the beginning of a new era of exploration…
The Cassini mission offered us the opportunity to monitor the seasonal evolution of Titan's atmosphere from 2004 to 2017, i.e. half a Titan year. The lower part of the stratosphere (pressures greater than 10 mbar) is a region of particular…
Visible and near-infrared spectra of transiting hot Jupiter planets have recently been observed, revealing some of the atmospheric constituents of their atmospheres. In the near future, it is probable that primary and secondary eclipse…
The L/T transition is an important evolutionary phase in brown dwarf atmospheres, providing us with a unique opportunity to explore the effects of clouds, convection, winds, gravity and metallicity across a very narrow temperature range.…
Tetrahedral configurations of spacecraft on unperturbed heliocentric orbits allow for highly precise observations of small spatial changes in the gravitational field, especially those affecting the gravity gradient tensor (GGT). The…
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…
UV observations with Cassini ISS Narrow Angle Camera of Titan's detached haze is an excellent tool to probe its aerosols content without being affected by the gas or the multiple scattering. Unfortunately, its low extent in altitude…
As the space domain becomes increasingly congested, autonomy is proposed as one approach to enable small numbers of human ground operators to manage large constellations of satellites and tackle more complex missions such as on-orbit or…
The Voyager 1 flyby of Titan in 1980 gave a first glimpse of the chemical complexity of Titan's atmosphere, detecting many new molecules with the infrared spectrometer (IRIS). These included propane (C3H8) and propyne (CH3C2H), while the…
Remote sensing observations suffer significant limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. This impacts our knowledge of the formation of these planets and the physics of their…
Dust grains migrating under Poynting-Robertson drag may be trapped in mean-motion resonances with planets. Such resonantly trapped grains are observed in the solar system. In extrasolar systems, the exozodiacal light produced by dust grains…
Present and future space missions rely on systems of increasingly demanding performance for being successful. Drag-free technology is one of the technologies that is fundamental for LISA-Pathfinder, an ESA mission whose launch is planned…
The return of Comet 1P/Halley will promote a wide interest for ground and space observations of a celestial body of outstanding scientific and cultural interest. In addition to remote observations, space will open the possibility of in situ…
Winds in Titan's lower and middle atmosphere have been determined by a variety of techniques, including direct measurements from the Huygens Probe over 0-150 km, Doppler shifts of molecular spectral lines in the optical, thermal infrared…
Mapping and exploration of a Martian terrain with an aerial vehicle has become an emerging research direction, since the successful flight demonstration of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. Although the autonomy and navigation capability of…
Using 2D thermal structure models and pseudo-2D chemical kinetics models, we explore how atmospheric temperatures and composition change as a function of altitude and longitude within the equatorial regions of close-in transiting…
Thanks to the Cassini Huygens mission, it is now established that the first aerosols in Titan s upper atmosphere are found from an altitude of about 1200 km. Once they are formed and through their descent towards the surface, these…