Related papers: Swarming Proxima Centauri: Optical Communication O…
The Swift satellite will be a self-contained observatory that will bring new capabilities to the observing of the early afterglow emission of Gamma-ray Bursts. Swift is completely autonomous and will do all of the observations without help…
The far-infrared (FIR) is one of the few wavelength ranges where no astronomical data with sub-arcsec resolution exist yet. Neither of the medium-term satellite projects like SPICA, Millimetron or OST will resolve this malady. Information…
Astrobot swarms are used to capture astronomical signals to generate the map of the observable universe for the purpose of dark energy studies. The convergence of each swarm in the course of its coordination has to surpass a particular…
We explore the capabilities of a starshade mission to directly image multi-star systems. In addition to the diffracted and scattered light for the on-axis star, a multi-star system features additional starlight leakage from the off-axis…
Next-generation gravitational-wave detectors will provide unprecedented sensitivity to inspiraling binary neutron stars and black holes, enabling detections at the peak of star formation and beyond. However, the signals from these systems…
Compact binaries in our galaxy are expected to be one of the main sources of gravitational waves for the future eLISA mission. During the mission lifetime, many thousands of galactic binaries should be individually resolved. However, the…
The primary challenge of rocket propulsion is the burden of needing to accelerate the spacecraft's own fuel, resulting in only a logarithmic gain in maximum speed as propellant is added to the spacecraft. Light sails offer an attractive…
Spectrophotometric distances to stars observed by large spectroscopic surveys offer a crucial complement to parallax distances that remain very important also after the future Gaia data releases. Here we present a probabilistic approach to…
The recent progress in laser propulsion research has advanced substantially the prospects to realize interstellar spaceflight within a few decades. Here we examine passive deceleration via momentum braking from ionized interstellar media.…
In the existing cellular networks, it remains a challenging problem to communicate with and control an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm with both high reliability and low latency. Due to the UAV swarm's high working altitude and strong…
A photon of wavelength lambda ~1 micron interacting with a dust grain of radius a_p ~ 1 mm (a "pebble") undergoes scattering in the forward direction, largely within a small characteristic diffraction angle theta_s ~ lambda/a_p ~ 100".…
This paper considers galactic scale Beacons from the point of view of expense to a builder on Earth. For fixed power density in the far field, what is the cost-optimum interstellar Beacon system? Experience shows an optimum tradeoff,…
I show that a gravitational slingshot using a stellar-mass black hole (BH) orbiting SgrA* could launch robotic spacecraft toward M31 at $0.1\,c$, a speed that is ultimately limited by the tensile strength of steel and the BH mass, here…
The recent, rapid advancement in space exploration is thanks to the accelerated miniaturization of electronics components on a spacecraft that is reducing the mass, volume and cost of satellites. Yet, access to space remains a distant dream…
I review those properties of the interstellar medium within 15 light-years of the Sun which will be relevant for the planning of future rapid ($v /ge 0.1c$) interstellar space missions to the nearest stars. As the detailed properties of the…
Transiting exoplanet atmospheric characterization is currently in a golden age as dozens of exoplanet atmospheres are being studied by NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. This trend is expected to continue with NASA's Pandora…
Due to the inhomogeneity of electron number density, radio waves emitted by pulsars undergo scattering as they pass through the interstellar medium (ISM). However, a connection between large-scale pulsar scattering data and the structure of…
The microhertz frequency band of gravitational waves probes the merger of supermassive black holes as well as many other gravitational wave phenomena. However, space-interferometry methods that use test masses would require further…
An essential task for a multi-robot system is generating a common understanding of the environment and relative poses between robots. Cooperative tasks can be executed only when a vehicle has knowledge of its own state and the states of the…
The light from a source at a distance d will arrive at detectors separated by 100 AU at times that differ by as much as 120 (d/100 Mpc)^{-1} nanoseconds because of the curvature of the wavefront. At gigahertz frequencies, the arrival time…