Related papers: Six Hypotheses for Accelerating the Lunar Economy
The most pragmatic first step in the all-but-inevitable 3rd-millennium V\"olkerwanderung of humanity throughout the Solar System is the establishment of a permanent human presence on the Moon. This research examines: 1. the human,…
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
The national space programs have an historic opportunity to help solve the global-scale economic and environmental problems of Earth while becoming more effective at science through the use of space resources. Space programs will be more…
Techno-economic assessment is a fundamental technique engineers use for evaluating new communications technologies. However, despite the techno-economics of the fifth cellular generation (5G) being an active research area, it is surprising…
The lunar poles are unique environments of both great scientific and, increasingly, commercial interest. Consequently, a tension exists between the twin objectives of (a) Exploring the lunar poles for both scientific and commercial purposes…
The next generation of space-based experiments will go hunting for answers to cosmology's key open questions which revolve around inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Low earth orbit and lunar missions within the European Space Agency's…
The lunar geological record contains a rich archive of the history of the inner Solar System, including information relevant to understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and…
Beyond space exploration, the next critical step towards living and working in space requires developing a space economy. One important challenge with this space-economy is ensuring the low-cost transport of raw materials from one…
This roadmap outlines research pathways to determine whether Mars could be warmed with non-biological methods. It does not presuppose that warming Mars is desirable; its purpose is to identify what would need to be true for Mars to be…
We face unprecedented resource stresses in the 21st Century such as global climate disruptions, freshwater scarcity, expanding energy demands, and the threat of global pandemics. Historically, societies have relieved resource stress by…
Future astronauts living and working on the Moon will face extreme environmental conditions impeding their operational safety and performance. While it has been suggested that Augmented Reality (AR) Head-Up Displays (HUDs) could potentially…
The allure of lunar surface exploration and development has recently captured widespread global attention. Robots have proved to be indispensable for exploring uncharted terrains, uncovering and leveraging local resources, and facilitating…
The intense activity of cratering on the Moon and in the inner regions of the solar system was accomplished during the first 10^9 years [1]. Occasionally, some impact events occur even nowadays. In Section 1, we treat, from a historical…
The memo is exploring possibilities to set up extraterrestrial experimental facilities to study particles physics. The Moon is considered as the most promising location for artificial particle sources outside the Earth. This natural…
NASA and ESA are preparing a series of human exploration missions using the four-person Orion crew vehicle, launched by NASA's Space Launch System, and a Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) that enable long duration (>30 days)…
This study estimates the cost of building lunar landing pads and examines whether any construction methods are economically superior to others. Some proposed methods require large amounts of mass transported from the Earth, others require…
Possible explanations of the recently reported anomalous increase of the eccentricity of the lunar orbit are sought in terms of classical Newtonian mechanics, general relativity, and long-range modifications of gravity.
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…
As human activities on the Moon expand through initiatives like NASA's Artemis program, the need for sustainable post-mission disposal strategies becomes critical to maintaining the lunar environment. This paper analyzes the logistics and…
This article describes the characterization activities of the landing sites currently envisaged for the Lunar Lander mission of the European Space Agency. These sites have been identified in the South Pole Region (-85{\deg} to -90{\deg}…