Related papers: Six Hypotheses for Accelerating the Lunar Economy
Setting up a relativistic lunar reference frame is of a prime importance in the context of future exploration missions to the Moon. If the procedure for building a consistent reference frame within the framework of the general theory of…
Humankind is confronted with a "nuclear stewardship curse", facing the prospect of needing to manage nuclear products over long time scales in the face of the short-time scales of human polities. I propose a super Manhattan-type effort to…
Understanding the sources of lunar water is crucial for studying the history of lunar evolution, and also the solar wind interaction with the Moon and other airless bodies. Recent observations revealed lunar hydration is very likely a…
We examine whether substantial AI automation could accelerate global economic growth by about an order of magnitude, akin to the economic growth effects of the Industrial Revolution. We identify three primary drivers for such growth: 1) the…
Legged robots are promising candidates for exploring challenging areas on low-gravity bodies such as the Moon, Mars, or asteroids, thanks to their advanced mobility on unstructured terrain. However, as planetary robots' power and thermal…
Precise measurements of the Earth-Moon distance by the lunar laser ranging (LLR), which begun in the early 1970's, contributed significantly to geodesy, geophysics, and lunar planetology, as well as enabled astrophysicists to perform…
Cultured meat has the potential to provide a complementary meat industry with reduced environmental, ethical, and health impacts. However, major technological challenges remain which require time- and resource-intensive research and…
Recent successful lunar landing missions have generated significant interest among space agencies in establishing a permanent human settlement on the Moon. Building a lunar base requires multiple and frequent landing missions to support…
Risk to human astronauts and interplanetary distance causing slow and limited communication drives scientists to pursue an autonomous approach to exploring distant planets, such as Mars. A portion of exploration of Mars has been conducted…
We propose using the temperature gradients between the Moon's surface and the soil at a certain depth to power an Organic Rankine Cycle that could supply a permanent installation, particularly at night, when solar power is not available.…
Lunar explorations have provided us with information about its abundant resources that can be utilized in orbiting-resource depots as lunar-derived commodities. To reduce the energy requirements of a launcher to send these commodities from…
Successful materials innovations can transform society. However, materials research often involves long timelines and low success probabilities, dissuading investors who have expectations of shorter times from bench to business. A…
For a sustained human presence on the Moon, robust in-situ resource utilisation supply chains to provide consumables and propellant are necessary. A promising process is molten salt electrolysis, which typically requires temperatures in…
Typical lunar landing missions involve multiple phases of braking to achieve soft-landing. The propulsion system configuration for these missions consists of throttleable engines. This configuration involves complex interconnected…
The lunar South pole likely contains significant amounts of water in the permanently shadowed craters there. Extracting this water for life support at a lunar base or to make rocket fuel would take large amounts of power, of order…
This study presents an advanced approach to enhance robotic manipulation in uncertain and challenging environments, with a focus on autonomous operations augmented by human-in-the-loop (HITL) control for lunar missions. By integrating human…
Multiple nations are planning activity on the Moon's surface, and to deconflict lunar operations we must understand the sandblasting damage from rocket exhaust blowing soil. Prior research disagreed over the scaling of the erosion rate,…
The distribution of heat-producing elements (U, Th, K) within the Moon is critical for understanding its thermal evolution and formation history. Based on a refined lunar interior model, we calculate the geoneutrino fluxes at two…
Revived interest in lunar exploration is heralding a new generation of design solutions in support of human operations on the Moon. While space system design has traditionally been guided by prototype deployments in analogue studies, the…
Understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar volatile system is not only compelling lunar science, but also fundamental Solar System science. This white paper (submitted to the US National Academies' Decadal Survey in Planetary…