Related papers: Six Hypotheses for Accelerating the Lunar Economy
This paper discusses the scientific objectives for the ESA Lunar Lander Mission, which emphasise human exploration preparatory science and introduces the model scientific payload considered as part of the on-going mission studies, in…
Establishing lunar infrastructure is paramount to long-term habitation on the Moon. To meet the demand for future lunar infrastructure development, we present CraterGrader, a novel system for autonomous robotic earthmoving tasks within…
The leading hypothesis for the origin of the Moon, that of a single giant impact, faces significant challenges. These include either the need for an impactor with a near-identical composition to Earth or an extremely high-mass or…
Establishing a human colony on Mars is one of the most ambitious endeavors of our time. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and solutions related to Mars colonization, emphasizing sustainability, efficiency, and…
Lunar exploration has become a key focus, driving scientific and technological advances. Ongoing missions are deploying rovers to the surface of the Moon, targeting the far side and south pole. However, these terrains pose challenges,…
A transformation network describes how one set of resources can be transformed into another via technological processes. Transformation networks in economics are useful because they can highlight areas for future innovations, both in terms…
The use of eXtended Reality (XR) technologies in the space domain has increased significantly over the past few years as it can offer many advantages when simulating complex and challenging environments. Space agencies are currently using…
While the floors of deep lunar craters are largely shielded from solar radiation and thus provide an ideal thermal environment for water ice accumulation, meteoroids on highly inclined orbits can easily access permanently shadowed regions…
Using viscoelastic mass spring model simulations to track heat distribution inside a tidally perturbed body, we measure the asymmetry of heating in the crust of a spin synchronous Moon in eccentric orbit about the Earth. With the Moon…
The European Moon Rover System (EMRS) Pre-Phase A activity is part of the European Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P) that seeks to develop a versatile surface mobility solution for future lunar missions. These missions include: the Polar…
In contrast to terrestrial environment, the harsh lunar environment conditions include lower gravity acceleration, ultra-high vacuum and high (low) temperature in the daytime (night-time). This paper focuses on the effects of those…
Geophysical imaging of the lunar near-surface structure will be key for in situ resource utilization, identification of hazards for crews and infrastructure, and answering science questions on the formation and interior of the Moon. The…
Lunar retro-reflector arrays (LRAs) consisting of corner-cube reflectors (CCRs) placed on the nearside of the Moon during the Apollo era have demonstrated their longevity, cost-effectiveness, ease of deployment, and most importantly their…
In the Earth-Moon system, low-energy orbits are transfer trajectories from the earth to a circumlunar orbit that require less propellant consumption when compared to the traditional methods. In this work we use a Monte Carlo approach to…
Once carbon emission neutrality and other sustainability goals have been achieved, a widespread assumption is that economic growth at current rates can be sustained beyond the 21st century. However, even if we achieve these goals, this…
For low-energy missions to the Moon and beyond, Ballistic Capture has proven to be a valuable technique for enabling orbital insertion while alleviating propulsion system requirements. This approach offers two key advantages. First, it…
The lunar geological record is expected to contain a rich record of the galactic environment of the Solar System, including records of nearby (i.e. less than a few tens of parsecs) supernova explosions. This record will be composed of two…
The paper analyzes the current state of the world economy and offers a short-term forecast of its development. Our analysis of log-periodic oscillations in the DJIA dynamics suggests that in the second half of 2017 the United States and…
Current thinking about the Moon as a destination has revitalized interest in lunar astronomical observatories. Once seen by a large scientific community as a highly enabling site, the dramatic improvement in capabilities for free-space…
By introducing a hitherto ignored Li-6 producing process, due to accelerated He-3 reactions with He-4, we show that accelerated particle interactions in solar flares produce much more Li-6 than Li-7. By normalizing our calculations to…