Related papers: CHEOPS Ground Segment: Systems and Automation for …
Onboard autonomy technologies such as planning and scheduling, identification of scientific targets, and content-based data summarization, will lead to exciting new space science missions. However, the challenge of operating missions with…
The historical development of ground based astronomical telescopes leads us to expect that space-based astronomical telescopes will need to be operational for many decades. The exchange of scientific instruments in space will be a…
The presence of minor bodies in exoplanetary systems is in most cases inferred through infra-red excesses, with the exception of exocomets. Even if over 35 years have passed since the first detection of exocomets around beta Pic, only ~ 25…
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will perform a two-year survey of nearly the entire sky, with the main goal of detecting exoplanets smaller than Neptune around bright and nearby stars. There do not appear to be any…
Small telescopes equiped with modern instrumentation are gaining on importance, especially, in the era of exoplanetary space missions such as TESS, PLATO and ARIEL. Crucial part of every planet hunting mission is now a ground-based…
White dwarf spectroscopy shows that nearly half of white dwarf atmospheres contain metals that must have been accreted from planetary material that survived the red giant phases of stellar evolution. We can use metal pollution in white…
The overall aim of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Preparatory Programme is to support the European independent utilisation of and access to space for research or services, through providing timely and quality data, information,…
Light curves show the flux variation from the target star and its orbiting planets as a function of time. In addition to the transit features created by the planets, the flux also includes the reflected light component of each planet, which…
SPHEREx is a NASA infrared astronomy mission that launched on March 12th, 2025 and is operating successfully in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The mission is currently observing the entire sky in 102 spectral channels in four independent all-sky…
Agile satellites with advanced attitude maneuvering capability are the new generation of Earth observation satellites (EOSs). The continuous improvement in satellite technology and decrease in launch cost have boosted the development of…
As the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) fulfills its primary mission it is executing an unprecedented all-sky survey with the potential to discover distant planets in our own solar system, as well as hundreds of…
A concept of the ground-based optical astronomical observations efficiency is considered in this paper. We believe that a telescope efficiency can be increased by properly allocating observation tasks with respect to the current environment…
We describe the target selection procedure by which stars are selected for 2-minute and 20-second observations by TESS. We first list the technical requirements of the TESS instrument and ground systems processing that limit the total…
Despite the ever-increasing number of known exoplanets, no uncontested detections have been made of their satellites, known as exomoons. The quest to find exomoons is at the forefront of exoplanetary sciences. Certain space-born instruments…
The MMT Adaptive Optics exoPlanet Characterization System (MAPS) is a comprehensive update to the first generation MMT adaptive optics system (MMTAO), designed to produce a facility class suite of instruments whose purpose is to image…
The Solar Spectroscopy Explorer (SSE) concept is conceived as a scalable mission, with two to four instruments and a strong focus on coronal spectroscopy. In its core configuration it is a small strategic mission ($250-500M) built around a…
The Solar Close Observations and Proximity Experiments (SCOPE) mission will send a spacecraft into the solar atmosphere at a low altitude of just 5 R_sun from the solar center. It aims to elucidate the mechanisms behind solar eruptions and…
Robotic on-orbit servicing (OOS) is expected to be a key technology and concept for future sustainable space exploration. This paper develops a semi-analytical model for OOS systems analysis, responding to the growing needs and ongoing…
We discuss the in-flight autonomous assembly as the means to build advanced planetary science payloads to explore the outer regions of the solar system. These payloads are robotically constructed from modular parts delivered by a group of…
Earth observation satellites (EOSs) play a pivotal role in capturing and analyzing planetary phenomena, ranging from natural disasters to societal development. The EOS scheduling problem (EOSSP), which optimizes the schedule of EOSs, is…