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Through multiple, small unmanned probes we can more efficiently capture an asteroid and return it to lunar orbit. The Asteroid Return and Exploration System (ARES) aims to make use of previously tested technology with the application of a…
Propellantless propulsion refers to methods of space travel that do not require onboard propellant, instead relying on natural forces or external energy sources. In this paper, I review different approaches that have been explored and…
Solar-like oscillations are excited in cool stars with convective envelopes and provide a powerful tool to constrain fundamental stellar properties and interior physics. We provide a brief history of the detection of solar-like…
Reduced traction limits the ability of mobile robotic systems to resist or apply large external loads, such as tugging a massive payload. One simple and versatile solution is to wrap a tether around naturally occurring objects to leverage…
Kinetic exospheric models revealed that the solar wind is accelerated by an ambipolar electric field up to supersonic velocities. The presence of suprathermal Strahl electrons at the exobase can further increase the velocity to higher…
We present the first global 3D simulations of thermal convection in the oblate envelopes of rapidly-rotating solar-type stars. This has been achieved by exploiting the capabilities of the new Compressible High-ORder Unstructured Spectral…
Stellar winds may be important for angular momentum transport from accreting T Tauri stars, but the nature of these winds is still not well-constrained. We present some simulation results for hypothetical, hot (~1e6 K) coronal winds from T…
Solar jets are impulsive, collimated plasma ejections that are triggered by magnetic reconnection. They are observed for many decades in various temperatures and wavelengths, therefore their kinematic characteristics, such as velocity and…
A new regime is described for Radiation Pressure Acceleration of a thin foil by an intense laser beam of above 10^20 W/cm^2. Highly monoenergetic proton beams extending to GeV energies can be produced with very high efficiency using…
Lightsails are a highly promising spacecraft concept that has attracted interest in recent years due to its potential to travel at near-relativistic speeds. Such speeds, which current conventional crafts cannot reach, offer tantalizing…
The electric solar wind sail is a novel propellantless space propulsion concept. According to numerical estimates, the electric solar wind sail can produce a large total impulse per propulsion system mass. Here we consider using a 0.5 N…
Interstellar radar is a potential intermediate step between passive observation of exoplanets and interstellar exploratory missions. Compared to passive observation, it has the traditional advantages of radar astronomy. It can measure…
The solar photon pressure provides a viable source of thrust for spacecraft in the solar system. Theoretically it could also enable interstellar missions, but an extremely small mass per cross section area is required to overcome the solar…
The third interstellar object to be discovered, 3I/ATLAS, has a unique and continually unfolding story to tell about its nature and origin as it is monitored by telescopes on Earth, orbiting Earth and around the Solar System. Previous…
Observational aspects of solar flares relevant to the acceleration process of electrons and protons are reviewed and it is shown that most of these observations can be explained by the interaction with flare plasma of a power law energy…
We present self-consistent numerical simulations of the sun's convection zone and radiative interior using a two-dimensional model of its equatorial plane. The background reference state is a one-dimensional solar structure model. Turbulent…
The excess broadening of high-temperature spectral lines, long observed near the tops of flare arcades, is widely considered to result from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. According to different theories, plasma turbulence is also…
Laser propulsion has been proposed for relativistic interstellar flights, but it faces the significant challenge of requiring extremely powerful laser radiation due to the inherently low momentum transfer between the beam and the sail. The…
Recent observations and simulations indicate that solar flares undergo extremely complex three-dimensional (3D) evolution, making 3D particle transport models essential for understanding electron acceleration and interpreting flare…
In Coulomb drag propulsion, a long high voltage tether or system of tethers gathers momentum from a natural plasma stream such as solar wind or ionospheric plasma ram flow. A positively polarised tether in the solar wind can be used for…