Related papers: Operational Mass Measurement for Flyby Reconnaissa…

A measurement by microlensing of the planetary mass function of planets with masses ranging from 5M_E to 10M_J and orbital radii from 0.5 to 10 AU was reported recently. A strategy for extending the mass range down to (1-3)M_E is proposed…

Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 microarcsecond precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric…

Outer main belt asteroid (223) Rosa is a possible flyby target of opportunity for ESA's (European Space Agency) JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission when passing the asteroid belt on the way to Jupiter. The very low albedo and the…

The Galactic microquasar SS\,433 is very luminous and launches oppositely-directed jets of cool hydrogen at a quarter of the speed of light. Observations of emission lines from the circumbinary disk imply a system mass exceeding 40 $…

An approach towards wireless ranging and synchronization using commercial of-the-shelf software-defined radio payloads for small satellites, esp. CubeSats is studied. The approach only relies on the programmable logic configuration and…

Microlensing is the only method that can detect and measure mass of wide orbit, low mass, solar system analog exoplanets. Mass measurements of such planets would yield massive science on planet formation, exoplanet demographics, free…

In this article, theory-based analytical methodologies of astrophysics employed in the modern era are suitably operated alongside a test research-grade telescope to image and determine the orbit of a near-earth asteroid from original…

Constraints on the masses of exoplanets directly imaged and characterized by the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) are crucial for categorizing these planets and interpreting their spectra. In particular, achieving a mass measurement with…

The Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission will explore the Sun's corona and innermost solar wind starting in 2018. The spacecraft will also come close to a number of Mercury-crossing asteroids with perihelia less than 0.3 AU. At small heliocentric…

Large potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are capable of causing a global catastrophe in the event of a planetary collision. Thus, rapid assessment of such an object's physical characteristics is crucial for determining its potential…

NinjaSat is an X-ray CubeSat designed for agile, long-term continuous observations of bright X-ray sources, with the size of 6U ($100\times200\times300$ mm$^3$) and a mass of 8 kg. NinjaSat is capable of pointing at X-ray sources with an…

The NEAT (Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope) mission is a proposition submitted to ESA for its 2010 call for M-size mission. The main scientific goal is to detect and characterize planetary systems in an exhaustive way down to 1 Earth mass…

Context: Observation of star occultations is a powerful tool to determine shapes and sizes of asteroids. This is key information necessary for studying the evolution of the asteroid belt and to calibrate indirect methods of size…

Astrometry has long been a promising technique for exoplanet detection. At the theoretical limits, astrometry would allow for the detection of smaller planets than previously seen by current exoplanet search methods, but stellar activity…

Aerodynamic collision avoidance manoeuvres provide an opportunity for satellites in Low Earth Orbits to reduce the risk during close encounters. With rising numbers of satellites and objects in orbit, satellites experience close encounters…

I propose a radical revision in the search strategy for Massive Compact Objects (Machos) toward the Galactic bulge: monitor the entire $\sim 300$ square deg of the bulge and tune the search primarily to microlensing events of bright…

When an asteroid has a few observations over a short time span the information contained in the observational arc could be so little that a full orbit determination may be not possible. One of the methods developed in recent years to…

CubeSats have the potential to expand astrophysical discovery space, complementing ground-based electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observatories. The CubeSat design specifications help streamline delivery of instrument payloads to…

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) is a 3 Unit (3U) CubeSat designed for a 3-month mission to study solar soft X-ray spectral irradiance. The first of the two flight models was deployed from the International Space Station in…

The heterogeneity of the small body population complicates the prediction of small body properties before the spacecraft's arrival. In the context of autonomous small body exploration, it is crucial to develop algorithms that estimate the…