Related papers: Instrumentation For Geological Fieldwork on the Mo…
The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout…
Moon is an auspicious environment for the study of Galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and Solar particle events (SEP) due to the absence of magnetic field and atmosphere. The same characteristics raise the radiation risk for human presence in orbit…
The lunar geological record contains a rich archive of the history of the inner Solar System, including information relevant to understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and…
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…
Several physical mechanisms are involved in excavating granular materials beneath a vertical jet of gas. These occur, for example, beneath the exhaust plume of a rocket landing on the soil of the Moon or Mars. A series of experiments and…
Motivated by efforts to return humanity to the Moon, three cases are reviewed for X-ray astronomy from the lunar surface: (1) Facilitation of ambitious engineering designs including high throughput telescopes, long focal length optics and…
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…
Chandrayaan-2, the second Indian mission to the Moon, carries a spectrometer called the Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) to perform soft X-ray spectral measurements of the Sun while a companion payload measures the fluorescence emission from the…
Nuclear spectroscopy is the only instrumentation that provides bulk geochemical constraints at depth (up to one meter in the surface). These instruments identify and quantify water and other key elements relevant to planetary exploration,…
Autonomous precision navigation to land onto the Moon relies on vision sensors. Computer vision algorithms are designed, trained and tested using synthetic simulations. High quality terrain models have been produced by Moon orbiters…
We describe how meteors recorded at the Earth can be used to partly reconstruct the meteoroid environments of the planets if a large sample (i.e. millions of orbits at a minimum) is available. The process involves selecting from the…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the laws of fundamental gravitational physics and geophysics. Current LLR technology allows us to measure distances to the Moon with a precision approaching 1…
We outline a concept for OWL-Moon, a 50-100m aperture telescope located on the surface of the Moon, to address three major areas in astronomy, namely the detection of biosignatures on habitable exoplanets, the geophysics of exoplanets, and…
It is extremely important to understand and model the Martian radiation environment in preparation for future human missions to Mars, especially during extreme and elevated conditions such as an intense solar energetic particle (SEP) event.…
Two radio-science instruments have included into the Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource projects in the frame of Russian Luna exploration program: the lander's radio beacon and the orbiter's receiver. Three types of experiments are planned:…
This document presents the study conducted during the European Moon Rover System Pre-Phase A project, in which we have developed a lunar rover system, with a modular approach, capable of carrying out different missions with different…
We have studied several field geotechnical test instruments for their applicability to lunar soil simulants and analog soils. Their performance was evaluated in a series of tests in lunar simulants JSC-1A, NU-LHT-2M, and CHENOBI each…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the evolutionary history of the lunar orbit, the laws of fundamental gravitational physics, selenophysics and geophysics as well as for future human missions to…
More precise lunar and Martian ranging will enable unprecedented tests of Einstein's theory of General Relativity and well as lunar and planetary science. NASA is currently planning several missions to return to the Moon, and it is natural…
This white paper recognizes gaps in observations that will, when addressed, much improve solar radiation hazard and geomagnetic storm forecasting. Radiation forecasting depends on observations of the entire "Solar Radiation Hemisphere" that…