Impact of solar eclipses on NO₂ in the Earth's atmosphere as measured from space by TROPOMI: Understanding the sensitivity of the Earth's atmospheric composition to short-term variations in sunlight

During a solar eclipse, sunlight incident on the Earth is reduced due to the (partial) shadow of the Moon. Atmospheric trace gas concentrations which are influenced by the amount of available sunlight, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), may be affected due to the disrupted photolysis processes. Large-scale observations of the increased...

The Quest for TROPOMI-Observed En-Route Aviation NOx Emissions

In this work the possibility for use of the satellite remote sensing instrument TROPOMI to detect NOx emissions from en-route aviation is assessed. Analysis of aviation intensity, quality of satellite retrievals, and emissions from non-aviation anthropogenic sources showed that the North Atlantic, including the North Atlantic Flight Corridor,...

Trajectory Optimization Methods for Low-Thrust Kuiper Belt Flyby Missions

The Kuiper belt is one of the last mostly unexplored regions in the Solar System. Exploration of the Kuiper belt can greatly increase humanity's understanding of the Solar System's formation and evolution. The use of low-thrust propulsion for Kuiper belt missions has the potential to improve the payload mass of the mission due to the high...

Spectropolarimetry for Satellite Identification

The exponentially increasing number of Earth-orbiting satellites, as well as the pronounced importance for space military operations, impose new challenges on a functional Space Domain Awareness (SDA). A key factor for an effective SDA is the successful identification of an Earthorbiting satellite, or object in general. Current methods are...

The relation between clouds and surface water on exoplanets

To answer the question of habitability of other planets, it is crucial to find liquid water. As a planet’s surface might be difficult to characterise through observations, the observation of cloud composition and coverage could possibly reveal the presence of large bodies of surface water. Climate code SPEEDY is used to investigate relations...

Autonomous Navigation around Asteroids using Convolutional Neural Networks

Missions to small bodies are increasingly gaining interest as they might hold the secrets to our solar system’s origin while some are also posing a threat to life on Earth. The small size and irregular shape result in complex dynamics complicating the close-proximity operations. Furthermore, due to the long round-trip time communication delays...

Exoplanet surface mapping using scattered light curves

In this thesis, we provide a method for reconstructing a planet's surface map from its reflected light curve. We are going to derive an equation for the reflective light-curve under the assumption that the surface map is characterized by four different surface types (ocean, vegetation, sand and snow), is stationary (no clouds), and that all...

Propulsive abort trajectory options for a reconnaissance human Mars mission

For a human Mars exploration mission, it is required to minimize the time-of-flight of the interplanetary trajectories to mitigate the adverse effects of the radiation environment and prolonged weightlessness conditions on the health of the crew. Moreover, having a fail-safe provision to return the crew back to Earth in case of a mission abort...

Laser-Enhanced Solar Sailing: Modeling and Trajectory Optimization for Interplanetary Missions

When sunlight illuminates a body, a tiny pressure is exerted upon its surface due to the photons impacting on it. Such a principle forms the basis of solar sailing, in which the solar radiation pressure is used to accelerate highly reflective lightweight structures called solar sails. Similarly, a laser-enhanced solar sail is a solar sail in...

Orbit Design of a Lunar Meteoroid Impact Flashes Observer

Fragments of asteroids and comets constantly encounter the Earth and Moon in their orbits, impacting them as meteoroids. Observations of meteor showers on Earth have been studied for at least 50 years, in order to construct accurate Solar System meteoroid models. More recently, Earth-based telescopic observations of the light flashes produced by...

GTO debris mitigation using natural perturbations

Objects ingeostationary transfer orbit (GTO) can collide with operative satellites in lowEarth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). Various organisationshave laid down debris-mitigation guidelines that will be enforced by law forfuture launchers. One of the guidelines entails proving that the generateddebris will re-enter in less than 25...