3D Printing of Habitats on Mars: Effects of Low Temperature and Pressure

Due to payload weight limitations and human vulnerability to harsh space conditions, it is preferable that the potential landing location for humans has an already constructed habitat preferably made from in situ materials. Therefore, the prospect of utilizing a readily available Martian material, such as regolith, in an easily programmable...

3D Printing for Space Habitats: Requirements, Challenges, and Recent Advances

Heavily resource-reliant transportation and harsh living conditions, where humans cannot survive without a proper habitat, have prevented humans from establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars. Due to the absence of an atmosphere, potential habitats on the Moon or Mars require thick and strong structures that can withstand artificially...

Graveyard orbits for future Mars missions

Mars is expected to become a focal point of exploration (human and robotic) in the coming century, with a very likely need for a robust space infrastructure. Be it communication and navigation satellite constellations or scientific missions in low Mars orbits (LMO) and Areosynchronous orbits (ASO), every individual satellite will have a...

Il viaggio nello spazio non costituisce una condizione di eccezionalità morale. Ciò che si ottiene nello spazio si ottiene anche sulla Terra!

There is a growing body of scholarship that is addressing the ethics, in particular, the bioethics of space travel and colonisation. Naturally, a variety of perspectives concerning the ethical issues and moral permissibility of different technological strategies for confronting the rigours of space travel and colonisation have emerged in the...

Coupled Roto-Translational Motion of the Heliogyro Applied to Earth-Mars Cyclers

Solar sailing is a flight-proven low-thrust propulsion technology with strong potential for innovative scientific missions. All previous solar-sail missions employed a solar-sail system design consisting of four triangular sail quadrants supported by deployable booms. As an alternative to such a fixed and flat sail-system design, this paper...

Combined Airborne Wind and Photovoltaic Energy System for Martian Habitats

Generating renewable energy on Mars is technologically challenging. Firstly, because, compared to Earth, key energy resources such as solar and wind are weak as a result of very low atmospheric pressure and low solar irradiation. Secondly, because of the harsh environmental conditions, the required high degree of automation, and the exceptional...

Influence of Martian Radiation-like Conditions on the Growth of Secale cereale and Lepidium sativum

The Martian surface is constantly exposed to a high dose of cosmic radiation consisting of highly energetic particles and multiple types of ionizing radiation. The dose can increase temporarily by a factor of 50 through the occurrence of highly energetic solar flares. This may affect crop growth in greenhouses on the Martian surface possibly...

Static and dynamic angles of repose in loose granular materials under reduced gravity

Granular materials avalanche when a static angle of repose is exceeded and freeze at a dynamic angle of repose. Such avalanches occur subaerially on steep hillslopes and wind dunes and subaqueously at the lee side of deltas. Until now it has been assumed that the angles of repose are independent of gravitational acceleration. The objective of...

Astrobiology and habitability studies in preparation for future Mars missions: Trends from investigating minerals, organics and biota

Several robotic exploration missions will travel to Mars during this decade to investigate habitability and the possible presence of life. Field research at Mars analogue sites such as desert environments can provide important constraints for instrument calibration, landing site strategies and expected life detection targets. We have...

Microscopy analysis of soils at the Phoenix landing site, Mars: Classification of soil particles and description of their optical and magnetic properties

The optical microscope onboard the Phoenix spacecraft has returned color images (4 ?m pixel?1) of soils that were delivered to and held on various substrates. A preliminary taxonomy of Phoenix soil particles, based on color, size, and shape, identifies the following particle types [generic names in brackets]: (1) reddish fines, mostly unresolved...

SPEX: An in-orbit spectropolarimeter for planetary exploration

SPEX (Spectropolarimeter for Planetary EXploration) is an innovative, compact remote-sensing instrument for detecting and characterizing aerosols. With its 1-liter volume it is capable of full linear spectropolarimetry, without moving parts. High precision polarimetry is performed through encoding the degree and angle of linear polarization of...

Vulkanisme en water op Mars?

In januari 2004 werd Mars bezocht door de tweeling robotverkenners Spirit en Opportunity. Zij werden erop uitgestuurd om eindelijk het definitieve antwoord te geven op de vraag of er leven op Mars is geweest. Alles wijst er inmiddels op dat er op Mars ooit vloeibaar water stroomde. Of daarmee een bewijs geleverd is over het bestaan van leven op...

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