Published in Space Science Reviews
We will briefly recapitulate the beginning of modern cometary physic. Then we will assess the results of the cometary flyby missions previous to ESA’s Rosetta rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Emphasis is given to the physical properties of cometary nuclei. We will relate the results of the Rosetta mission to those of the flybys. A m...
Published in Space Science Reviews
The Particle Detector (PD) experiment aboard the geostationary satellite GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK2A) measures populations of electrons and positive ions in the Earth’s geostationary orbit at a geographic longitude of 128.2∘E\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbs...
Published in Space Science Reviews
The design of an advanced Net Flux Radiometer (NFR), for inclusion as a payload on a future Ice Giants probe mission, is given. The Ice Giants NFR (IG-NFR) will measure the upward and downward radiation flux (hence net radiation flux), in seven spectral bands, spanning the range from solar to far infra-red wavelengths, each with a 5∘\documentclass[...
Published in Space Science Reviews
The icy moons of the outer Solar System harbor potentially habitable environments for life, however, compared to the terrestrial biosphere, these environments are characterized by extremes in temperature, pressure, pH, and other physico-chemical conditions. Therefore, the search for life on these icy worlds is anchored on the study of terrestrial e...
Published in Space Science Reviews
The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) onboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is used to study the shape and surface of the mission’s target, asteroid (101955) Bennu, in support of the selection of a sampling site. We present calibration methods and results for the three OCAMS cameras—MapCam, PolyCam, and SamCam—using data from pre-flight and in-flight cal...
Published in Space Science Reviews
In recent years, observations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect have had significant cosmological implications and have begun to serve as a powerful and independent probe of the warm and hot gas that pervades the Universe. As a few pioneering studies have already shown, SZ observations both complement X-ray observations—the traditional tool for ...
Published in Space Science Reviews
Pressures in the hydrospheres of large ocean worlds extend to ranges exceeding those in Earth deepest oceans. In this regime, dense water ices and other high-pressure phases become thermodynamically stable and can influence planetary processes at a global scale. The presence of high-pressure ices sets large icy worlds apart from other smaller water...
Published in Space Science Reviews
The icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are perhaps the most promising places in the Solar System regarding habitability. However, the potential habitable environments are hidden underneath km-thick ice shells. The discovery of Enceladus’ plume by the Cassini mission has provided vital clues in our understanding of the processes occurring within t...
Published in Space Science Reviews
Cubesats have been effective at lowering the barriers for entry to space for educational institutions and small private players resulting in new and innovative missions and concepts. Novel, potentially powerful, space science projects such as QB50 can now be undertaken with limited budgets and resources. However, the failure rate of Cubesats has be...
Published in Space Science Reviews
One of the key goals of the Rosetta mission was to understand how, where and when comets formed in our solar system. There are two major hypotheses for the origin of comets, both pre-Rosetta: (1) hierarchical accretion of dust and ice grains in the Solar Nebula and (2) the growth of pebbles, which are then brought together by streaming instabilitie...
