How can scientists and engineers build off the success of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter to better explore the Red Planet? This is what a recent study presented at the 56^th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as an aerospace executive with more than two decades of research and engineering experience investigated how a next-generation Mars helicopter could conduct groundbreaking science while delivering peak efficiency and performance. This study has the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new methods for exploring Mars with cost-effective and efficient methods.

Here, Universe Today discusses this study with William Pomerantz, who is the Head of Space Ventures at AeroVironment, regarding the motivation behind the study, enhancing key characteristics of their next-generation Mars helicopter, next steps for making their next-generation Mars helicopter a reality, and how he foresees helicopters evolving to explore Mars. Therefore, what was the motivation behind the study?

“My team at AeroVironment developed Ingenuity in partnership with NASA JPL and it was truly a highlight of all our careers to have been part of such an incredible mission,” Pomerantz tells Universe Today. “Once Ingenuity proved that powered flight was indeed possible on Mars, we began to work on more advanced vehicles. Thanks to Ingenuity, we’ve seen that Mars helicopters can cover ground quickly and can reach areas that are impassable to rovers, so an obvious next step was investigating if helicopters could carry additional payloads. When you can put additional sensors, or robotics systems, or any of a million other things onto a helicopter, all of a sudden, you’ve got a highly mobile, extremely affordable explorer that can do real science. It unlocks an entirely new way of exploring Mars.”

For the study, Pomerantz and his team developed conceptual models for next-generation Mars helicopters, including vehicle mass, payload capacity, flight frequency, flight time, flight range, and power availability for in-flight and non-flight. The researchers conducted several simulations to ascertain the most desirable weight for achieving maximum science with a dedicated suite of instruments. For context, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter had a total mass of 1.8 kilograms (3.97 pounds), flight range of 300 meters (980 feet), a maximum flight time of 90 seconds per sol, and average approximately 350 watts per flight.

In the end, the researchers determined that a scientific payload of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) would be sufficient with a total helicopter weight of 6 kilograms (13.23 pounds), flight frequency of every other sol (Martian day), flight time of 150 seconds, flight range of less than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles), along with an in-flight and non-flight power availability of 30 watts and 25 watt-hours per day, respectively. But what steps can be taken to enhance the key characteristics of this next-generation Mars helicopter to accommodate science payloads larger than 1 kilogram?

“Ingenuity didn’t carry any science payloads,” Pomerantz tells Universe Today. ”Researchers certainly got real scientific value from the mission, but essentially everything on board Ingenuity was necessary for the vehicle to fly, rather than being dedicated science instrumentation. That won’t be true of future vehicles. It's possible to get even more payload on a flying vehicle on Mars, but those vehicles start to look quite different. The team at JPL has shared some information about ‘Chopper’, one of their concepts for a much larger vehicle. But those systems require a bigger technological leap; and bigger leaps typically come with more cost and more risk. Our work is more focused on maximizing the value we can get from the leap we’ve already taken with Ingenuity.”

As Universe Today recently discussed with the proposed CoRaLS mission, the process for going from a mission concept to actual hardware and flying in space requires several steps, specifically with NASA’s Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) ranging from 1 to 9. This process often takes several years, and sometimes decades, as it entails countless proposals, designs, meetings, budget outlines, testing, re-designs, more testing, all while keeping NASA in the loop regarding progress in all aspects of the project.

The length of time typically depends on the size and scope of the mission, with larger and more expensive missions typically taking far longer to achieve success. For example, the joint NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was first proposed in 1982 but didn’t launch until 1997. Therefore, what are the next steps to making this next-generation Mars helicopter a reality?

“Mars helicopters like the ones we’re talking about here, the ones that can carry ~1 kg of payload, are easy to add onto any other mission going to the surface of Mars,” Pomerantz tells Universe Today. “They hardly weigh anything, and they are super affordable. Ingenuity was built in a little over a year (on time and on budget, I might add), so they are also quick to build. There will be plenty of work to do to build the next system, but it’s all designed to stand on the shoulders of what we’ve already done for Ingenuity (and, to an extent, SRH). We don’t need major breakthroughs, we just need to continue to execute as well as we have in the past.”

While Ingenuity didn’t have any scientific payloads, its 72 flights demonstrated that conducting powered flight on another world—and with a fraction of the atmospheric pressure—is achievable, including 72 flights, almost 129 total minutes of flight time, approximately 17 kilometers (11 miles) of travel distance, a maximum ground speed of 10 meters per second (22.4 miles per hour), and achieving a peak altitude of 24 meters (74 feet).

An example of building off the success of Ingenuity includes NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan, which will be a quadcopter designed to “hop” around Titan’s surface to ascertain if Saturn’s largest moon could host the ingredients for life as we know it. Regarding Mars, NASA and other government space agencies, along with the private sector like SpaceX, have big plans for exploring Mars, including the planned Mars Sample Return mission. Eventually, humans hope to step foot on the Red Planet, and having helicopters capable of reaching locations where humans can’t could prove invaluable for the continued exploration of Mars. Therefore, how does Pomerantz foresee helicopters assisting future Mars astronauts?

“When we have human crews on the surface of Mars, I suspect they will arrive essentially with their saddlebags full of helicopters,” Pomerantz tells Universe Today. “Want to inspect your hab unit or your ascent vehicle? A helicopter can do that easily, roof included. Is an astronaut having a medical emergency during an EVA? A helicopter can hover directly overhead, providing real-time video and helping other astronauts locate their crewmate. And remember, helicopters are going to be extremely affordable and extremely low mass compared to almost anything else on a crewed journey. I think the robot-to-human ratio of crewed Mars missions will be fairly high, and helicopters are some of the most likely and most valuable robots to send along.”

For now, Ingenuity remains the only helicopter to conduct a powered flight on another world and next-generation Mars helicopters remain concepts. However, studies like this help drive the discussion of how we can explore Mars with greater efficiency while achieving scientific goals, along with potentially helping future astronauts on Mars. This was demonstrated in the National Geographic’s Mars series where astronauts frequently used helicopters for a variety of purposes to help them survive and build a thriving Mars settlement.

Like the Mars show, humans will likely not be stepping foot on Mars until at least sometime in the 2030s, so there is plenty of time to develop and test new technologies that could prove useful on long-term human missions to the Red Planet. Perhaps future robotic missions could send more advanced helicopters prior to a human mission to ensure their operational and scientific capabilities. Regardless, Ingenuity helped usher in a new era of planetary exploration with the goal of advancing human knowledge of our universe.

“I always like to acknowledge the incredible support that Ingenuity received from the aerospace community and really from the world at large,” Pomerantz tells Universe Today. “What an honor and a privilege it has been for us to be part of a mission that captured hearts all around the world. Ingenuity was sent to Mars as a “technology demonstrator” mission. Well, it demonstrated the technology alright! Now, it’s up to all of us to do interesting things with it. We’re at a fascinating and extremely fun time right now when everyone knows that flight is possible on Mars, but when it’s still such a new idea that people haven’t fully thought through exactly what they could do with flying vehicles. There’s so much to learn and so much to do, and that’s incredibly inspiring.”

What new discoveries about Mars will this next-generation helicopter teach us in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

• As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Missions to Mars and other locations in deep space present numerous challenges, most of which stem from the distances involved. Using conventional propulsion methods (chemical rockets or Hall-effect thrusters) transits to Mars can take six to nine months. This makes the prospect of resupply missions impractical and emergency rescues impossible. On the one hand, multiple efforts are addressing these issues by ensuring that crewed missions are as self-sufficient as possible.

However, efforts are being made to develop advanced propulsion systems that reduce transit times. This includes nuclear propulsion concepts, which NASA began researching again in 2016 for its proposed "Moon to Mars" mission architecture. In a recent paper, two aerospace innovators reviewed key nuclear-electric propulsion concepts, their advantages, and challenges. In the end, they conclude that nuclear propulsion has the potential to revolutionize space exploration and make humanity "multiplanetary."

The study was conducted by Malaya Kumar Biswal M, the Founder and CEO of Acceleron Aerospace Sciences, and Ramesh Kumar V, the Founder and CEO of Grahaa Space. The paper describing their findings was recently presented at the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2025 LPSC), which took place from March 10th to 14th in Woodlands, Texas. To break it down, long-duration missions to Mars come with many hazards for astronaut health. These include long-term exposure to microgravity, which leads to muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and many other health concerns.

There's also the danger of long-term exposure to solar and cosmic radiation, leading to elevated risks of cancer. As mentioned, the long distances and transit times between Earth and Mars make resupply missions impractical. If astronauts suffer serious injury, it will take far too long to evacuate them. This is why all plans for missions to Mars include proposals for in-situ.-resource utilization (ISRU) and bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) to reduce dependence on Earth.

However, since all the associated hazards stem from long distances and limited launch windows, efforts are also being made to reduce transit times via advanced propulsion. During the Space Age, NASA and the Soviets studied nuclear propulsion to enable missions to locations beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Moon. Since then, research has focused on two primary methods: nuclear-thermal propulsion (NTP) and nuclear-electric propulsion (NEP).

Nuclear-thermal propulsion consists of a nuclear reactor heating hydrogen propellant and channeling it through nozzles to produce acceleration (delta-v). Nuclear-electric propulsion consists of nuclear reactors generating electricity to power a thruster, typically ion or Hall-effect thrusters.

Nuclear Electric Propulsion

However, as Biswal and Kumar indicate in their study, there are also two types of nuclear-electric concepts: Radioisotope Electric Propulsion (REP) and Fission Electric Propulsion (FEP). Whereas REP utilizes the heat generated from the natural radioactive decay of isotopes to produce electricity, FEP relies on nuclear reactors to generate power through controlled nuclear fission reactions. Each has its share of advantages that make it ideally suited to specific mission profiles.

For example, REP systems typically produce about 1 kW of power, sufficient for powering instruments and low-thrust propulsion systems like ion engines. They are known for being compact and reliable, making them ideal for small- to medium-scale missions. They have a proven track record thanks to missions like the Voyager probes and the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. FEP is scalable, flexible, and more powerful, typically generating 8 to 10 kW. This makes it more suited to long-range exploration of the Main Asteroid Belt and outer Solar System.

Both systems are being researched for future missions to Mars and the outer Solar System. Some notable examples include the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY (KRUSTY) reactor, developed in 2018 by NASA. This reactor resulted from the Kilopower program to develop reactors that could continuously provide 1 to 10 kW of power for twelve to fifteen years. This reactor would leverage the heat generated by Uranium-235 to generate heat that would power Stirling converters.

The reactor test demonstrated its ability to provide reliable power for extended periods, making it a pivotal milestone in advancing nuclear propulsion and power systems for space missions. These systems are compact and efficient and have many applications, including powering space habitats, life support systems (LSS), and onboard instruments on multiplanetary missions.

Potential Mission Profiles

Biswal and Kumar list several examples of missions a crewed nuclear-electric spacecraft could execute. In all cases, kilowatt reactors can maintain a steady supply of power where solar power is limited or unavailable. This includes lunar surface operations, where solar power is unavailable during 14-day lunar nights. Kilopower reactors are also vital to NASA's plan to create a program of "sustained lunar exploration and development," which includes scientific research, habitation, and mining.

For missions to Mars, fission power could provide reduced transit times and heavier payloads, allowing for greater capability and safety. It could also provide sustainable energy for surface habitats, life support systems, and in-situ resource utilization technologies (ISRU) on Mars. Beyond Mars, fission power systems could enable missions to study the gas giants and their systems of moons—such as astrobiology missions to Europa, Enceladus, Titan, and other "Ocean Worlds."

Beyond the gas giants, nuclear-electric spacecraft could explore the icy bodies and dwarf planets that make up the Kuiper Belt. Fission power would be especially useful given the low-temperature conditions and negligible solar energy available. Forerunner missions like the New Horizons probe have demonstrated the effectiveness of this technology. Lastly, high-power nuclear systems could enable long-duration missions to interstellar space, as exemplified by the Voyager probes.

Limitations

Naturally, nuclear systems also have their share of challenges, which Biswal and Kumar address. These include a higher initial mass compared to traditional systems, which can lead to increased launch weight and higher launch costs. Scaling the technology to higher power levels (>100 kWe) is challenging and may require significant advancements in materials, heat management, and power generation systems before they are ready.

With a nuclear system, there's also the need for radiation shielding and protocols to ensure mission safety. Not only do crews need to be shielded from harmful radiation, but strict safety standards must be maintained when handling nuclear fuel and other hazardous materials. These considerations increase the time, cost, and complexity of mission planning.

Last but not least, nuclear-electrical propulsion has a limited operational history compared to solar power systems, such as Solar-Electric Propulsion (SEP). This increases the overall level of uncertainty and makes the technology seem riskier than conventional methods. Due to their complexity, nuclear-electric systems also require longer development times and time-consuming fixes.

Nevertheless, Biswal and Kumar believe the pros far outweigh the cons, and some of these challenges can be overcome. For instance, chemical rockets have a greater thrust-to-weight ratio, making them an option for initial deployment. Assembling the spacecraft in orbit is also a possibility, especially with the assistance of the International Space Station (ISS) and its proposed successors.

And given the range of possible missions REP and FEP propulsion could enable, the investment and challenges are certainly worth it. In addition to advancing exploration, this technology could lead to passenger missions, ferrying settlers to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. With a human presence on these bodies, humanity will have become a "multiplanetary" species.

Further Reading: 

• USRA

No matter where on Earth you stand, if you have a view of the night sky, and if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way. The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe. And yet, our view of the Milky Way is limited by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more from other galaxies than from our own. But when the Gaia spacecraft launched in 2013, all of that changed.

It is difficult to map the galaxy you live in. Nebulae and star clusters hide much of our galaxy from view. It's rather like trying to map the size and shape of New York City while standing in the center of Times Square. It was only in 1918 that Harlow Shapley was able to determine the Sun was not at our galaxy's center, and well into the 1920s, astronomers debated whether the Milky Way was an island universe containing all creation.

A map of the Milky Way based on Gaia data, showing its delicate spiral arms.

Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar

We've learned a great deal since then, but the Gaia spacecraft was designed to take our understanding of the Milky Way to a new level. Its mission was to create a map of our galaxy in unprecedented detail. It precisely mapped the positions, distances, motions and spectra of more than two billion stars and other objects. From this, it was found that the Milky Way is not a simple galaxy in a humble corner of the cosmos. Its stars tell a history of turbulent change, driven by past galactic collisions and mergers. There are arched trails of stars that are the remnants of smaller galaxies the Milky Way has consumed, and stars that have been flung away at such great speed that they will eventually escape our galaxy to drift through the intergalactic abyss.

The best Milky Way map, by Gaia

(artist impression)

The Gaia data also revealed several surprises. For example, the Milky Way is not a flat spiral disk like many other galaxies; its outer edge has a warped shape, which wobbles as the galaxy rotates. This dynamic behavior is likely caused by interactions with other galaxies. Gaia also found that our galaxy is not dominated by two prominent spiral arms. Instead, the Milky Way is filled with a delicate flower of fainter arms. It is also a barred spiral galaxy with a central bulge that is more spheroidal than spherical. And this is just the first detailed view of our home. The complete set of observations will be available through two more upcoming data releases, which will give us an even more detailed mapping.

This video shows the different orbits of the Euclid, Webb and Gaia space telescopes around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system
Access the video

Gaia's mission is now over. Yesterday, on March 27, 2025, the ESA's European Space Operations Centre deactivated its subsystems and sent the spacecraft into a retirement orbit. All that remains is the data it gathered for more than a decade and the stories that data can tell us.

• You can continue to follow the results of Gaia at the ESA's Gaia mission website.

The hazards facing lunar astronauts are many. There's the radiation, the temperature extremes, the psychological challenges associated with isolation, and the risk of bad accidents so far from Earthly assistance. But there's also the dust, which constitutes an ever-present background hazard.

NASA has known about the hazards lunar dust poses since the Apollo days. When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, NASA was concerned that the lander would sink into the dust and took various precautions to prevent that.

As the spacecraft descended to the surface, it kicked up dust that impaired Armstrong's vision as he piloted the lander. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt said, "Dust is going to be the environmental problem for future missions, both inside and outside habitats."

NASA has developed a method of dealing with dust that builds up on surfaces called the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS). They tested it on the recent Blue Ghost Mission 1, which was a robotic lander from Firefly Aerospace that became the first private spacecraft to execute a fully successful soft landing on the Moon.

Blue Ghost casts its shadow on the lunar surface.

Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Martian dust has some particular qualities that make it more dangerous than we might think. It's extremely fine and sharp. It has an abrasive nature and can wear down mechanical components and spacesuits. It can infiltrate seals and, if inhaled, can cause lung damage. There's a serious risk of lung and eye damage if astronauts are exposed to it over longer terms.

It has another quality that makes it difficult to contend with: it's electrostatically charged.

UV radiation and the solar wind constantly bombard the Moon's surface, knocking electrons off particles and creating a positive charge. Since the Moon lacks an atmosphere, it can't dissipate electrical charges like Earth can. The dust sticks to everything that carries a charge. And since there's no erosion on the Moon, the particles are never smoothed like Earth dust is. They stay sharp.

The EDS is designed to prevent the dust from sticking. It uses electrodynamic forces to achieve that.

The before-and-after images clearly show the system's effectiveness. Though it didn't completely remove the dust, it removed a good portion of it.

NASA tested its EDS system on two surfaces during Blue Ghost Mission 1. The system shows promise, and NASA deemed it a successful test.

Image Credit: NASA/Firefly Aerospace.

Dust may not generate many headlines, but successfully dealing with it is a milestone for lunar exploration.

"This milestone marks a significant step toward sustaining long-term lunar and interplanetary operations by reducing dust-related hazards to a variety of surfaces for space applications ranging from thermal radiators, solar panels, and camera lenses to spacesuits, boots, and helmet visors," NASA said in a press release.

The search for evidence of life on Mars just got a little more interesting with the discovery of large organic molecules in a rock sample. The Mars Curiosity Rover, which is digging in the Martian rock beds as it goes along, tested pieces of its haul and found interesting organic compounds inside them.

To be specific, the sample contains three molecules called decane, undecane, and dodecane. They're carbon-rich molecules and look like fragments of fatty acids - which are part of the chemical recipe for life. Not only might these molecules indicate some interesting chemical mixing on ancient Mars, but their existence may also help fill in the history of Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater on Mars. That's where the sampled rocks containing these fragments were found.

According to research scientist Caroline Freissinet, the fact that her team's study of the rocks found the samples is a big step toward understanding the chemistry of early Mars. “Our study proves that even today, by analyzing Mars samples we could detect chemical signatures of past life, if it ever existed on Mars,” she said. The discovery of long-chain hydrocarbons is a big step toward bringing rock samples back to Earth for further study.

Finding Hydrocarbon Chains in Rocks

The discovery stems from a rock sample called "Cumberland" drilled from an outcrop in Yellowknife Bay. Scientists wanted to probe Cumberland for the presence of amino acids. The rover placed the material into the Sample Analysis Lab onboard Curiosity, where it was heated twice. The instrument measured the mass of the molecules released during heating and the team looked for traces of materials to indicate the presence of those protein building blocks. They didn't find any. However, they did notice that the heated sample released small amounts of decane, undecane, and dodecane. These are long-chain hydrocarbons found in life-relevant amino acids here on Earth.

NASA's Curiosity rover drilled into this rock target, "Cumberland," during the 279th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 19, 2013) and collected a powdered sample of material from the rock's interior. Curiosity used the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera on the rover’s arm to capture this view of the hole in Cumberland on the same sol as the hole was drilled. The diameter of the hole is about 0.6 inches. The depth of the hole is about 2.6 inches. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Freissinet and her colleagues think these substances may have broken off from larger molecules during the SAM heating process. If so, then they likely were part of fatty acids called undecanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, and tridecanoic acid. Fatty acids are an important component of lipids, which are themselves part of the structures of living cells in plants, animals, and - most importantly for Mars - microorganisms.

The discovery of these compounds are also strong evidence that Yellowknife Bay was the site of an ancient lake. It provided the right environment that allowed organic molecules to concentrate and be preserved in the mudstone that was eventually tested by the rover. “There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars,” said Daniel Glavin, senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a study co-author.

Do These Organic Compounds Prove Mars Life?

The mere presence of the fatty acid chains in the Cumberland Sample doesn't prove Mars had life. Sure, they're part of the "soup" of life, but they can also be produced by geological processes. Interactions between water and minerals in hydrothermal vents could also create these organic chains. Coupled with previous discoveries of simple organic molecules on Mars, this discovery really points toward something even more ancient than the first life forms. It means that organic chemistry (on a Mars that was warmer and wetter in the past) had the same kind of complex chemistry that eventually led to life on Earth.

So, it's not proof of life, but the existence of these complex chains of carbon-rich molecules shows that Mars had the proper ingredients for life's primordial soup at some time in the past. Whether that life came to be - or still exists - is a separate question. But, at least scientists know the chemistry existed. Further, if these fragments still exist in Mars rocks, then other large organic molecules that are evidence of life could survive on Mars up to the present time. Now all scientists have to do is find them.

For More Information

• NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars
• Long-chain Alkanes Preserved in a Martian Mudstone

The Moon's South Pole is a region of particular scientific interest and importance for future lunar exploration. Permanently shadowed craters the region hat have remained in darkness for billions of years, playing host to some of the most intriguing geological features in our Solar System. These deep craters have never been touched by the warmth of direct sunlight, are it is here that there may be significant deposits of water ice, which could be crucial for supporting and sustaining future human missions and potential lunar bases.

The Moon's south pole captured by the Clementine mission

(Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Until recently, not a huge amount was known about the polar craters but enter the ShadowCam, a NASA-funded instrument on Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO.) Unlike previous imaging technologies, ShadowCam can capture images that are 200 times more sensitive, with a resolution of 1.7 meters per pixel. These high resolution images have facilitated the discovery of millions of previously unknown impact craters in these dark areas of the Moon. These newly identified craters provide crucial insights into lunar surface processes like impact events, volatile material distribution, and geological changes.

Artist impression of Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter

(Credit : Ministry of Science and ICT)

A research team led by P. Pokorny from the The Catholic University of America has developed specialised crater detection techniques to analyse the data. They employed advanced machine learning techniques identify craters in the images using the YOLOv8 object detection framework. YOLOv8 stands for ‘You Only Look Once version8’ and is a nod to the frameworks capability to locate multiple objects within an image in a single forward pass through the neural network, which makes it incredibly fast and efficient.

The neural network was developed with 25.9 million parameters specifically designed to identify craters across various image sizes. Their approach involves processing ShadowCam images by dividing them into multiple overlapping tiles at different resolutions which are then rescaled and analysed. To improve the accuracy, the team also used image augmentation techniques to eliminate duplicate detections. It took some work to train the model though using 5,240 impact craters from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images.

Artist concept of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

(Credit : NASA)

They ran the model across 22,256 ShadowCam images, covering 5.3 million square kilometres of the Moon totalling 2.2 TB of data! It was an impressive feat though with the computational process requiring 3000 Graphics Processor Unit hours but it resulted in the identification of 1,013,440,231 impact craters larger than 16 meters in diameter! If you think this  is impressive, it completed that task at a rate of 0.3 microseconds per crater and that’s with a mere1.8% false positive detections for craters between 16 meters and 4 kilometres in size.

With the success of their crater detection methodology, the team are now looking  to apply their algorithm to future ShadowCam images. They’re not stopping here though as they want to improve the model by focussing on enhancing the detection capabilities for challenging crater types, including those in low-signal regions, degraded formations, and morphologically complex structures.

Source : 

• Machine Learning Driven Detection of 1 Billion+ Lunar Impact Craters in Permanently Shadowed Regions Using Shadowcam Data

The Moon is a common sight in our night time (and sometimes daytime) skies but it hasn’t always been there. The widely accepted theory of lunar formation involves a Mars-sized planet crashing into the Earth, creating a cloud of debris that eventually that eventually coalesced to form the Moon. Estimates of this cataclysmic event that gave us the Moon range from between 4.52 to 4.35 billion years ago however a new presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference have pushed that timeline back further!

The theory that describes the formation of the Moon is known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis and it proposes the protoplanet called Theia collided with the early Earth in the collision to end all collisions, at least as far as Earth is concerned. The impact ejected an enormous amounts of molten rock and debris into space which scattered into orbit around Earth. Gradually over time, the material condensed and cooled, eventually forming the Moon that we see today. The tremendous energy of the collision melted both the impactor and the early Earth, explaining why the Moon's composition is similar to Earth's and why it lacks a substantial iron core.

Artist impression of Theia's impact with Earth

The theory is sound and has stood firm despite significant analysis. However what does remain uncertain is the exact time of the event. Some evidence suggests a formation around 4.35 billion years ago, other research however points to an earlier date of about 4.5 billion years ago. The difference might be explained by a secondary geological event, such as the formation of the South Pole’s Aitken Basin or changes in the Moon's orbital dynamics. Because of these uncertainties, researchers have been looking for alternative methods to refine estimates of the formation.

Building on previous research, the team employed a geological dating technique using the radioactive decay of rubidium-87 into strontium-87 isotopes. They are found in lunar rocks in the lunar highlands and are known as ferroan anorthosites (FANs). They are thought to be among the oldest lunar rock so preserve information about the Moon's earliest geological history. By taking measurements of the isotope ratios in the rocks, the team hope to construct a more accurate timeline of the Moon's formation.

The researchers studied eight samples using thermal ionisation mass spectrometry which involves heating samples, typically deposited on a metal filament, to temperatures exceeding 1000°C to cause ionisation. Most of the samples provided reliable data about their initial strontium composition. Five of these rocks, including one dated at 4.360 billion years old, formed a consistent group that helped define a precise initial strontium ratio. Three other samples showed different strontium ratios, suggesting they either formed later or experienced chemical changes after their initial crystallisation.

The Moon

Modelling the evolution of the rubidium-strontium isotope under four different impact scenarios allowed the team to calculate a formation age approximately 65 ± 21 million years after the formation of the Solar System, a mere 4.502 ± 0.021 billion years ago! To account for uncertainties, they ran calculations varying different parameters like the isotope compositions of proto-Earth and Theia, and the size and mass of Theia too. By exploring different scenarios and analysing isotopic ratios, they hope in time, to be able to develop a revised model for determining an accurate value for the age of the Moon.

Source : 

• Formation of the Moon ~65 Million Years After Solar System Formation

China’s Chang’e-6 mission has been exploring the largest crater on the Moon. It’s known as Aitken Basin and is found at the South Pole of the Moon where craters are permanently shadowed. The crater is a whopping 2,500 km across and measures 10km deep and Chang’e-6 data has revealed that a giant asteroid smashed into the Moon about 4.25 billion years ago.

There are of course plen

ty of craters on the Moon which is Earth's only natural satellite. It’s a fascinating object that has captivated human imagination ever since we started looking at the sky. At an average distance of 384,400km from Earth it reflects sunlight appearing to go through a regular cycle of phases as it orbits. Even the casual observer can see it’s a barren, cratered world and this has been backed up by a number of lunar missions. The Apollo missions have of course been the most well known but there has been a flotilla of automated probe exploring our nearest neighbour.

The Moon

Chang'e-6 is one such mission that has been exploring the Moon. It’s purpose is to collect and return samples from the far side of the Moon and follows on from Chang'e-5. It was launched in May 2024, and was designed to target the South Pole-Aitken basin, thought to be one of the oldest impact craters in the Solar System. The primary objective was to land on the far side of the Moon, a region never before directly sampled and collect around 2kg of lunar material.

Scientists led by Chen Yi from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have used data from Chang’e-6 to precisely date the formation of Aitken Basin and report their findings in the National Science Review. It’s well understood that large craters tend to be among the oldest in the Solar System and Aitken Basin was thought to be one of them. The team found that, by analysing the samples returned by Chang’e-6 it dates back 4.25 billion years!

The Moon's largest impact feature, the South Pole–Aitken basin, is so named because it stretches between Aitken crater and the south pole.

(Credit : NASA/GSFC)

To reach their conclusion, the team examined approximately 1,600 fragments from 5 grams of lunar samples. They were able to identify 20 representative norite clasts (a type of coarse grained igneous rock often found in the Earth’s crust) that helped to reveal the Moon's geological history. Using a technique known as lead-lead dating where the ratio of different lead isotopies are determined they found evidence of two impact events at 4.25 and 3.87 billion years ago. The older impact showed signs of crystallisation at different levels suggesting it was the original event.

Planetary scientists studying crater formation have been keen to get their hands on direct rock samples from the Aitken Basin to resolve a long standing conflict where its age estimates range from 4.26 to 4.35 billion years. However, Chang'e-6 landing site within the Apollo Basin area made things a little challenging as they contain fragments from a number of geological periods due to various impacts and eruptions. The complexity of the area made dating the basin especially difficult.

The Chang'e-6 mission has finally provided evidence about the Moon's early history, precisely dating the formation of the Aitken Basin just 320 million years after the formation of the Solar System. Since its launch, it returned 1,935.3 grams of lunar samples to north China, completing their delivery on 25 June 2024. Chen Yi’s team have finally established the age of the Basin creating a much needed anchor point for the chronological list of events in the early lunar history.

Source : 

• Chang'e-6 samples date moon's oldest impact crater to 4.25 billion years ago

We've learned that Interstellar Objects (ISOs) are not strangers to our Solar System. Many have visited, and many more will in the future. The Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to find hundreds each year. Scientists are keen to learn more about them, and a swarm of spacecraft on standby might be the way to do it.

On a basic level, an ISO is simply an object unbound to any star. The two we know of are 'Oumuamua which was detected in 2017, and Comet Borisov, detected in 2019. ISOs typically have very high velocities, follow hyperbolic trajectories that show they don't orbit the Sun, and have unique compositions that set them apart from Solar System bodies. 'Oumuamua, for example, could be a hydrogen iceberg, though this is just one possibility.

Scientists are eager to examine these objects closer and understand their compositions and origins. Unfortunately, their high velocities make them elusive, and we can only glimpse them with ground-based telescopes. What's needed is a way to visit one. The best way to do that is to have a spacecraft waiting to catch up with one as it passes through the inner Solar System.

Or even better, a whole swarm of spacecraft that don't require explicit instructions to rendezvous with an ISO.

Hiroyasu Tsukamoto is with the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He and his colleagues developed Neural Rendezvous, a deep learning-driven guidance and control framework that can autonomously guide spacecraft to ISOs. Their work is in a paper titled "Neural-Rendezvous: Provably Robust Guidance and Control to Encounter Interstellar Objects" and published in Aerospace Research Central.

Artist's illustration. ISOs like Oumuamua only come through once, making them difficult targets for rendezvous.

Image Credit: NASA

"A human brain has many capabilities: talking, writing, etcetera," Tsukamoto said in a press release. "Deep learning creates a brain specialized for one of these capabilities with a domain-specific knowledge. In this case, Neural-Rendezvous learns all the information it needs to encounter an ISO, while also considering the safety-critical, high-cost nature of space exploration."

"Our key contribution is not just in designing the specialized brain, but in proving mathematically that it works," Tsukamoto added. "For example, with a human brain we learn from experience how to navigate safely while driving. But what are the mathematics behind it? How do we know and how can we make sure we won't hit anyone?"

The system is based on the "contraction theory for data-driven nonlinear control systems." Contraction theory is a rigorous mathematical framework which can place limits on the effects of disturbances and uncertainties in complex linear systems. Basically, it can provide stability in a complex situation that changes nonlinearly over time.

The Neural-Rendezvous system uses available data to predict a spacecraft's best actions to intercept an ISO. This complexity is necessary because ISOs are unbound and high-speed targets with poorly restrained trajectories.

"We’re trying to encounter an astronomical object that streaks through our solar system just once and we don’t want to miss the opportunity," Tsukamoto said. "Even though we can approximate the dynamics of ISOs ahead of time, they still come with large state uncertainty because we cannot predict the timing of their visit. That's a challenge."

The Hubble space telescope captured this image of Comet 2l/Borisov at perihelion in December 2019.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

ISOs only pass through the Solar System once. The usual method of observing an object like an asteroid or comet and determining its orbit doesn't work. According to the researchers, it's critical that ISO interceptors can "think" on their own.

"Unlike traditional approaches in which you design almost everything before you launch a spacecraft, to encounter an ISO, a spacecraft has to have something like a human brain, specifically designed for this mission, to fully respond to data onboard in real-time," Tsukamoto said.

There's no way to orbit an ISO. Oumuamua and Borisov were travelling at ~88 and 45 km/s relative to the Sun, so an intercepting spacecraft would need to travel at similar speeds. With our current technological level, a spacecraft would have to carry a prohibitively large volume of propellant to enter into orbit around one of these objects. Fast flybys are likely the only realistic mission architecture.

However, relying on a single spacecraft is like putting all your eggs in one basket. What if the spacecraft is unable to get a clear view of the ISO? Without a good look at the object, scientists won't be able to learn much about its surface and composition. This has led some researchers to consider multiple spacecraft.

Tsukamoto worked with two other researchers on "a novel multi-spacecraft framework for locally maximizing information to be gained through ISO encounters." Their work is presented in a separate paper titled "Information-Optimal Multi-Spacecraft Positioning for Interstellar Object Exploration." Along with Tsukamoto, the other authors are Arna Bhardwaj and Shishir Bhatta. The authors presented it at the 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

"Because of the speed and uncertainty, it's challenging to obtain a clear view of an ISO during a flyby with 100 percent accuracy, even with Neural-Rendezvous," Tsukamoto said. "Arna and Shishir wanted to show that Neural-Rendezvous could benefit from a multi-spacecraft concept."

"Interstellar objects (ISOs), astronomical objects not gravitationally bound to the Sun, could present valuable opportunities to advance our understanding of the universe's formation and composition," the authors write in their paper. "In response to the unpredictable nature of their discoveries that inherently come with large and rapidly changing uncertainty in their state, this paper proposes a novel multi-spacecraft framework for locally maximizing information to be gained through ISO encounters with formal probabilistic guarantees."

Their framework involves a swarm of spacecraft, called deputy spacecraft, and one designated as chief. The swarm would be located around an ellipsoid representing the space through which an ISO will travel. The ellipsoid consists of multiple points of interest (POIs) that would be covered collectively by the deputies and the chief employing the Neural-Rendezvous system. This method can maximize the information gained from the encounter. In simple terms, it guarantees multiple views of the ISO.

"Now we have an additional layer of decision-making during the ISO encounter," Tsukamoto said. "How do you optimally position multiple spacecraft to maximize the information you can get out of it? Their solution was to distribute the spacecraft to visually cover the highly probable region of the ISO's position, which is driven by Neural-Rendezvous."

The surfaces of the Moon, Mercury, and Mars are easily visible and are littered with impact craters. Earth has been subjected to the same bombardment, but geological activity and weathering have eliminated most of the craters. The ones that remain are mostly only faint outlines or remnants. However, researchers in Australia have succeeded in finding what they think is the oldest impact crater on Earth.

Their research, "A Paleoarchaean impact crater in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia," is published in Nature Communications. The lead authors are Christopher Kirkland and Professor Tim Johnson, both from Curtin University in Australia. The Pilbara Craton is one of only two pristine Archaean sections of crust and is the subject of much geological research.

Impactors were more common in the distant past, especially large ones. In the Paleoarchaean era, which spans from about 3.6 to 3.2 billion years ago, the Solar System was much more chaotic than it is now. There were more asteroids and debris in orbit around the Sun, and more of them crashed into the planets and the Moon. Earth didn't escape this fate, and ancient impacts affected how the continents formed, shaped the environment, helped make Earth habitable, and affected the overall conditions of the planet.

"Before our discovery, the oldest impact crater was 2.2 billion years old, so this is by far the oldest known crater ever found on Earth," Professor Johnson said.

"We know large impacts were common in the early solar system from looking at the Moon. Until now, the absence of any truly ancient craters means they are largely ignored by geologists," said Johnson. "This study provides a crucial piece of the puzzle of Earth's impact history and suggests there may be many other ancient craters that could be discovered over time."

The crater was excavated by a meteorite striking Earth at more than 36,000 km/h. The crater is more than 100 km wide, and the powerful impact would've affected the entire globe with flying debris. At the time, the only life was microbial and constrained to water.

The impact could have had a long-lasting effect on the Earth, helping shape the planet into what it is today. There's an ongoing scientific discussion about ancient impacts and their effect on the planet's crust. Some think these giant impacts could have initiated deep mantle plumes and subduction zones.

There's some evidence that giant impacts could've created mantle plumes and subduction zones.

Image Credit: Koppers et al. 2025. Mantle plumes and their role in Earth processes. Nat Rev Earth Environ. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00168-6

Some scientists go even further and wonder if these large impacts could be responsible for Earth's continents.

"The role of meteorite impacts in the origin, modification, and destruction of crust during the first two billion years of Earth history (4.5–2.5 billion years ago; Ga) is disputed," the authors write. "Whereas some argue for a relatively minor contribution overall, others have proposed that individual giant impactors (>10–50 km diameter) can initiate subduction zones and deep mantle plumes, arguably triggering a chain of events that formed cratons, the ancient nuclei of the continents."

Cratons are the large, stable parts of Earth's crust and upper mantle, known as the lithosphere. As the continents moved around, sometimes merging and sometimes rifting, cratons survived. Scientists call them the 'seeds' of continents.

Many scientists think that Earth's ancient rocks formed above mantle plumes. Others think that the oldest rocks formed because of plate tectonics. In both cases, the formation is driven by heat from the planet's interior. However, Johnson and his colleagues are pursuing a different idea.

In a 2022 paper, Johnson and fellow researchers proposed that the heat necessary to form cratons and continents came from an otherworldly source: impacts. Impactors many kilometres in diameter could've delivered the heat. "Giant impacts provide a mechanism for fracturing the crust and establishing prolonged hydrothermal alteration by interaction with the globally extensive ocean," they wrote. Massive mantle melting from the impact would've created a thick nucleus that eventually formed a continent, they explained.

They were talking specifically about Australia's Pilbara Craton, the "best-preserved Archaean (4.0–2.5 billion years ago (Ga)) continental remnant."

Based on that, Kirkland, Johnson, and their fellow researchers knew where to look for evidence. While much of the evidence they had was microscopic, like zircon crystals and spherules, they wanted something more visible to convince other geologists. They knew what the evidence would look like: shatter cones. Shatter cones are rare and form in only two situations: in bedrock under impact craters or nuclear explosions. In both cases, there's an extremely powerful shock.

As Johnson explains in The Conversation, they went to the Pilbara for two weeks of fieldwork in 2021. Remarkably, they found shatter cones on the first day.

This image shows some of the shatter cones the researchers found in the study region.

Credit: Tim Johnson, Curtin University

"Our observations showed that above the layer with the shatter cones was a thick layer of basalt with no evidence of impact shock. This meant the impact had to be the same age as the Antarctic Member rocks, which we know are 3.5 billion years old," Johnson and his colleagues wrote in The Conversation.

This schematic shows the geological layers in the study area, the Antarctic Creek Member. "We speculate that the carbonate breccias represent the lithified and hydrothermally-altered products of impact-related deposits," the authors explain.

Image Credit: Kirkland et al. 2025

The Antarctic Member is a complex, mostly metasedimentary layer located in the central East Pilbara Terrane in Western Australia. This type of rock is first formed from solidified sediments. Then, it is buried under subsequent rock layers and subjected to heat and intense pressure, turning it into a metamorphic rock. Since the layers above it are unshocked, the researchers can date the impact.

This map from the published research shows the region's geology in detail. The study area is marked with a red star. The dashed lines are where spherules have been found in the region.

Image Credit: Kirkland et al. 2025

These findings are clear evidence of ancient impacts, which scientists were almost certain must have occurred just as they did on other Solar System bodies. They also offer evidence that ancient impacts formed cratons and, hence, led to the formation of continents. However, it's too soon to conclude that this is how things happened. It needs more research. This discovery will also likely drive further investigation into other ancient terranes on Earth for evidence of shatter cones.

Ancient impacts could have shaped our planet beyond geology. Some research shows that these ancient impacts could have given life an initial nudge. Their impacts provided long-lasting heat in the form of systems of hydrothermal vents. This allowed hot water to interact with rock, which could've created environments rich in chemistry and minerals. Scientists think these elements are critical for the emergence of life.

“Uncovering this impact and finding more from the same time period could explain a lot about how life may have got started, as impact craters created environments friendly to microbial life such as hot water pools," Professor Kirkland said.

"It also radically refines our understanding of crust formation: the tremendous amount of energy from this impact could have played a role in shaping early Earth's crust by pushing one part of the Earth's crust under another or by forcing magma to rise from deep within the Earth's mantle toward the surface," Kirkland added.

"It may have even contributed to the formation of cratons, which are large, stable landmasses that became the foundation of continents," he concluded.

More:

• Press Release: World’s oldest impact crater found, rewriting Earth’s ancient history

• New Research: A Paleoarchaean impact crater in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia

• Older Research: Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents

• The Conversation: Earth’s oldest impact crater was just found in Australia – exactly where geologists hoped it would be

As civilisations become more and more advanced, their power needs also increase. It’s likely that an advanced civilisation might need so much power that they enclose their host star in solar energy collecting satellites. These Dyson Swarms will trap heat so any planets within the sphere are likely to experience a temperature increase. A new paper explores this and concludes that a complete Dyson swarm outside the orbit of the Earth would raise our temperature by 140 K!

The concept of a Dyson swarm is purely a hypothetical concept, a theorised megastructure consisting of numerous satellites or habitats orbiting a star to capture and harness its energy output. Unlike the solid shell of a Dyson sphere, a swarm represents less of an engineering challenge, allowing for incremental construction as energy needs increase. The concept, first popularised by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960, represents one of the most ambitious yet potentially achievable feats of astroengineering that could eventually allow a civilisation to use a significant fraction of its host star's total energy output.

Freeman Dyson.

Whilst presently only the stuff of theory and science fiction, it has inspired real scientific research. It’s an idea that presents a potential solution for the enormous energy needs as we take tentative steps toward travel beyond our Solar System. If we, or any advanced civilisations that might be out there succeed, then they would be classed as Type II on the Kardashev scale. The scale is used to articulate a civilisation’s level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is capable of harnessing and using.

Dyson swarm structures are likely to use photovoltaic technology to convert stellar radiation into usable energy. Their efficiency in energy conversion is highly dependent on the temperature of the solar cells and, unlike Earth-based equivalents, must balance thermal exchanges with the Sun, outer space and the enormous surface area of their structure. Temperature regulation of the structure is one of the challenges that must be overcome since they must remain cool for optimal operation.

Artist illustration of a Dyson sphere under construction

It’s not just the temperature of the structures that poses problems asserts Ian Marius Peters from the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nurnberg for Renewable Energy. In his paper published in Science Direct, he explores the environmental changes of planets within a swarm or sphere. The research examines whether such a megastructure could be built using materials available in our Solar System while still preserving Earth's habitability, balancing the goal of stellar energy capture with the need to maintain conditions that support life on our planet.

The paper concludes that a Dyson sphere surrounding the Sun would significantly impact Earth's climate. Small spheres positioned inside Earth's orbit prove impractical, either becoming too hot for their own efficiency or having to great an impact on solar energy arriving on our planet. While large spheres enable efficient energy conversion, they would raise Earth's temperature by 140 K making Earth completely uninhabitable. A compromise might involve creating a partial structure (the Dyson swarm) at 2.13AU from the Sun. This would harvest 4% of solar energy (15.6 yottawatts or 15.6 million billion billion watts) while increasing Earth's temperature by less than 3K—comparable to current global warming trends. It’s still quite an engineering feat though requiring 1.3×10²³ kg of silicon!

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• The photovoltaic Dyson sphere