Advances in Exploring the Moon, Mars, and Asteroids Based on In-Situ and Remote Sensing Measurements

Dear Colleagues,

The most intriguing questions in space science are related to the origins and evolution of the Solar System and to the possible emergence of life outside Earth. Moreover, the Moon, Mars, and asteroids have the unique additional relevance of being potential destinations for exploration by astronauts, with the aim of expanding the human presence in space beyond our planet while also accomplishing scientific investigations. Hence, the characterization of these environments can also be oriented to assess habitability aspects, in preparation for future crewed missions. Geological features, the study of the environment (e.g., atmosphere, exosphere, dust, plasma, radiation) and related hazards for exploration, and the occurrence of resources or threads are clear examples of areas of interest which interconnect science and robotic/human exploration.

This Special Issue intends to capture recent achievements and future trends in robotic exploration enabled by remote sensing and other in situ measurements techniques. Data collected by planetary orbiters, landers, and rovers have already contributed to our understanding of other celestial bodies. These necessary instruments are expected to improve in terms of performance while reducing their size, mass, and resource needs in order to comply with the actual trends, like smallsats for exploration.

The solicited papers for the proposed Special Issue will cover scientific traditional topics and novel areas like innovative strategies for interplanetary transfer and observation, the characterization of planetary environments, the identification of space resources/reserves, potential habitability assessment, and new payloads for small satellites.

Dr. Simone Pirrotta
Dr. Francesca Esposito
Dr. Alice Lucchetti
Dr. Maurizio Pajola
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• geological features
• study of the environment
• resources
• robotic and human exploration
• innovative strategies
• remote sensing dataset analyses
• new instrumentation concepts
• smallsat concepts

• Advances in Exploring the Moon, Mars, and Asteroids Using Spacecraft Remote Sensing and Other Toolkits in Remote Sensing (19 articles)