Search Results (41)

Atmospheric dust reduces the contrast and visibility of Mars rover images, while strictly aligned clean–dusty image pairs remain scarce. To address this problem, we propose a two-stage physics-guided diffusion framework. In the first stage, we propose GenDust, which combines synthetic pairs based on an atmospheric scattering model with observed unpaired dusty images to construct training data that better match real dust degradation. In the second stage, we propose Physics-Guided Diffusion-based Mars Dust Skip-step Restoration (DiffMDSR) and design PhysNet to estimate spatial transmission as a physical prior for latent diffusion restoration. We further design a codebook-based latent constraint and timestep remapping strategy to regularize skip-step sampling. The framework was evaluated on 200 real dusty Curiosity Mastcam images, 30 controlled Perseverance Mastcam-Z samples with known clean references, and 30 independent dusty Mastcam-Z images. In the controlled experiment, DiffMDSR achieved a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 31.44 dB, a structural similarity index measure of 0.870, and a learned perceptual image patch similarity of 0.182, showing improved consistency with the corresponding clean references. The independent Mastcam-Z experiment further assesses transfer to previously unseen mission and camera conditions. The restored images are intended mainly for scene inspection and cross-observation comparison, while the equivalent optical depth derived from PhysNet-estimated transmission characterizes the relative image-space attenuation. Full article

Autonomous robotic systems designed for extraterrestrial in situ resource utilization (ISRU) will play a central role in enabling a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars. These robots are expected to perform tasks such as regolith excavation, water extraction, oxygen production, and propellant generation under extremely harsh environmental conditions, including large temperature variations, abrasive dust, high radiation levels, and significant communication delays with Earth. Consequently, their onboard electrical systems must operate with high reliability, autonomy, and fault tolerance. A critical enabling technology for these systems is the isolated power conversion architecture, which distributes energy from primary power sources to multiple robotic subsystems, including mobility actuators, drilling systems, sensors, computing units, and thermal management modules. Future lunar and Martian missions are expected to rely on a combination of alternative energy sources, including solar photovoltaic arrays with energy storage, fuel cells, radioisotope power systems, and nuclear surface power reactors, which can provide continuous and high-density energy independent of sunlight availability. These diverse power sources require flexible and highly efficient isolated DC–DC power conversion architectures capable of managing wide input voltage ranges while ensuring electrical isolation, safety, and system stability across distributed robotic platforms. This literature review surveys recent developments in autonomous isolated power conversion architectures suitable for lunar and Martian resource extraction robots. The review examines advanced converter topologies such as resonant converters, phase-shifted full-bridge converters, dual-active bridge converters, and modular multiport power converters designed for high efficiency, high power density, and scalable power distribution. Emphasis is placed on converter architectures capable of interfacing with nuclear-powered systems and other high-energy-density sources while supporting distributed loads in robotic mining and processing systems. In addition, the paper reviews emerging autonomous control strategies, including adaptive digital control, intelligent power management, fault detection and self-recovery mechanisms, and distributed power architectures capable of maintaining stable operation under dynamic load conditions. The role of wide-bandgap semiconductor technologies, including silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), is also examined, highlighting their potential to enable higher switching frequencies, improved efficiency, reduced system mass, and enhanced thermal performance in vacuum environments. Finally, system-level considerations for integrating isolated power conversion within robotic ISRU platforms are discussed, including redundancy strategies, power bus architectures, electromagnetic compatibility, thermal management, and long-duration reliability requirements. By consolidating advances across power electronics, autonomous control, and space power systems, this review identifies key research gaps and outlines design directions for next-generation autonomous power conversion systems capable of supporting scalable lunar and Martian resource extraction infrastructures powered by both renewable and nuclear energy sources. Full article

In deep-space exploration and remote sensing, characterizing radiative transfer in complex planetary atmospheres is fundamental for robust target detection and optical navigation. On the Martian surface, intense scattering and attenuation by dust aerosols pose severe environmental interference, challenging star sensors used for high-precision navigation. To address this, this study develops a spectral radiative transfer model based on the Null Collision Monte Carlo Method to characterize the optical background of the dusty Martian atmosphere. Mie scattering theory is employed for dust particles, while gas molecular absorption is modeled via line-by-line integration. The simulated sky radiance is validated against Mars rover Navcam observations, yielding an average relative error of 7.83% between the modeled and observed radiance values across scattering angles greater than 5°. Building on this, an imaging link model evaluates surface-based detection performance, including signal-to-noise ratio, detection success probability, and star count. Optical parameters—aperture, field of view, and integration time—are optimized for nighttime and dawn-dusk modes. Spatio-temporal assessments are conducted globally across Martian years, focusing on the Zhurong landing site and Tianwen-3 candidates. Finally, an Earth-environment equivalence experiment using a 60% transmittance filter verifies the design’s robustness. This work confirms the feasibility of star-sensor-based attitude determination on Mars. Full article

Martian dust storms cut off communication and break standard robot navigation. We built a hybrid system that keeps robot swarms alive during these blackouts and recovers their data quickly. Our rovers use Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) on their own edge processors to navigate without a signal. Once the storm passes, we use the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) on a cloud platform to merge the fragmented maps the rovers collected while they were offline. We tested this system in a Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) and Gazebo environment using a simulated 10-rover Martian deployment. During the simulated blackout, our SNN edge navigation achieved a 92.0% survival rate, outperforming traditional planners like Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) (29.0%) and Timed Elastic Band (TEB) (24.3%). The neuromorphic approach also reduced overall system power consumption by 80.0% compared to a traditional unoptimized Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) baseline. For the map recovery phase, our simulated QAOA proof-of-concept evaluated the map constraints in just 1.2 ms, compared to 50.0 ms for a classical Generalized Iterative Closest Point (G-ICP) and g2o pose-graph approach. Despite the noisy sensor data collected during the blackout, the final quantum-stitched map achieved an 8.54 cm Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). These results show that combining edge-based neuromorphic processing with quantum cloud computing secures swarm survival and accelerates post-disaster data recovery for deep-space missions. Full article

The segmentation of rocks on the Martian surface is crucial for navigation and obstacle avoidance by Mars rovers. However, frequent dust storms degrade rock surface textures, and the wide range of rock scales—from sub-meter to ten-meter—further complicates segmentation, especially under the strict computational constraints of rover hardware. This paper proposes a lightweight network named MAFT, specifically designed for Martian rock segmentation. The network builds upon the Adaptive Frequency Transformer (AFFormer) and constructs an improved backbone termed the Improved Adaptive Frequency Transformer (IAFFormer). By replacing the traditional self-attention mechanism with a frequency-domain approach, it captures global feature dependencies while reducing the computational complexity from quadratic to linear. The spatially isolated 1 × 1 convolutions in the pixel descriptor module are further replaced with Adaptive Kernel Convolution (AKConv), enabling the backbone to dynamically adjust its sampling positions to conform to the irregular and diverse morphologies of Martian rocks. An Enhanced Multidimensional Convolutional Attention (EMCA) module is introduced as the decoding structure. By integrating max-pooling in the squeeze stage and adaptive dilated convolutions in the excitation stage, EMCA strengthens the boundary perception and long-range dependency modeling of dust-covered rocks without increasing the parameter count. Additionally, we constructed a dataset of Martian rocks for the Zhurong rover (TWMARS-V2) and conducted experiments using a synthetic dataset (SynMars) and a real dataset (MarsData-V2). Experimental results demonstrate that MAFT achieves the highest segmentation accuracy among all compared methods, with only 2.97 M parameters and 15.49 G FLOPs. On the TWMARS-V2 dataset, Pixel Accuracy (PA) reaches 98.17%, and IoU reaches 88.90%. Full article

Crustal magnetic fields exert a fundamental control on the structure and dynamics of the Martian ionosphere. In this study, we use in situ ion composition measurements from the MAVEN Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) to investigate how crustal magnetic fields modulated the Martian upper atmosphere during the June 2018 global dust storm. By restricting the analysis to a narrow range of solar zenith angles and altitudes, we isolate magnetic effects from variations driven by solar illumination and vertical structure. We find that the densities of O₂⁺, O⁺, and CO₂⁺ differ systematically between regions of strong and weak crustal magnetic fields, with strong-field regions exhibiting reduced variability consistent with magnetic confinement. Importantly, a substantial fraction of observations located outside traditional geographic masks display ion composition signatures that closely resemble those observed in strong-field regions. Spatial analysis shows that these “strong-like” undetermined observations preferentially occur near known crustal magnetic anomalies, indicating that magnetic influence extends beyond fixed geographic boundaries. These results demonstrate that ion composition provides a sensitive diagnostic of magnetic topology at Mars and reveal the importance of magnetic connectivity in regulating ionospheric structure under extreme atmospheric conditions. Our findings suggest that static geographic classifications may underestimate the true spatial reach of crustal magnetic control during periods of enhanced atmospheric disturbance. Full article

Mars Sample Return Program planning includes a series of spacecraft staged both on the Martian surface and in low-Mars-orbit (LMO). During the transfer of samples into orbit, external spacecraft surfaces might be exposed to Mars dust carried on the sample container exterior and possibly extant microbiota (if present). This study was designed to characterize the synergistic effects of LMO ultraviolet irradiation, vacuum, and solar heating on the survival of two UV-resistant and heat-tolerant bacteria, one yeast, and one fungus. The species tested were Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 spores, Geobacillus stearothermophilus ATCC 12980 spores, Naganishia onofrii DBVPG 5303 cells, and Aspergillus fumigatus ISSFT-021-30 spores, respectively. Spores of A. fumigatus ISSFT-021-30 and B. pumilus were also exposed to LMO conditions with and without a Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) dust layer. Based on the data, the time required to reach the desired Sterility Assurance Level (SAL; dose-defined to yield a −12 log reduction) was 2.0 h for A. fumigatus ISSFT-021-30 and 76.6 min for B. pumilus SAFR-032 if exposed directly to the solar UV beam under LMO conditions. With the MMS present, predicted times to reach one SAL were extended to 22 h and 1.72 h, respectively. Analysis of UV transmittance through cell stacks of up to 12 µm thick was performed for A. fumigatus ISSFT-021-30. Results indicated that ~4–5% of UVC photons can penetrate through 12 µm stacked aggregates of spores. These findings indicate that (1) the LMO environment can be used to attain the mandated levels of spacecraft surface bioburden reductions and (2) dust shielding and microbial aggregation attenuate UV irradiation, leading to extended orbital residence times to achieve mandated bioburden reductions. Full article

Mars climatology is a growing interest domain for planetary research and for operational missions. In the last three decades, Martian General Circulation Models have been developed to support the interpretation of spacecraft and telescopic observations and for the advancement of theoretical understanding of the climate. They have been designed to represent key processes, such as dust cycle, seasonal CO₂ condensation, and interaction between boundary layer and surface. At the same time, new observations from orbiters and landers have enhanced the diagnostics, but several uncertainties in the parameterization, especially in dust representation and turbulent mixing, require further improvements. This review represents a synthesis of the state of the art of existing global and regional models, comparing numerical and physical approaches, identifying the main challenges for the next years, with particular attention to the needs of operational missions and machine learning techniques. Full article

This paper presents a theoretical engineering feasibility analysis of the RK-X photocatalytic process for In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) on Mars. Experimental validation under simulated Martian conditions is the essential next step before any mission deployment claim can be made. The RK-X process converts the two most abundant Martian resources, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and subsurface water ice (H₂O), into formic acid (HCOOH) and oxygen (O₂) through a fulvic acid-based photocatalytic cycle validated at the industrial scale in Hungary. A reference module processing 10 tonnes of CO₂ per Earth year yields 10.459 tonnes of formic acid and 3.636 tonnes of oxygen, sufficient to sustain a six-person crew for approximately two Earth years with a 198% safety margin over nominal respiratory demand. The economic analysis indicates that importing equivalent oxygen from Earth costs $1.82–$3.64 million per year; equivalent energy storage (Li-ion) costs $30.5–$61 million for one-time use. Formic acid stores 15.25 MWh of energy in ambient-stable liquid form at a round-trip efficiency of 68.64% without cryogenic infrastructure. A photovoltaic array of 55.37 m² provides the primary energy source; a kilowatt-class nuclear fission reactor constitutes the strategic opportunity for continuous, dust-storm-immune operation with free thermal co-generation. Three critical research gaps have been identified requiring laboratory validation before Mars deployment: (i) catalyst performance at the Martian CO₂ partial pressure (p(CO₂) < 10 mbar, T = 15 °C); (ii) water ice and dry ice extraction at an operational scale; and (iii) integrated closed-loop system demonstration. Built on Earth-proven chemistry with identified, addressable development pathways, the RK-X process theoretically resolves the problems of oxygen supply, seasonal energy storage, water management, and cryogenic infrastructure within a single closed-loop chemical cycle. Full article

Gravity waves (GWs) are an important dynamic process in the planetary atmosphere. They are typically excited by convection, topography, or other sources from the lower atmosphere and propagate upwards. The GWs have a significant effect on the global atmospheric circulation on Mars. However, the lack of high-resolution data from previous observations has resulted in an insufficient understanding of GWs in the Martian atmosphere, particularly in terms of its global distribution and long-term evolution characteristics at different altitudes. Based on multiple years of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) limb observations on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), we conducted a detailed study of the global distribution, seasonal and interannual variations in Martian atmospheric GWs with vertical wavelengths ranging from 9 to 15 km at three different altitude ranges, i.e., the low-altitude range of 200–20 Pa (Lp, ~10–30 km), the mid-altitude range of 20–2 Pa (Mp, ~30–50 km), and the high-altitude range of 2–0.2 Pa (Hp, ~50–70 km). The results indicate complex regional and north–south differences, as well as night–day variations, in the spatial distribution of GWs. Particularly, a three-wave structure of the GW activity is observed over mountainous regions in the mid-to-low latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The peak longitude range of this structure closely matches the mountainous terrain. In addition, our results reveal the presence of bands of GW aggregations in the mid- to-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the Mp and Hp layers, which may be caused by the instability of the polar jet. There are also obvious seasonal and interannual variations in GW activities, which are related to topography, polar jets, and large dust storms. The interannual variations in GWs imply that, in addition to the well-known large seasonal dust storms, complex interannual variations in atmospheric activity over the polar jets and in the complex topography at mid-to-low latitudes on Mars may also exist, which deserve further studies in the future. Full article

The Martian North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) are a thick sequence of ice and dust layers that serve as a primary archive of the planet’s recent climate history. The Shallow radar (SHARAD) sounder provides critical data for probing this stratigraphy, but its resolution is limited by the radar wavelet and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Deconvolution aims to overcome the resolution limitation, with recent techniques like sparse deterministic deconvolution (SDD) showing promise. However, the performance of these methods is fundamentally constrained by noise, which can obscure weak reflectors from deep or subtle layers and introduce artifacts into the results. This study proposes a two-stage workflow that directly addresses the noise problem by applying structure enhancement denoising (SED) to improve the SNR and reflector echo power of SHARAD radargrams prior to deconvolution, thereby enhancing the overall fidelity of the results. The efficacy of this integrated SED-SDD workflow is validated first on synthetic radargrams, demonstrating a marked reduction in reflectivity error and superior preservation of structural detail compared to the baseline SDD method, especially under low-SNR conditions. Subsequently, the workflow is applied to a real SHARAD observation of the NPLD, revealing enhanced lateral continuity of subtle reflectors and a significant reduction in noise-induced artifacts. The results demonstrate that this synergistic approach provides a powerful tool for extracting higher-resolution stratigraphic information from noisy planetary orbital radar data, thereby advancing our ability to interpret the sedimentary history of Mars. Full article

Dust storms have a significant impact on the Martian atmosphere and climate. Previous studies have found that regional and global dust storms mainly occur in the Mars perihelion season. However, an anomalous spring regional dust storm occurred in the aphelion season of Martian year 35 (MY 35). The occurrence and evolution of this new type of large dust storm and its impact on the Martian atmosphere are not yet fully understood. Using Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) dust observations, this study investigates the evolutionary characteristics of the MY 35 anomalous spring storm during its pre-storm, onset, expansion, and decay phases, by comparing it with other types of regional dust storms. The evolution of the MY 35 anomalous spring dust storm is more similar to that of the MY 35 C storm, showing north–south mirror symmetry relative to the equator, suggesting that the two storms may have similar evolutionary mechanisms. Additionally, we analyze the effects of the anomalous MY 35 storm on the atmospheric thermal and dynamical structures using a combination of MCS temperature observations and LMD-GCM wind simulation results. Eastward winds in the high latitudes of both hemispheres and westward winds in the low-to-mid latitudes are significantly enhanced during the storm, corresponding to the change in the atmospheric thermal structure and the global circulation. Finally, we performed a preliminary analysis of changes in the wind field during the spring dust storm in the Chryse and Utopia plains, which are two potential landing areas for China’s Tianwen-3 Mars sample-return mission. The vertical profiles of the simulated horizonal wind in the two plains show that, during the E storm peak time, the change in daily mean wind speed is significant above 20 km, but relatively small in the atmospheric boundary layer below ~5 km. Within the boundary layer, the horizontal wind speed shows remarkable diurnal variation, remaining relatively low during the midday hours (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). These results can provide necessary environmental parameters related to spring dust storms for China’s Tianwen-3 mission. Full article

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as practical and potentially advantageous tools for scientific investigation and reconnaissance of planetary surfaces, such as Mars. Their ability to traverse difficult terrain and provide high-resolution imagery has revolutionized the concept of exploration. However, operating drones in the Martian environment presents fundamental challenges due to the harsh conditions and the different atmosphere. Aerodynamic challenges include low chord-based Reynolds number flows and the presence of dust particles, which can accumulate on the airfoil surface. This paper investigates the accumulation of dust on cambered plates with 6% and 1% camber, suitable for the type of flow studied. The analysis is conducted for Reynolds numbers of around 20,000 as a result of dimension restrictions, assuming a wind speed ranging from 12 to 14 m/s. Computational simulations are performed using a 2D C-type mesh in ANSYS Fluent, employing the $\gamma$-Re SST turbulence model. Dust particle modeling is achieved through the Discrete Phase Model (DPM), with one-way coupling between phases. The accumulation of particles is monitored over a 6-month period with monthly intervals, and the airfoil is set at a 0° angle of attack. A deposition model, developed using user-defined functions in Fluent, considers particle–airfoil interaction and forces acting on particles. Results indicate a decrease in airfoil performance for negative angles of attack due to geometric changes, particularly due to accumulation on the bottom side near the tip. The discussion includes potential model enhancements and future research directions arising from the assumptions made in this study. Full article

Dust storms, as an important extreme weather event on Mars, have significant impacts on the Martian atmosphere and climate and the activities of Martian probes. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and predict the activity trends of Martian dust storms. This study uses historical data on global Column Dust Optical Depth (CDOD) from the Martian years (MYs) 24–36 (1998–2022) to develop a CDOD prediction method based on deep learning and predicts the spatiotemporal trends of dust storms in the landing areas of Martian rovers at high latitudes, the tropics, and the equatorial region. Firstly, based on a trained Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Long Short-Term Memory (LTSM)-CDOD network, the rolling predictions of CDOD average values for several sols in the future are performed. Then, an evaluation method based on the accuracy of the test set gives the maximum predictable number of sols and categorizes the predictions into four accuracy intervals. The effective prediction time of the model is about 100 sols, and the accuracy is higher in the tropics and equatorial region compared to at high latitudes. Notably, the accuracy of the Zhurong landing area in the north subtropical region is the highest, with a coefficient of determination (R²) and relative mean error (RME) of 0.98 and 0.035, respectively. Additionally, a Convolutional LSTM (ConvLSTM) network is used to predict the spatial distribution of CDOD intensity for different latitude landing areas of the future sol. The results are similar to the time predictions. This study shows that the LSTM-based prediction model for the intensity of Martian dust storms is effective. The prediction of Martian dust storm activity is of great significance to understanding changes in the Martian atmospheric environment and can also provide a scientific basis for assessing the impact on Martian rovers’ landing and operations during dust storms. Full article

The environments found in space research pose numerous challenges to the materials used in aerospace structures, such as high incidence of ultraviolet radiation (UV) and micrometeorite impacts. Therefore, this work analyzes the combined effects of exposure to UV radiation and damage caused by sandblasting on the mechanical performance of a hybrid composite of epoxy matrix reinforced with carbon and glass fibers to simulate service conditions both in low Earth orbit (LEO) and in exoplanet environments. The blasting was carried out with silica particles with dimensions compatible with those found in the dust of the Martian atmosphere, and the damage produced by these particles has dimensions similar to those observed in several impact/wear events of structures exposed to LEO conditions. A qualitative analysis of the effect of UV radiation carried out by colorimetry showed a significant change in the color of the material, which became more greenish and yellowish. This color change is indicative of degradation processes in the polymer matrix. FT-IR analysis showed an increase in the carbonyl band with increasing aging time, which is consistent with the color change measured in the material. However, the interlaminar shear strength was not affected by UV radiation in the time used in this work. This behavior was attributed to the fact that UV radiation initially causes deterioration only on the surface of the material. From the results of the bending tests, both the three-point bending test and impulse excitation test, it was found that the effect of UV radiation on the elastic modulus of the composites was more important than the effect of blasting damage. It was also observed that initial UV exposure, prior to sandblasting, has a synergistic effect on the deterioration of flexural strength. Full article