SPACE/COSMOS
Fleet Space Secures Moon to Mars Grant to Advance Gravity Sensing for Lunar and Martian Exploration
Fleet Space, Australia’s leading space exploration company, has been awarded a Moon to Mars supply chain grant by the Australian Government to develop advanced gravity sensing technology. This initiative, part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability Improvement Program, aims to enhance in-situ resource exploration on the Moon and Mars by building critical technological capabilities for future space missions.
A comparable approach has already been demonstrated on Earth. Fleet Space’s ExoSphere technology, in collaboration with MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, was used to deliver real-time 3D imaging of lava tubes in the Canary Islands.
Pearson added, “Leveraging Fleet Space’s terrestrial end-to-end mineral exploration platform, ExoSphere, as a blueprint - we have created a model for a hyper-scalable, off-world exploration system designed to operate at the planetary level. As we venture deeper into our solar system, the essential toolkit of exploration technologies must be integrated into a single system to streamline deployment, reduce costs, optimize mission planning, and enhance off-world decision making for the success and safety of all future explorers of new worlds.”
This advanced MEMS gravity sensor builds on Fleet Space’s previous innovation: a lunar variant of the smart seismic sensors that power ExoSphere’s real-time 3D imaging capabilities. These sensors are already used by leading mining companies such as Rio Tinto, Barrick, and Gold Fields. The next major milestone will be the deployment of Fleet Space’s miniaturized smart seismic station, SPIDER, on Firefly Aerospace’s second Blue Ghost mission in 2026. Delivered via the Blue Ghost lunar lander, SPIDER will help unlock new insights into the Moon’s subsurface composition.
The development of MEMS gravity sensors follows a similar trajectory, aiming to simplify and accelerate the collection of high-quality gravity data both on Earth and in space.
Building on the rapid adoption of ExoSphere across the global mining industry, Fleet Space recently closed a USD $100M Series D funding round, reaching a valuation of USD $525M. To further expand its proprietary low-Earth orbit (LEO) exploration satellite network, the company launched its most advanced Centauri 7 and Centauri 8 models aboard SpaceX’s Transporter 12 mission.
Temperamental stars are distorting our view of distant planets
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Second author Alex Thompson’s artistic representation of the HAT-P-11 system of which multiple observations were used in this study. The HAT-P-11 system consists of a cool host star that is much ‘spottier’ than our Sun orbited by a misaligned, transiting ‘super-Neptune’ HAT-P-11b and a non-transiting Jupiter-mass planet HAT-P-11c
view moreCredit: Alexandra Thompson
Most of the information we have about planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets) comes from looking at dips in starlight as these planets pass in front of their host star.
This technique can give clues about the planet’s size (by looking at how much starlight is blocked) and what its atmosphere is made of (by looking at how the planet changes the pattern of starlight that passes through it).
But a new study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, concluded that fluctuations in the starlight due to hotter and colder regions on a star’s surface may be distorting our interpretations of planets more than we previously thought.
The researchers looked at the atmospheres of 20 Jupiter- and Neptune-sized planets and found that the host stars’ changeability distorted the data for about half of them.
If researchers did not properly account for these variations, the team said, they could misinterpret a range of features such as the planets’ size, temperature and the composition of their atmospheres. The team added that the risk of misinterpretation was manageable if researchers looked at a range of wavelengths of light, including in the optical region where effects of stellar contamination are most apparent.
Lead author Dr Arianna Saba (UCL Physics & Astronomy), who did the work as part of her PhD at UCL, said: “These results were a surprise – we found more stellar contamination of our data than we were expecting. This is important for us to know. By refining our understanding of how stars’ variability might affect our interpretations of exoplanets, we can improve our models and make smarter use of the much bigger datasets to come from missions including James Webb, Ariel and Twinkle.”
Second author Alexandra (Alex) Thompson, a current PhD student at UCL Physics & Astronomy whose research focuses on exoplanet host stars, said: “We learn about exoplanets from the light of their host stars and it is sometimes hard to disentangle what is a signal from the star and what is coming from the planet.
“Some stars might be described as ‘patchy’ – they have a greater proportion of colder regions, which are darker, and hotter regions, which are brighter, on their surface. This is due to stronger magnetic activity.
“Hotter, brighter regions (faculae) emit more light and so, for instance, if a planet passes in front of the hottest part of the star, this might lead researchers to over-estimate how large the planet is, as it will seem to block out more of the star’s light, or they might infer the planet is hotter than it is or has a denser atmosphere. The reverse is true if the planet passes in front of a cold starspot, making the planet appear ‘smaller’.
“On the other hand, the reduction in emitted light from a starspot could even mimic the effect of a planet passing in front of a star, leading you to think there might be a planet when there is none. This is why follow up observations are so important to confirm exoplanet detections.
“These variations from the star can also distort estimates of how much water vapour, for instance, is in a planet’s atmosphere. That is because the variations can mimic or obscure the signature of water vapour in the pattern of light at different wavelengths that reaches our telescopes.”
For the study, researchers used 20 years of observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, combining data from two of the telescope’s instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
They processed and analysed the data for each planet in an identical way, to ensure they were comparing like with like, minimising the biases that occur when datasets are processed using different methods.
The team then looked at which combination of atmospheric and stellar models fit their data the best, comparing models that accounted for stellar variability with simpler models that did not. They found that data for six planets out of the 20 analysed had a better fit with models adjusted for stars’ variability and six other planets may have experienced minor contamination from their host star.
They analysed light at visible, near-infrared and near-ultraviolet wavelengths, using the fact that distortions from stellar activity are much more apparent in the near-UV and visible (optical) region than at longer wavelengths in the infrared.
The team described two ways to judge if stellar variability might be affecting planetary data.
Dr Saba explained: “One is to look at the overall shape of the spectrum – that is, the pattern of light at different wavelengths that has passed through the planet from the star – to see if this can be explained by the planet alone or if stellar activity is needed. The other is to have two observations of the same planet in the optical region of the spectrum that are taken at different times. If these observations are very different, the likely explanation is variable stellar activity.”
Alex Thompson added: "The risk of misinterpretation is manageable with the right wavelength coverage. Shorter wavelength, optical observations such as those used in this study are particularly helpful, as this is where stellar contamination effects are most apparent."
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Roving the red planet: New paper documents first Mars mission soil samples
UNLV-led research details early insights from NASA’s Perseverance rover; Specimens due back on Earth in the 2030s
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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie in July 2024.
view moreCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A new paper released today documents the first soil, airfall dust, and rock fragment samples collected by NASA for return from Mars. We checked in with the UNLV astrobiologist leading the specimen selection team for intel on what the samples so far reveal.
To date, the only objects from Mars that humans possess are meteorites that crash landed here on Earth. Thanks to NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission, scientists for the first time in history are able to retrieve handpicked samples — ranging from rock cores the size of a piece of blackboard chalk, to collections of fragmented rocks the dimensions of a pencil eraser and miniscule grains of sand or dust that could fit on the tip of a needle.
Percy, as the rover is nicknamed, launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. in July 2020, and arrived in February 2021 at Jezero Crater — a 28-mile-wide former lakebed selected for its potential to help scientists understand the story of Mars’ wet past. The yearslong mission seeks to determine whether Mars ever supported life, understand the processes and history of Mars’ climate, explore the origin and evolution of Mars as a geologic system, and prepare for human exploration.
The specimens are currently slated for return to Earth sometime in the mid-to late-2030s. In the meantime, NASA has so far collected 28 of the mission’s target of 43 samples.
“The samples will help us learn more about Mars, but they can also help us learn more about Earth because the surface of Mars is generally much older than the surface of Earth,” said UNLV College of Sciences professor Libby Hausrath, an aqueous geochemist who investigates interactions between water and minerals.
She’s a member of the NASA Mars Sample Return team that helps determine which specimens the rover will bring back to Earth for inspection by powerful lab equipment too large to send to Mars. She’s also the lead author of a new research article published in the American Geophysical Union/Wiley journal JGR Planets documenting the first soil samples collected.
“There are many possibilities for spinoff technologies used for space exploration that can then be used on Earth,” Hausrath added. “And one of the biggest benefits we get from the space program is that it’s exciting for students and children, and can help attract people into science – we need all the future scientists to help with science topics like these and others.”
The project fulfills a decades-long dream for Hausrath, who fell in love with Mars while pursuing her Ph.D. and partnered with an advisor to write a proposal to work with data from NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
“This was one of my career goals for a long time to be able to serve on a Mars mission, so I was really excited to have this opportunity,” Hausrath said. “It really is just incredible the level of detail and precision that the Perseverance rover has. To get the data back and be able to target a specific rock or soil area, and be able to take measurements and decipher information from a tiny sample or specks of dust on another planet is just mind blowing.”
Why Scientists Care
Unlike Earth, Mars doesn’t have plate tectonics constantly shifting and tilting the planet’s surface. Similar to the way scientists study a tree’s rings or examine a cave’s stalactites for historical climate pattern changes, researchers are able to glean information about Mars’ 4 billion-year-old existence by using the rover’s instruments to core rocks and dig soil samples for clues to the history of Mars, including possible signs of past life.
Examining the rocks’ geochemistry and airfall dust also has the potential to shed light on how Mars’ climate heats and cools and its relative temperature. This information may also tip off how the planet formed, reveal clues about the early solar system, and help pinpoint the time period when life arose on Earth.
“During early Mars history, the planet is believed to have been warmer and had liquid water, which is much different than its current environment, which is very windy, dry, and cold,” said Hausrath. “I’m really interested in water and what kinds of environments can be habitable. And Mars, in particular, is quite similar to Earth in lots of ways. If there was past life on Mars, we might be able to see signatures of it.”
The mission also serves as a de facto scouting mission that could unlock clues about the similarities or challenges that humans might face during future trips to the Red Planet. To highlight the importance of recon, Hausrath recounted the experience of the first astronauts on the moon.
“The lunar regolith is actually really sharp so it was cutting holes in the astronauts’ spacesuits, which is something scientists hadn’t anticipated,” she said. “There’s a lot of dust and sand on Mars’ surface, and bringing back samples is of great interest and value to scientists to figure out how future human astronauts could interact with the particles swirling in the air or potentially use it for building materials.”
How the Rover Works
Percy boasts a cache of futuristic instruments that scientists can manipulate from millions of miles away. It can measure chemistry and mineralogy by shooting a laser from a distance of several meters. It has proximity instruments that can measure fine-scale elements. Researchers use the rover’s wheels to make trenches allowing them to see below the planet’s surface. Science, engineering, and navigational cameras transport images back to Earth.
“It’s like a video game to see these images of Mars up close,” said Hausrath. “You can zoom in, see the rocks and soil, pick out a spot to measure, figure out the chemistry and mineralogy of a specific rock – it's just incredible that we’re able to do these things that seem like they’re out of science fiction.”
Hausrath is one of the team’s tactical science leads. During daily meetings, members collaborate on instructions to send back to the rover for collection.
“There are some instruments that just can’t be miniaturized and sent to Mars,” Hausrath said, “so once the samples are back on Earth, we’ll have much finer resolution, be able to measure smaller amounts of each of the samples and with higher precision, and look at things like trace metals and isotopes.”
Until then, the samples are being held on Mars in small tubes and are either being stored on the rover or at the Three Forks depot, a swath of flat ground near the base of an ancient river delta that formed long ago when it flowed into a lake on the planet’s Jezero Crater. Scientists mapped an intricate layout, so that they can be found even if buried under layers of dust.
Eventually, they’ll be retrieved by a robotic lander that’ll use a robotic arm to carefully pluck the tubes into a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that’ll ship them to yet another spacecraft for the long ride home to Earth.
What the Rocks Reveal
On Earth, life is found nearly everywhere there’s water. And the Percy team is on a mission to find out if the same was true for Mars billions of years ago, when the planet’s climate was much more like ours. The rock and soil samples are being pulled from the once water-rich Jezero crater as well as the crater rim — a swath laden with clay minerals, which result from rock-water interactions and look similar to soils on Earth.
Until the samples are back on Earth, scientists won’t be able to say for sure whether they contain traces of microorganisms that may have once thrived on the Red Planet. But so far, there are strong indicators that bolster previous predictions about water flowing freely on Mars an estimated 2 billion years ago.
Percy’s cameras show that the surface crust differs from the soil below, with larger pebbles on top versus finer grains below the surface. Some particles are coarse and weathered, evidence that they likely touched water and thus are a sign of habitable environments in the past. Atmospheric measurements provide signs of recent processes likely including water vapor in soil crust formation.
The bedrock is abundant with olivine, a mineral also found in Mars meteorites. Olivine can undergo serpentinization — a process that occurs when olivine interacts with water and heat — which on Earth indicates the potential for habitability.
But perhaps the most exciting find (and one of Hausrath’s personal favorites) is a rock with “leopard spots” nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” after a Grand Canyon waterfall. The rock contains phosphate, which is of interest to scientists because it’s a major building block of life on Earth — from energy metabolism and cell membranes to DNA and rNA.
Analysis continues. And the NASA team is looking forward to collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA), which plans to launch its rover, the Rosalind Franklin, in 2028. It’ll carry equipment to Mars capable of drilling 200 cm below the surface — much deeper than Percy's 4-6 cm drill.
“That would probably get beneath the effects of radiation, so we’d be able to see things we haven’t seen before potentially if there were traces of organic molecules in the past on Mars,” Hausrath said.
The Journey Back Home
NASA, in partnership with ESA, is currently slated to bring the specimen tubes home sometime between 2035 and 2039. When the samples cross back into Earth’s orbit, their first stop will be a receiving facility where they’ll be carefully inspected to determine whether they’re safe for release to researchers. The overall cache of 43 rock and soil samples will include five witness tubes to test for potential contamination.
“Planetary protection is top of mind for the mission — making sure Mars is protected from us and that we’re also protected potentially from Mars,” Hausrath said. “The goal is maintaining safety from the samples in case there’s any concerns for human hazards and also preventing any contamination from us impacting the samples.”
After clearance, she said, researchers around the world will be able to request pieces of these “international treasures” for study, similar to the current program for accessing Mars meteorites.
“One of the really cool things about the mission is that it is so international and the samples are really a global effort,” Hausrath said. “It’s really great for us to work together to bring these samples back for this goal that benefits all of us.”
About the Publication
"Collection and In Situ Analyses of Regolith Samples by the Mars 2020 Rover: Implications for Their Formation and Alteration History" was published Feb. 6, 2025 in JGR Planets.
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research Planets
Article Title
Collection and In Situ Analyses of Regolith Samples by the Mars 2020 Rover: Implications for Their Formation and Alteration History
Article Publication Date
6-Feb-2025
Multinational research project shows how life on Earth can be measured from space
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The BioSCape team is poctured with NASA and South African aircraft.
view moreCredit: Jeremey Shelton/Fishwater Films
Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth.
An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Erin Hestir demonstrated that Earth’s biodiversity can be monitored and measured from space, leading to a better understanding of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Hestir led the team alongside University of Buffalo geography Professor Adam Wilson and Professor Jasper Slingsby from the University of Cape Town on BioSCape, which collected data over six weeks in late 2024.
Two NASA aircraft and one South African aircraft flew over South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region —one of the most biodiverse places on the planet — to collect ultraviolet, visual, thermal and other images. That data, combined with field work by the large team of scientists from the United States and South Africa, provides a comprehensive look at the region's biodiversity, or life systems.
“This was NASA’s first ever biodiversity-focused campaign,” Hestir said. “We successfully hit all our measurement targets, and the data collected are contributing to novel techniques and methods to be able to monitor biodiversity from space across the globe. It’s a lot of exciting science.”
Wilson said BioSCape showed what scientists working across continents can do, and he hopes it can be replicated elsewhere.
“Over just six weeks, more than 160 scientists from around the world came together to collect and analyze data across terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.”
The team recently published two papers on BioSCape, in the publications Nature Reviews Biodiversity and npj Biodiversity.
Once researchers proved they could collect the data they were looking for from planes, NASA could use the novel combinations of instruments to expand the effort worldwide.
“It’s very expensive to launch a satellite into space,” Slingsby explained. “You have to be certain it will achieve its mission before taking that step. That’s why we begin with airborne studies — they serve as a critical proving ground. If we can successfully gather data from a plane, it brings us one step closer to understanding how to achieve the same from space.”
The team chose the Greater Cape Region of South Africa because it’s home to “astonishing levels of biodiversity, wicked conservation challenges and a well-developed and progressive biodiversity research and conservation community,” they wrote.
The tools they developed helped them examine shifting community composition; ecosystem disturbance, resilience and recovery; and ecosystem function and nature’s contributions to people.
Addressing biodiversity loss is a global priority and there is a clear need to improve scientists’ ability to map and monitor change. The researchers made the data freely available to scientists and the public around the world. Their hope is that the methods they developed and insights they found will help shape new technologies for measuring land and sea ecosystems and ultimately improve biodiversity conservation.
They are excited to see what comes next.
“BioSCape is building technical capacity in South Africa and we hope to prepare the community to take advantage of NASA’s advanced and freely available satellite imagery to improve conservation,” said Anabelle Cardoso, the science team manager.
“In a year from now we will have new findings and better insights,” Hestir said, “advancing cutting-edge technology so we can measure life on Earth from space.”
Journal
npj Biodiversity
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
The biodiversity survey of the Cape(BioSCape), integrating remote sensingwith biodiversity science
Article Publication Date
6-Feb-2025
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