While geophysical exploration of Earth is well established as a critical method for understanding planetary processes, many current and planned missions offer great opportunities for geophysicists to apply their skills and expertise to space exploration. Programs such as NASA's Artemis aiming to bring humans back to the moon and the James Webb Space Telescope for deep space imaging, the 10-year extension plan for the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program's Chang'e missions, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Martian Moons eXploration program, and the European Space Agency's European Large Logistics Lander targeting the moon are just a few examples. NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program proposes to send two commercial landers to the moon every year for the remainder of the decade. Several already-manifested payloads in the program involve geophysical instrumentation including heat flow probes, magnetotelluric sounding systems, and seismometers. Seismic data continue to arrive from NASA's InSight mission to Mars as the dusty solar panels still deliver a little energy, emphasizing that geophysics is and will remain an important tool for planetary exploration moving forward.
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Research Article|
October 01, 2022
Introduction to this special section: Planetary geophysics
Alexander Braun;
Alexander Braun
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. E-mail: braun@queensu.ca.
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Mark Panning;
Mark Panning
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. E-mail: mark.p.panning@jpl.nasa.gov.
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Sean Gulick;
Sean Gulick
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA. E-mail: sean@ig.utexas.edu.
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Yongyi Li
Yongyi Li
HPB Energies, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. E-mail: yongyi_li@shaw.ca.
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Alexander Braun
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. E-mail: braun@queensu.ca.
Mark Panning
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. E-mail: mark.p.panning@jpl.nasa.gov.
Sean Gulick
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA. E-mail: sean@ig.utexas.edu.
Yongyi Li
HPB Energies, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. E-mail: yongyi_li@shaw.ca.
Publisher: Society of Exploration Geophysicists
First Online:
01 Oct 2022
Online ISSN: 1938-3789
Print ISSN: 1070-485X
© The Society of Exploration Geophysicists
The Leading Edge (2022) 41 (10): 670–671.
Article history
First Online:
01 Oct 2022
Citation
Alexander Braun, Mark Panning, Sean Gulick, Yongyi Li; Introduction to this special section: Planetary geophysics. The Leading Edge 2022;; 41 (10): 670–671. doi: https://doi.org/10.1190/tle41100670.1
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