Space and Planetary Sciences

IGLUNA: students work towards building an icy human habitat on the Moon!

Anastasia Kokori May 22, 2019

Artist’s impression of a lunar habitat in Ice on the Moon. Credits: ESA

What does it take to build a habitat in ice on the Moon? An international group of university students and professionals is working together to provide this answer and develop a sustainable and operational habitat in lunar ice. The project is called IGLUNA and is organised by the Swiss Space Center and the European Space Agency (ESA) as the first initiative from ESA_Lab, an ESA interuniversity res ...[Read More]

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2019 General Assembly

Olivia Trani May 3, 2019

Scientists present research findings at a press conference at the EGU General Assembly 2019 (Credit: EGU / Anastasia Kokori)

The EGU General Assembly 2019 took place in Vienna last month, drawing more than 16,000 participants from 113 countries. This month’s GeoRoundUp will focus on some of the unique and interesting stories that came out of research presented at the Assembly! Major Stories Glacial disappearing act in the European Alps New research from a team of scientists estimated the future of all glaciers within th ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Simulating a mission on Mars

Maria Grulich April 22, 2019

Collecting Samples on Mars. Credit: Maria Grulich (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Establishing a human presence on Mars is increasingly seen by space agencies and private organizations as the horizon frontier in human space exploration. These long-duration missions however, impose a high degree of technological, operational, physical and psychological challenges. Mars analog habitats, such as the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah (U.S.) are established to conduct fiel ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Northern lights in northern Norway

Rita Nogherotto March 18, 2019

Northern lights in northern Norway. Credit: Rita Nogherotto (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Northern lights in Tromsø, displaying the collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun which penetrate the earth’s magnetic shield and strike atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. Collisions excite the atoms causing electrons to move to higher-energy orbits, further away from the nucleus. When electrons move back to lower-energy orbits, they release particles of light call ...[Read More]