Research

Dust, Rings, and Origins

The standard model of planet formation proceeds from the gravitational collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust through collisional accretion of solids into planetesimals and eventual runaway growth to form the terrestrial and giant planets.
Read More…

Extraterrestrial Soil Mechanics

Regolith is a complex granular material. Even in well-known terrestrial settings, the behavior of regolith is difficult to explain from fundamental physics, so computer models are based on experiments instead. 
Read More…

Human Space Exploration

Human space exploration missions beyond near Earth orbit cannot occur without a validated approach to addressing crew safety risks due to radiation.
Read More…

Observations of Small Bodies in the Solar System

Small bodies are rocky and/or icy objects, ranging in size from a few meters to a few thousands of kilometers.
Read More…

space resources

Studies have shown that the cost of space exploration can be dramatically reduced if we rely upon resources that are already in space, rather than launching everything we need from Earth.
Read More…

Papers

Read some papers and publications from our researchers here at FSI.
Read More…