The advancement of deep space exploration will open up opportunities for fundamental advances in a variety of fields, including observational and radio astronomy, materials science, medical science, and biology. They will also provide unprecedented insights into the early solar system's history, the interactions of the planets, the origins of life on Earth, and even human safety.
With the booming exploring missions and plans targeting the Moon, Mars, gaseous planets, and small celestial bodies, the past few decades have witnessed the significant progress made ranging from the technological aspects to the scientific understandings. In order to obtain more scientific data, the traditional exploration ways, including spacecraft orbiting, landing, and roving, is still the main trend. Moreover, many innovative and ambitious exploration concepts and missions could be proposed, adopted, and arose the world eyes as well, such as on-orbit refueling and maintenance, space debris removal, giant constellations, planetary defense, and asteroid mining and sampling returns.
To communicate with researchers in the area of deep space exploration, especially the recent and scientific advances in celestial and spacecraft dynamics, we look forward to high-qualified contributions. The special issue will focus on, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Dynamics of spacecraft
• Dynamics of small celestial bodies and planets
• Precise orbit determination and positioning
• Guidance, navigation, and control
• Autonomous navigation of probes
• Trajectory design and optimization
• Planetary geodesy, mapping and remote sensing
• Planetary atmosphere and environments
