Prof. Dr. Philipp Reiss
As a professor of Lunar and Planetary Exploration at TUM, my goal is to develop and expand our knowledge and capabilities in space science and exploration. The overarching motivation of my research emerges from three main aspects: developing a better understanding of volatiles on planetary bodies, building the instrumentation to enable their in situ characterisation, and developing means to extract and utilise such resources.
Alexander Peschel
I am a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the Professorship of Lunar and Planetary Exploration (LPE). My research focuses on lunar volatiles, especially hydrogen and water, on the Moon and in its exosphere, using numerical simulations with an emphasis on Monte Carlo (MC) modeling. My work has identified exosphere-surface interactions as the most critical process for accurately describing volatile cycles on the Moon, ranging from physical chemistry to geometric influences. Recently, I’ve been investigating how topography and surface roughness influence this interaction. My research aims to provide a more robust description of the lunar water cycle and better constrain estimates of lunar water sources, thermally driven migration, release mechanisms, and loss and escape processes. These advances also have broader implications and can be applied to the investigation of other surface-bounded exospheres, such as Mercury’s exosphere.
Noria Brecher
As a PhD candidate in the Chair of Lunar and Planetary Exploration at TUM, I conduct experimental investigations of the lunar water cycle, focusing on thermal pumping in the lunar subsurface. Therefore, I am currently designing and building a thermal vacuum chamber to simulate lunar conditions, investigate how the water concentration inside a sample can be timely and spatially measured and look into different icy-regolith-production methods.
Marc Amorós Trepat
As a PhD candidate in the Chair of Lunar and Planetary Exploration at TUM, I focus on understanding the lunar water cycle. I investigate the physical processes that drive water migration across the Moon’s surface and within its subsoil, using numerical simulations to explore how these mechanisms influence the distribution and stability of lunar volatiles.