This manuscript identifies and documents unsolved problems and research challenges in the extended reality (XR) domain (i.e., virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed reality (MR)). The manuscript is structured to include technology, design, and human factor perspectives. The text is visualization/display-focused, that is, other modalities such as audio, haptic, smell, and touch, while important for XR, are beyond the scope of this paper. We further narrow our focus to mainly geospatial research, with necessary deviations to other domains where these technologies are widely researched. The main objective of the study is to provide an overview of broader research challenges and directions in XR, especially in spatial sciences. Aside from the research challenges identified based on a comprehensive literature review, we provide case studies with original results from our own studies in each section as examples to demonstrate the relevance of the challenges in the current research. We believe that this paper will be of relevance to anyone who has scientific interest in extended reality, and/or uses these systems in their research.

The Moon has a large potential for space exploration and mining valuable resources. In particular, ³He provides rich sources of non-radioactive fusion fuel to fulfill cislunar and Earth’s energy demands, if found economically feasible. The present study focuses on developing advanced techniques to prospect ³He resources on the Moon from multi-sensor remote sensing perspectives. It characterizes optical changes in regolith materials due to space weathering as a new retention parameter and introduces a novel machine learning inversion model for retrieving the physical properties of the regolith. Our analysis suggests that the reddening of the soil predominantly governs the retention, along with attenuated mafic band depths. Moreover, semi-variograms show that the spatial variability of ³He is aligned with the episodic weathering events at different timescales. We also observed that pyroclastic regoliths with high dielectric constant and increased surface scattering mechanisms exhibited a ³He abundant region. For ejecta cover, the retention was weakly associated with the dielectric contrast and a circular polarization ratio (CPR), mainly because of the ³He-deficient nature of the regolith. Furthermore, cross-variograms revealed inherent cyclicity attributed to the sequential process of weathering effects. Our study provides new insights into the physical nature and near-surface alterations of lunar regoliths that influence the spatial distribution and retention of solar wind implanted ³He.

Accurate monitoring of satellites plays a pivotal role in analysing critical mission specific parameters for estimating orbital position uncertainties. An appropriate database management system (DBMS) at the software end, could prove its potential as a convenient solution over the existing file based two line element (TLE) data structure. The current web-based satellite tracking systems, such as n2yo, satview, and satflare, are unable to provide location-based satellite monitoring. Moreover, the users need to zoom into the displayed world map for obtaining information of the satellites that are currently over the respective area. Also, satellite searching is a cumbersome task in these web-based systems. In this research work, a systematic approach has been utilised to develop a generic open-source Web-GIS based tool for addressing the aforementioned issues. This tool incorporates a PostgreSQL database for storing the parsed TLE data which are freely available on the CelesTrak (NORAD) repository. Our choice of selecting PostgreSQL as a backend DB is primarily due to its open source and scalable properties compared to other resource intensive databases. Using suitable python libraries (e.g. Skyfield and Orbit-Predictor), the position and velocity at any point of time can be accurately estimated. For this purpose, the tool has been tested on several cities for displaying location-based satellite tracking that includes different types of space-objects.

The enigmatic swirls of Reiner Gamma Formation (RGF) have been found to be associated with localized magnetic surges and high albedo markings. The intriguing diversity within deep-seated lithologies unravels the compositional evolution of the RGF soil, thereby providing new insights into the geological formation of lunar swirls. The present work contributes to the petrophysical significance of possible mafic units by utilizing the multisensor data from recent lunar missions. The compositional characterization of mafic-rich regolith facilitates an improved high-resolution eigenvector-based pyroxene spectroscopy. This provides evidence of endogenic magmatic water in the spectra of high Mg orthopyroxene with pronounced olivine content. Some regions in the western part contribute to the presence of chromium with the possible emplacement of mafic-rich basalts in the oxygen-deficient environment. The sensitivity of the radar echo to the petrographic units has been utilized to derive the physical characteristics of the regolith grains. The regions with enhanced hydration attribute to an increased dielectric permittivity with an associated surge in bulk density and circular polarization ratio. This is in concordance with the degree of maturity in the regolith due to space weathering. Moreover, a relatively compact confinement of the soil pattern has been observed in the immature mafic-rich patches, emphasizing the mechanical stability of the regolith. The regional geomorphology indicates the emanation of wrinkled ridges, wherein higher mafic abundance zone attributes to the primitive source of extruded magma. In essence, this study proposes the inclusion of local charged dust variant in the global formation perspective of the RGF.

Despite the increased awareness and action towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), the glaciological community still experiences and perpetuates examples of exclusionary and discriminatory behavior. We here discuss the challenges and visions from a group predominantly composed of early-career researchers from the 2023 edition of the Karthaus Summer School on Ice Sheets and Glaciers in the Climate System. This paper presents the results of an EDI-focused workshop that the 36 students and 12 lecturers who attended the summer school actively participated in. We identify common threads from participant responses and distill them into collective visions for the future of the glaciological research community, built on actionable steps toward change. In this paper, we address the following questions that guided the workshop: What do we see as current EDI challenges in the glaciology research community and which improvements would we like to see in the next fifty years? Contributions have been sorted into three main challenges we want and need to face: making glaciology (1) more accessible, (2) more equitable and (3) more responsible.