Sustainable exploration of the Solar System, in particular at the Moon, asteroids and Mars, will require the use of resources which are accessed and utilised locally. As agencies and other actors prepare to explore these destinations there is an increasing drive to understand the resources that are available and to establish how they may be used. A number of missions and activities on Earth related to resource remote sensing, in-situ prospecting and resource utilisation are underway or planned and this has become an area of research that is growing rapidly. A lot of work has already been done and a lot is ongoing, but much of this has not been published or subject to peer review. As new activity is initiated it is important to gather the current state of knowledge and to publish the latest research work in the field of space resources in this special issue of Planetary and Space Science. The special issue is open for papers covering the science of space resource exploration and prospecting, mapping, access, extraction, processing and utilisation, focusing on Moon, Mars and asteroids.
There is no charge for submission of a paper and no page charges for publication of the paper, except for color reproduction in print or an open access option. All papers will be peer-reviewed by two independent reviewers. Accepted papers will be published in the online (ScienceDirect) edition of the journal within about 3 weeks of acceptance. A detailed submission guideline is available as "Guide to Authors" at http://www.journals.elsevier.com/planetary-and-space-science/
All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted through Elsevier's new web-based system EVISE. The authors must select "VSI:Space resources" on the "Enter Manuscript Information" step in the submission process. The submission website for PSS is located at: www.evise.com/evise/faces/pages/navigation/NavController.jspx?JRNL_ACR=PSS