Paula do Vale Pereira
Florida Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Papers
3
Total Citations
22
H-Index
3
About
Paula do Vale Pereira is a pioneering aerospace engineer whose research bridges the extremes of planetary exploration—from the frozen depths of Ocean Worlds to the shadowed craters of the Moon. Her work centers on thermal modeling and robotic mobility systems for extreme environments, with a focus on enabling access to subsurface oceans and lunar permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). Her most cited paper, "Experimental Validation of Cryobot Thermal Models for the Exploration of Ocean Worlds" (2023, 11 citations), provides critical experimental validation for ice-penetrating probes designed to traverse tens of kilometers of cryogenic ice—a foundational step toward exploring potentially habitable subsurface waters on Europa and Enceladus. She also led the development of the WORMS (Reconfigurable Robotic Mobility System) concept for extreme lunar terrain, and proposed autonomously deployable tower infrastructure for communication in PSRs, directly supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign. With contributions that are both theoretically rigorous and experimentally grounded, Pereira’s work is shaping the next generation of robotic explorers for the most inaccessible environments in the solar system.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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