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About

S. Nagihara is a leading figure in planetary heat flow and subsurface thermal exploration, with a career focused on developing innovative instrumentation for the Moon and Mars. His primary research areas include in-situ thermal conductivity measurement, robotic regolith penetration, and the thermal characterization of planetary surfaces. Nagihara’s most significant contributions lie in advancing heat flow probe emplacement techniques, particularly through pneumatic and percussive penetration methods for robotic lunar missions. His 2013 paper on this topic, with 21 citations, laid critical groundwork for autonomous subsurface access. He also improved data reduction algorithms for the needle probe method (16 citations), enabling more accurate thermal conductivity measurements of lunar and planetary regoliths. Notably, Nagihara is the lead developer of the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), the first robotically deployed subsurface thermal probe that actively excavates regolith and makes scientific measurements at multiple depths. LISTER was successfully deployed in Mare Crisium on the Blue Ghost Mission 1 in 2025, marking a historic milestone. His pre-landing assessment of the thermal setting of Mare Crisium (2023) further demonstrated his foresight in mission planning. With over 50 total citations and a growing impact, Nagihara’s work is essential for future planetary heat flow studies.