Planetary-relevant high-temperature-resistant mid-infrared materials for extraterrestrial exploration and infrastructure

Extreme thermal environments encountered during planetary entry, surface operations, and extraterrestrial infrastructure elevate mid-infrared (MIR) radiation in the 2.5 to 25 μm range from a passive spectral signal to a governing channel for planetary energy balance, thermal regulation, and diagnostic sensing. However, optical properties measured under ambient conditions often fail to predict in-service behavior because defects, phases, and near-surface microstructures evolve under coupled thermal, chemical, and mechanical extremes. This review establishes a planetary capability framework for high-temperature-resistant MIR materials by integrating radiation physics with material stability and mission constraints. The mechanisms governing reflection, emission, and transmission are interpreted through carrier dynamics, phonon resonances, and defect-mediated loss, and representative material families including covalent solids, polar ceramics, refractory carbides, metallic state oxides, and carbon-based architectures are compared through stability pathways. By consolidating spectral performance metrics and thermal stability limits into a unified dataset and translating these data into a comparative design space linking optical function with environmental survivability, the review identifies structure-governed principles explaining stable MIR behavior under extreme conditions. These insights are connected to planetary entry, sensing, infrastructure, energy conversion, and photonic systems, enabling durable radiative materials for extraterrestrial exploration.