Research scientists congregate to discuss future of lunar geophysical exploration
Research scientists congregate to discuss future of lunar geophysical exploration
Approximately 50 planetary and terrestrial geophysicists will meet at Arizona State University Jan. 21-22, for an interdisciplinary workshop focusing on the Moon. Participants will discuss and review the current state of knowledge of the Moon and past geophysical studies, discuss existing plans, and begin making preparations for the future.
“We are at a very exciting time where there are multiple lunar geophysical missions in various stages of development by NASA and international space agencies,” explains seismologist Matthew Fouch, a professor in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and co-convener of the workshop. “This is an important opportunity for us to revisit what we learned from the geophysical data collected by Apollo astronauts, and how we can make significant forward progress based both on those experiences and current efforts to return to the lunar surface.”
This high-level workshop for the scientific community, which will pull participants and presenters from universities and research institutes around the world, including NASA centers, is divided into a two-day program organized into lectures, poster sessions, breakout groups, and group discussions. Talks and posters will present topics as diverse as seismic exploration of the Moon, measuring heat flow on the lunar surface, and characterizing the Moon’s interior. Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last of the Apollo astronauts to walk on the Moon, will deliver the first day’s keynote talk.
Besides providing a unique opportunity for research scientists from both the terrestrial and planetary communities to interact, the workshop will highlight how the geophysical community can contribute to NASA’s long-term plans to install a series of autonomous geophysical stations on the Moon.
“The goal of the scientific exchange,” explains Fouch, “is to provide NASA and the broader scientific community with ideas and recommendations about how to most efficiently and effectively collect new geophysical data from the lunar surface, using everything from landers to robots to astronauts, and over a range of local, regional, and global scales. We believe that this will be a workshop that catalyzes a new level of collaborations and involvement to promote missions with a goal of geophysically interrogating the lunar interior.”
The workshop is sponsored jointly by NASA, ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS).
“Given ASU’s historical success as a top planetary geology program, our growth as a top Earth interiors research program, and the recent addition of the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) facility, it’s quite appropriate that SESE hosts this meeting,” says Fouch. “The broad interest in the meeting from the terrestrial and planetary scientific communities demonstrates once again the importance that geophysical interrogations of planetary interiors play in helping us develop a complete understanding of the Moon and other planetary bodies.”
(Image courtesy of NASA)
Release Date:
01/19/2010
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