GOLDEN,
Colo. - NASA's plan to return to the Moon - first by robotic missions scheduled
to start this year, followed by the replanting of human footprints there by
2020 - will require a new cadre of lunar research and exploration specialists.
That talent
largely was dissipated after the Apollo
lunar landing program ended in 1972. As a result, several steps need to be
taken to recuperate both the scientific and technical expertise that will be
needed to investigate and understand the Moon.
And
scientists are enthusiastic about the prospect. Many of those who attended the recent
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 10-14 in League City, Texas, said
Earth's closest celestial neighbor is far from being a "been there, done that
world" that offers no unknowns worth solving. And several sessions dedicated to
lunar science clearly showed a rebound of interest in the Moon.
"There will
be new lunar scientists developed in India, Japan and China ... that's good. But
we need more here in the United States," observed G. Jeffrey Taylor, a
planetary scientist at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at
the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
There are
two groups of existing lunar scientists, Taylor suggested: "Those that have
never stopped doing it, even if it's part time, and others that left but are
doing other planetary science."
Taylor said
the best place to recruit a bevy of new lunar researchers is from other
planetary problems, particularly by broadening the interest of those that work
on Mars, he said.
Particularly
striking were first results from Japan's ongoing Kaguya lunar orbiter mission
and the showing of eye-catching high-definition
video views of the Moon's surface taken by that spacecraft.
Kaguya has
joined China's
Change'1 in lunar orbit, with India's Chandrayaan-1 carrying U.S.-provided
experiments as part of its payload - set to begin circling the Moon in a few
months.
Many
U.S. Lunar Missions Ahead
Given the
slate of lunar missions ahead such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter (LRO), which is scheduled to launch later this year to create
high-resolution maps, seek landing sites, as well as search for water ice and
other useful resources, NASA sorely needs new lunar experts to analyze new data
sets.
Part of
that NASA LRO mission is the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite, or LCROSS. It will launch with LRO, and then travel
independently of the orbiter and crash
into the lunar surface to search for water ice.
NASA has
several other lunar robotic spacecraft on the books or in the preliminary
planning stages, such as the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory
spacecraft and the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.
NASA also
is appealing to other nations to help put in place an International Lunar
Network of science nodes. That high-tech network would make use of 21st century
technology, with the goal of having the network running five to seven years
from now.
Nations are
being invited to fly their nodes to the lunar surface, either fixed platforms
or mobile hardware. Each node would carry a core set of science instruments,
and nations can add experiment packages beyond that core hub of devices.
"That
network can offer big science content," Taylor said, "maybe the most important
lunar science data set you can get is a global seismic network ... to help
understand the Moon's composition, which tells us the details of its origin."
"We need a
lunar scientist surge," Taylor told SPACE.com. "We have to increase the
numbers because we have too much to do for the number of people now engaged,"
he said.
Re-discovering
the Moon
Still, in
terms of the size of the overall lunar research family, "it's very thin," said
Clive Neal a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the
University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
The first
steps toward addressing that shortfall already are under way: more missions to
the Moon and an increase in research and analysis funding, Neal told SPACE.com.
"There is a
sea change going on ... and it's the logical thing to do," said Neal, who also is
chair of NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group. Robotic spacecraft can help
set the stage for a human return to the Moon, including the establishment of a
lunar outpost, he added. "So doing this ahead of the buildup of lunar
infrastructure is critical, both for exploration and for science ... as well as
the fostering of a commercial tie-in at the Moon for sustainability."
Regarding
the need to resurrect the lunar community, Jim Green, director of NASA's
Planetary Science Division, told SPACE.com in a March 31 interview: "The
sooner we can do that the better." The more lessons learned that can be
transferred from the lunar scientists of the 1960s and 1970s to the next generation
of young scientists the better, he said.
"We're
going to go back and re-discover the Moon," Green suggested. Thanks to early
lunar research, "the Moon is now a much more fascinating object that is really
going to tell us so much more about the origin and evolution of the solar
system," he said.
As part of
the agency's effort to foster the growth of a new community of lunar
scientists, NASA's Science Mission Directorate has established the NASA Lunar
Science Institute. The institute, which has been charged with developing and
training the next generation of lunar researchers, is managed by NASA's Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
Management
Constraints
The
rebuilding of a lunar science community is essential, said Paul Spudis, a
planetary geologist and lunar expert at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in
Houston.
"We not
only need competent lunar scientists to plan and execute the future exploration
of the Moon, but also to help design and build the machines and technologies we
need to learn to live and stay on the Moon ... particularly in regard to resource
utilization and long-term habitation. It is important to get started with
students at all levels now so that a stable, experienced lunar science
community exists when we return to the Moon," Spudis said.
Harrison
Schmitt, an Apollo 17 moonwalker, said the U.S. lunar science community is
"alive, well and raring to go." Schmitt was the only professional geologist in
the Apollo astronaut corps and the first and only scientist-astronaut on
board the Apollo program's last voyage to the Moon in December 1972.
"The rest
of the world is still playing catch up relative to the dynamic lunar science
community that exists in the United States," Schmitt told SPACE.com in a
March 31 e-mail.
But Schmitt
too has concerns.
"It is not
yet clear, however, if the next administration and the Congress, and the
non-NASA scientific institutions of the country, are going to provide the
continuing funding necessary to properly prepare a future, uninterrupted lunar
and planetary exploration program," Schmitt said. That program can build on
Apollo and current knowledge and insights about the Moon, he added, as well as
on the relationships of lunar history to that of the Earth and other planets.
Schmitt
said the prospect of such funding is under serious threat, akin to the "same
gross under-funding that infected the space shuttle development in its early
years and for which we have paid dearly."
A major
development program can never recover from under-funding and unrealistic
management constraints in its formative years, Schmitt said.
Proactive
Recruitment
While not
as daunting an issue as space program under-funding, there is a strong need for
a very "proactive recruitment" of mature, experienced field geologists to apply
to become astronauts.
In
Schmitt's opinion, having an experience base that draws from terrestrial
exploration in NASA's astronaut office is particularly important now - given
the formative phase of operational lunar surface mission planning. That
know-how also helps in designing exploration equipment ... as well as when crews
are selected for actual lunar mission training, he added.
"Relying on
random volunteers to fill this role is taking the same chance we took once in
Apollo," Schmitt recalled, "and ended up with only one field geologist to
participate in those activities." While all went fairly well in Apollo, given a
unique set of circumstances, he said, "the times and flexibility in the
planning process were very different than now."
In addition
to astronaut recruitment, Schmitt pointed out that "remobilization of the
outside geological community" to take part in background and mission training
will be a critical component of a fruitful exploration program for the Moon and
eventually for Mars.
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