The Lunar Science Institute, launched in 2007 by NASA, exists for the purpose of research and study of Earth’s moon, and to inform the decisions that will affect our return to that body.

Funded at a level of $10 million per year, and aimed at the study and research of the moon, as well as the role of supporting and inspiring new generations of lunar scientists, the institute plays widely varied roles. It in many ways it is a virtual organization, rarely directly employing more than seven or eight people at any one time. Those seven or eight people direct the activities teams around the world that are working on Moon science.

The Lunar Science Institute is being informed by all of the Moon research that has been done in the last 40-plus years, but is focusing tightly on areas that look forward to our next visit to the moon, according to a CNET story. Greg Schmidt, LSI’s deputy director, says, “We have a tremendous amount of data that we can pull together to answer the questions our scientists have [about future Moon trips.]”

The institute is focusing on three primary fields of study as it works to understand more about the Earth’s lone satellite:

• The hard rock geology or the moon; lunar mineralogy and researching the moon as a planetary object.
• Studying the science on the moon, science that involves human exploration.
• Science from the moon, which means thinking of the moon as an observational platform.

One example of the work being funded by the institute is a project that is considering the placement of a radio telescope on the far side of the moon. Says Schmidt, “The far side of the moon is the quietest radio area in the inner solar system, and would make a perfect place for such a telescope, a very long wave telescope. We can peer further into the universe’s history than with anything else if we had such a telescope. And I’m very confident that there’s at least one Nobel Prize in this work. Totally confident.”

It is projects like that one which make the Institute a win-win situation. They are parlaying the knowledge gathered over decades and applying it our future needs, taking existing Moon knowledge and extending it into a practical, applicable future. We are going back to the Moon and the Lunar Science Institute is helping us to do it right.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 9:40 pm under Science and technology, Technology.

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