Wanted: Scientists who shoot for the moon

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.

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"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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