Lunar Science Conference Notes

NLSI Lunar Science Conference, 20- 23 Jul NASA ARC

Rob Ferl - Plants in Lunar Exploration. Not your grandfather's garden we are talking about here. Plants complete the habitation environment in space - life support, food etc. Use of small plants - Arabidopsis - as reporter plants to understand adaptation to environments such as space.

Larry Young - NASA Bioastronautics Roadmap 1997-2005 identified 55 risks and risk factors and 250 enabling resources needed for long term human exploration. We are going to the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars - we should therefore learn as much as we can along the way - while doing science that can only be done on the Moon. Issues - bone and muscle loss, response to fractional gravity, space radiation, lunar dust. Need to consier all of these issues before human go to the moon. I am heartbroken that the Centrifuge Accommodation Module is not flying on the ISS where we can look at the region between zero and 1 G but the moon, at least, gives us a shot at looking at 1/6th G.

John Charles NASA JSC - Stay times on the moon during Apollo provided valuable but limited data. Working on plans for longer term stays on the lunar surface in connection with commensurate stays on the ISS.

Chris McKay - Humans in Long Duration Lunar Exploration

The Science included in the CAN (Cooperative Agreement Notice) is broad. It includes humans, plants, sustainability. This is how issues on Earth, Moon, and Mars can be tied together - sustainability.