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The International Lunar Exploration Working Group(ILEWG) is a public forum sponsored by the world's space agencies to support "international cooperation towards a world strategy for the exploration and utilization of the Moon - our natural satellite" (International Lunar Workshop, Beatenberg (CH), June 1994). [1] [2]
ILEWG was founded by several space agencies: Australian Space Agency (ASA), Italian Space Agency (ASI), British BNSC, French CNES, German Aerospace Center, ESA, ISAS, NASA, Japanese NASDA, Roskosmos. [3]
ILEWG has been organising since 1994 the ICEUM International Conferences on Exploration & Utilisation of the Moon [4] with published proceedings, [5] and where community declarations have been prepared and endorsed by community participants. ILEWG has co-organised and co-sponsored lunar sessions at EGU, COSPAR, EPSC.
The 8th gathering was held on July 23–27, 2006, in Beijing, China, and agreed on the new Lunar Beijing Declaration. [1]
ILEWG Executive Director: Prof. Bernard Foing (ILEWG Past-President, 1998 - 2000)
ILEWG Vice-presidents: Prof. Tai Sik Lee (2016 - current), Prof. Jacques Blamont (2010 - 2016), Dr. Simonetta di Pippo (2006 – 2008), Dr Robert Richards (2005 - 2007)
ILEWG Past-Presidents : Dr. Michael Wargo (2008 - 2010), Prof. Wu Ji (2006 - 2008), Prof. Narendra Bhandari (2004 - 2006), Prof Carle Pieters (2002 – 2004), Prof Mike Duke (2000-2002), Prof Bernard Foing (1998 – 2000), Acad. Erik Galimov (1996 – 1998), Dr Hitoshi Mizutani
The roadmap or timeline envisaged includes a 15-year period of robotic operations before crewed missions. [3] : 9 Robots would pilot in-situ resource utilisation and construct habitation for later crew.
As part of research efforts towards the colonization of Moon and eventually, the colonization of Mars, ILEWG founded the EuroMoonMars initiative, which comprises field campaigns in Moon-Mars analogue environments. [6]
The EuroMoonMars field campaigns have been organised in specific locations of technical, scientific and exploration interest. The campaigns started with EuroGeoMars2009 (Utah MDRS, 24 Jan-1 Mar 2009) with ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, NASA Ames, VU Amsterdam and GWU. [7]
Currently, ILEWG is collaborating with the International Moonbase Alliance (IMA) [8] and the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) on a series of EuroMoonMars, IMA and HI-SEAS (EMMIHS) campaigns, at the HI-SEAS analogue facilities in Hawaii. [9]
The Hawaii - Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat is located at 8,200’ (2,500 meters) in elevation and IMA's founder, Henk Rogers, is its owner. [10] As of 2018, IMA, an organization dedicated to building sustainable settlements on the Moon, has been organising regular simulated missions to the Moon, Mars or other planetary bodies at HI-SEAS. Dr. Michaela Musilova is the Director of HI-SEAS [11] and she also takes part in missions as a Crew Commander, Flights Director or CAPCOM.
The EuroMoonMars campaigns consist of research activities for data analysis, instruments tests and development, field tests in Moon-Mars analogues, pilot projects, training and hands-on workshops and outreach activities. [12] [13]
IgLuna is the first ESA Lab inter-University demonstrator project, [14] and is hosted by the Swiss Space Centre (SSC) [15] with the vision to create an analogue habitat inside lunar ice caps. The campaigns were held from 17 to 30 June 2019 and involved 18 student teams from 9 countries across Europe. The students developed modular demonstrators and tested them during a field test conducted inside the moon-like extreme environment of the Glacier Palace inside the Matterhorn glacier.
Year | Campaign | Notes |
2009 | EuroMoonMars-Eifel | Collaboration between ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, VU Amsterdam, Austrian Space Forum OEWF, GWU, Ecole de l’Air |
2010 | EuroMoonMars-DOMMEX | Collaboration between ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, NASA Ames, VU Amsterdam, GWU, Ecole de l’Air, FloridaTec, UCL Louvain |
2010 | EuroMoonMars SALM | La Réunion Island |
2011 | EuroMoonMars2011 (MDRS) | First EMM-MDRS mission |
2012 | EuroMoonMars2012 (MDRS) | Crew: Stoker, Battler, v’t Houd, Bruneau, Cross, Maivald, Svendsen, Oltheten, Nebergall, Orgel Support: Foing, Ehrenfreund, Elsaesser, Rammos, Rodrigues, Direito, Roling |
2017 | LunAres (Poland) | Crew: PMAS SGAC Support @ESTEC/Mission control: Foing, Lillo, Authier, Blanc et al. |
2018 | EMM-Iceland scouting campaign | Crew: Foing, Heemskerk, Sitnikova et al. Support: 4th Planet Logistics |
2018 | EMMIHS-0 (scouting campaign) | Crew: Rogers H&A, Foing, Wilhite, Machida Support: BluePlanet: Ponthieux, Cox et al. |
2019 | EMMIHS-I | Crew: Musilova, Sirikan, Mulder, Weert, Burstein, Pothier Support: BluePlanet: Foing, Ponthieux, Cox, Rogers |
2019 | EMM-IgLuna campaign | IgLuna SSC support: Benavides, EuroMoonMars VUA/ILEWG Crew: de Winter, Heemskerk, Albers, Clement, Bois, Daeter, Vaessen, Glukhova, Sitnikova, Dimova, Wanske, van der Sanden, Foing Support: Kruijver, Dingemans, Beentjes, Korthouwer, Moritz, Grosjean et al. |
2019 | EMMIHS-II | Crew: Musilova, Kerber, Castro, Wanske, Pouwels, d’Angelo Support: BluePlanet: Cox et al., support@ESTEC/VUA: Ageli, Foing, Heemskerk, Beniest, Sitnikova, Preusterink |
2020 | EMMIHS-III | Crew: Musilova M., Brasileiro L., Edison K., Heemskerk M&R, Rajkakati P. Support: BluePlanet & ESTEC/VUA |
2020 | EMMIHS-IV | Crew: to be confirmed Support: BluePlanet & ESTEC/VUA |
2021 | CHILL-ICE | Crew I: Kerber, Elwertowska, Poli Crew II: Cardinaux, Smith, Christianen Mission Control: Pouwels, Heemskerk, Kerber, Weert, Downes |
Space colonization is the use of outer space or celestial bodies other than Earth for permanent habitation or as extraterrestrial territory.
The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was a plan for space exploration announced on January 14, 2004 by President George W. Bush. It was conceived as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and as a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration.
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Bernard Foing is a French scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA), Executive Director of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) and was Principal Project Scientist for SMART-1, the first European mission to the Moon. He is also a research professor at the VU Amsterdam and at Florida Tech.
Interplanetary contamination refers to biological contamination of a planetary body by a space probe or spacecraft, either deliberate or unintentional.
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David John Southwood is a British space scientist who holds the post of Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College London. He was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2012–2014, and earlier served as the Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (2001–2011). Southwood's research interests have been in solar–terrestrial physics and planetary science, particularly magnetospheres. He built the magnetic field instrument for the Cassini Saturn orbiter.
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