The Lunar Explorers Society is an organisation dedicated to achieving permanent presence of humanity on the Moon. The Society is open to all people in the world with an interest in lunar exploration. It hopes to bring the best of humanity to the Moon, and to bring the benefits of the Moon to all people on Earth.
Humans are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina. Together with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, they are part of the family Hominidae. A terrestrial animal, humans are characterized by their erect posture and bipedal locomotion; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to other animals; open-ended and complex language use compared to other animal communications; larger, more complex brains than other animals; and highly advanced and organized societies.
Earth's Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the planet and acts as its only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. The Moon is, after Jupiter's satellite Io, the second-densest satellite in the Solar System among those whose densities are known.
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation from Earth. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei is generally credited as the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes; having made his own telescope in 1609, the mountains and craters on the lunar surface were among his first observations using it.
The Moon has not been visited by man since 1972, and though the first manned exploration efforts provided a huge scientific return, no further human exploration of the Moon has been done. However, several robotic lunar exploration missions have been conducted since the beginning of the 1990s. These missions fuelled the desire to return to the Moon among many lunar enthusiasts, and this was the background for the establishment of the Lunar Explorers Society in 2000.
The founding members saw the need for an organisation where the members could share knowledge, join forces and pursue their ultimate goal: To establish a permanent human presence on the Moon to the benefit of all people on Earth.
Objectives
To support the establishment of a permanent human presence on the Moon
To promote international cooperation between scientists working with Lunar exploration by providing a neutral platform for their discussions
To raise awareness of what could be achieved by returning to the Moon through educational and outreach activities
To promote the peaceful and fair use of the resources available on the Moon, to the benefit of mankind
The Young Lunar Explorers Award
The Young Lunar Explorers Award is presented to a candidate who has been instrumental in promoting lunar exploration among young lunar explorers once per year, at the annual International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon (ICEUM). The awards have been given to the following winners:
The Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP), sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back to Earth high-definition video and images.
The International Space University (ISU) is a university dedicated to the discovery, research and development of outer space exploration for peaceful purposes, through international and multidisciplinary education and research programs. It is a not-for-profit interdisciplinary university founded in 1987 that offers a Master of Science in Space Studies (MSS) in addition to the flagship Space Studies Program (SSP), a professional development program that has convened annually every summer since 1988 at various locations around the world.
History
The Lunar Explorers Society was founded 14 July 2000, during the 4th International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon (ICEUM4). There, the 156 ICEUM4 participants signed the founding declaration of the Lunar Explorers Society. The International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) has supported the Lunar Explorers Society since the beginning
Space exploration is the discovery and exploration of celestial structures in outer space by developing and growing space technology. While the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, the physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic space probes and human spaceflight.
Phobos is the innermost and larger of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Deimos. Both moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall.
The Constellation Program is a cancelled crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a "return to the Moon no later than 2020" with a crewed flight to the planet Mars as the ultimate goal. The program's logo reflected the three stages of the program: the Earth (ISS), the Moon, and finally Mars—while the Mars goal also found expression in the name given to the program's booster rockets: Ares. The technological aims of the program included the regaining of significant astronaut experience beyond low Earth orbit and the development of technologies necessary to enable sustained human presence on other planetary bodies.
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. It was replaced by the space policy of the Barack Obama administration in June 2010.
Colonization of the Moon is the proposed establishment of a permanent human community or robotic industries on the Moon.
A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and uncrewed (robotic) missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959.
Paul D. Spudis (1952–2018) was an American geologist and lunar scientist. His specialty was the study of volcanism and impact processes on the planets, including Mercury and Mars.
A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission with the goal of collecting and returning samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as loose material ("soil") and rocks. These samples may be obtained in a number of ways, such as soil and rock excavation or a collector array used for capturing particles of solar wind or cometary debris.
In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects that replace materials that would otherwise be brought from Earth.
The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 is an act of the United States Congress. It was signed by the then President George W. Bush and became Public Law 109-155 on December 30, 2005.
A lunar outpost by the United States space administration NASA is a vision of a permanent or semi-permanent presence of humans on the Moon. NASA has requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to make another manned mission to the Moon by 2024, followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028.
The Space Exploration Initiative was a 1989–1993 space public policy initiative of the George H. W. Bush administration.
A human mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, aerospace engineering, and scientific proposals since the 19th century. Plans include landing on Mars for exploration at a minimum, with the possibility of sending settlers and terraforming the planet and/or exploring its moons Phobos and Deimos also considered.
Mars to Stay missions propose astronauts sent to Mars for the first time should intend to stay. Unused emergency return vehicles would be recycled into settlement construction as soon as the habitability of Mars becomes evident to the initial pioneers. Mars to Stay missions are advocated both to reduce cost and to ensure permanent settlement of Mars. Among many notable Mars to Stay advocates, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been particularly outspoken, suggesting in numerous forums "Forget the Moon, Let’s Head to Mars!" and, in June 2013, Aldrin promoted a manned mission "to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species". In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040. The Mars Underground, Mars Homestead Foundation, Mars One, and Mars Artists Community advocacy groups and business organizations have also adopted Mars to Stay policy initiatives.
The Lunar Lander was a robotic mission intended to send a lander vehicle to the Moon, led by ESA's Human Spaceflight and Operations directorate. The primary objective of the Lunar Lander mission was to demonstrate Europe's ability to deliver payload safely and accurately to the Moon's surface. More specifically the mission would have demonstrated the technologies required to achieve a soft and precise landing while autonomously avoiding surface hazards that can endanger landing and surface mission safety. These technologies will be an asset for future human and robotic exploration missions. However the project was put on hold at the 2012 ESA Ministerial Council.
Prospector was a proposed lunar probe that was intended to be flown in support of the Apollo lunar missions.
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program (月探査計画), is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
The Lunar Flashlight is a planned low-cost CubeSat lunar orbiter mission to explore, locate, and estimate size and composition of water ice deposits on the Moon for future exploitation by robots or humans.
The Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway (LOP-G) is a future space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communications hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
