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A Status Report: The Center for Lunar Research
The Center for Lunar Research (CLR) was established in 1998 by the National
Space Society in response to a de-emphasis by NASA on its lunar exploration
program, decreasing government funding for lunar data analysis, and an NSS policy
survey that identified lunar applications and development as a priority issue
among our membership. NSS’s goal is that the Center for Lunar Research
be considered one of the centers of excellence for lunar data interpretation;
we plan to create a virtual institute which would be regarded as the internet
site to find information on the latest lunar research data.
Since its inception the Center has followed a three-year development plan which
has included: the establishment of an Advisory Panel, consisting of Alan Binder,
Harrison H. Schmitt, George French and Frederick I. Ordway; offering annual
summer scholarships to students working on Lunar Prospector and Clementine data
interpretation; and plans to open a Virtual Institute for research exchange
and data set access.
We are currently working to upgrade the CLR pages at our website and later this
year we plan to expand the Advisory Panel to bring in additional expertise as
we move out of the CLR three-year start up phase and begin to lay out our roadmap
for the next wave of CLR development.
We must remember that the Center would not have been possible without the continuing
financial support of some generous members of the Society, a list of whose names
will soon be appearing on our redesigned website. More than eight hundred members
have contributed to the Center and have enabled students to continue their research
on, among other things, correlating neutron and gamma ray spectrometric data
to chemical and crystal structures of feldspars; validating models for solar
wind hydrogen deposition; hydrogen pick-up ion and re-implantation data; and
mineralogical and chemical characterization of Lunar highland regolith.
If you would like to support the activities of the National Space Society’s
Center for Lunar Research during 2001 please mail your contribution to: National
Space Society, Dept. CLR, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Suite 201, Washington,
DC 20003-4316. Our goals for the Center for Lunar Research are certainly attainable,
thanks to our CLR visionary supporters and members like you!