Lunar Track

Day 1: "Lava Tubes: Earth, Moon and Beyond"

The Challenges of Earth, Lunar, and Mars Lava Tube Exploration push existing capabilities and are worth doing, as JFK said, "not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills�."

The presentations of this Lava Tube Workshop include discussions on: Planetary Science, Planetary Protection and Cave Protection, Astrobiology, Engineering Architecture and Design, Instrumentation and In situ Data Processing, Analysis and AI, Analog and Precursor Activities, Terrestrial Research and Commercial On-Ramps, Education and Public Outreach.

These challenges also represent a community of interest involving a number of organizations that share research ambitions. We plan to archive these presentations on both the National Space Society and Moon Society web-site so that they are a resource for this community of interest.

Day 1 Preliminary Agenda and Scheduled Speakers

Day 2: International Lunar Program

After a "long pause" of approximately 50 years from the Apollo expeditions, a new range of initiatives is opening up opportunities for a sustainable human expansion into cislunar space and the surface of the Moon. NASA�s operations are aiming at creating an infrastructure for operations, including commercial ones, beyond LEO. An Earth-Moon Gateway facility at L2 promises to open the door for scientific and commercial telepresence operations on the lunar surface and a new range of technologies from improved spacesuits to small spacecraft to make advances affordable.

International Lunar program initiatives include those of International Space Agencies including China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia and the Google Lunar X-Prize Teams. We are pleased to have the participation of ISRO�s Space Ambassador Vivik Singh and former ISRO Group Director Professor Suresh Naikon on our lunar track and Dr. Abdul Kalam, India's former President as our ISDC keynote speaker Friday evening. The NSS, the Moon Society, and Open Luna are pleased to welcome the International Space Society to the program. We look forward to a proposed International Lunar Geophysical Year to focus a global effort to return sustainably to the Moon beginning in 2017.

Day 2 Preliminary Agenda and Scheduled Speakers

Speaker, presentation title, date and time are subject to change.

Speaker's Bio

Robert (Rob) Kelso
Executive Director of Pacific International Center Exploration of Space (PICES). Former NASA Shuttle Flight Director.

Rob was newly announced in November 2012 as the new Executive Director of the Pacific International Space Center fo Exploration Systems (PISCES)...with their home office here in Hilo, Hawaii. Rob was a 37 year, career civil servant of the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC); and a former NASA Shuttle Flight Director in NASA's famed Mission Control Center.

Rob's career in flight operations spanned 21 year beginning as a flight controller on STS-1 in April 1981. In February 1988, Rob was selected to the Flight Director "Class of 1988" following the Challenger disaster, which took the life of Hawaii's Ellison Onizuka. He directed 25 Shuttle Missions in the 1980's and 90's.

Rob was instrumental in launching most of the Department of Defense (DoD) spacecraft on the Space Shuttle... beginning with overseeing the first DoD launch from Mission Control while Ellison Onizuka served as the Astronaut in the Shuttle cockpit in January 1985. He also served as NASA Mission Director responsible for launch/deliver of the large Chandra X-Ray telescope, the last of the great NASA observatories to be launched by NASA.

After leaving the Flight Director Office, Rob served on JSC senior staff as Deputy Director for Safety and Mission Assurance at JSC - responsible for directing safety and quality activities supporting manned spaceflight.

One of the last jobs Rob did for NASA was to lead NASA's efforts in the preservation and protection of the Apollo lunar landing site on the Moon. Rob has been the recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Rob holds a bachelor degree in physics, and a master degree in business administration.