Paul Spudis on Moon's Challenges & Opportunities 🌙

Mankind has long dreamed of settling on celestial bodies -- the moon, other planets and space stations. The Obama Administration's goal of visiting an asteroid, plans by other nations to land on the Moon, and emergence of many private space travel initiatives, demonstrate the increased interest in creating a long-term human presence in space.

There are significant challenges to establishing large, permanent colonies in space or on the Moon and Mars: new technologies must be developed for working in vacuum and low gravity; local resources must be identified, captured and processed; a legal and political framework for space settlement and resource utilization must be devised, and the whole endeavor must be financed in some way.

To address these issues, on Tuesday March 25, 2014, the Marshall Institute and the Space Enterprise Council brought together a panel of experts to discuss the pressing scientific, technological and economic issues involved in human settlement on the Moon.

The panel speakers are:

Dr. Paul D. Spudis, Planetary Geology and Remote Sensing, Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Mike Gold, Director of D.C. Operations & Business Growth, Bigelow Aerospace, LLC

Dr. Haym Benaroya, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University

Additional details at http://marshall.org/events/human-settlement-in-space-the-moons-challenges-and-opportunities/