General Themes

Day one is mostly devoted to Programmatic and Mission Updates (NASA HQ, Ames, GSFC, and international agency representatives) from the LEAG community. The remaining time of day one and all of days two and three will involve presentations regarding Lunar Resources and the Dynamic Moon, and any other exciting lunar science and exploration results that are submitted by the LEAG lunar community. We are specifically requesting abstracts and presentations that address the questions described below, although all new research results pertaining to the Moon are welcome and encouraged to be submitted for presentation at the 2015 annual LEAG meeting.

Lunar Resources are an enabling commodity for sustainable lunar and solar system exploration. Here "resource" is used in its broadest sense including:  volatiles, the regolith, and any other materials that potentially enable lunar and solar system exploration.

Increasing attention is being placed on lunar resources as a possible key element in establishing sustainable exploration scenarios, with significant opportunity for commercial participation. Many plausible schemes for utilizing lunar resources have been proposed over the past four decades. The viability, feasibility, and benefits of any approach have not yet been demonstrated to the extent that lunar resource utilization is officially considered critical for any agency plans for solar system exploration. Not having lunar ISRU in the critical path for humans beyond low-Earth orbit would appear to have muted commercial interest in beginning to prospect on the Moon. This is despite the Moon’s proximity, relative ease of access, and demonstrated resource potential. This uncertainty is due to a combination of a lack of knowledge regarding the grade and tonnage of prospective lunar resources, and a lack of demonstrated capability for getting this information, as well as engineering demonstrations of resource extraction and utilization on the lunar surface. An objective of the meeting is to define a way forward to mitigate such uncertainty, and sessions devoted to this topic will attempt to answer the following questions:

• What resources are most relevant for both near-term and medium-term use within the context of the LEAG Lunar Exploration Roadmap as well as the Global Exploration Roadmap (cis-lunar, lunar surface, asteroids, Mars)? 
• What is(are) the major impediment(s) for developing lunar resources and how can it(they) be overcome?
• What is our current understanding of the location and characteristics of the resources?
• During the resource prospecting phase:
• What are the major questions to be answered?
• What measurements are critical for ISRU, engineering, and science?
• What new technologies are required to make these measurements and answer these questions (i.e., what techniques/technologies are required to extract and process the ore, and store/transport the refined products)?
• What are the best targets for in-situ measurements, technical demonstrations, and sample return?
• What new observations could LRO make and what new mission(s) would be required to address lunar ISRU questions?
• What knowledge and conditions would enable commercial sector involvement in the extraction, refinement, and utilization of lunar resources?
• What could be the next mission after “Lunar Resurs” (Luna 27; Russia) and Resource Prospector (USA)?

The Dynamic Moon:  Recent results from LADEE, LRO, and ARTEMIS have shown a much more dynamic lunar surface and environment than was originally thought. Current rates of impact cratering are presently being determined, which have implications for lunar cratering chronology. Other geologically recent dynamic processes that affect the Moon’s surface are landslides, tectonic activity, volcanism, and seismic activity, as well as external influences on regolith development (including micrometeorite bombardment, solar photons, solar wind, energetic particles, delivery and entrapment of volatiles and other exospheric species, energetic particle albedo, deep dielectric charging, etc.).

Sessions devoted to this topic will address the following questions:

• What are the implications of new observations for the geologic evolution of the Moon and solar system geology?
• How do current mission results affect the current Decadal Survey and influence our planning for the next?
• How do these new discoveries affect planning for future human missions?
• What future measurements are needed to address unknowns, including strategic knowledge gaps, regarding the Dynamic Moon?

Participation of early career scientists is encouraged and avenues are being pursued to secure some travel support for students, post-doctoral researchers, etc. More information will be available as it becomes available.