NASA announced in Washington Tuesday that it will establish a new lunar science institute in an effort, with dispersed teams across the nation, to help lead the agency's research activities for future lunar science missions related to U.S. "return to moon" exploration goals.
Named the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), the effort will be managed from NASA's Ames Research Center in California. NLSI's operations are expected to begin March 1, 2008.
NLSI research teams will address current topics in basic lunar science, and perhaps astronomical, solar and Earth science investigations that could be performed from the moon. They also will offer a quick response capability for lunar science support to NASA's Exploration initiative.
A national search for an NLSI director is currently underway. Most work done under NLSI's banner will take place at other NASA centers, universities and non-profit research groups around the nations. These groups will be competitively selected after scientific peer review.
Initially, NASA will select four or five teams for grants of 1 million to 2 million U.S. dollars each for three years, with renewals of up to five years.
By late 2008, about 50 researchers around the U.S. could be working under NLSI's banner. By 2010, that number could double, said NASA.
Funds for this effort are part of the U.S. president's proposed 2008 NASA budget for the lunar science project within the planetary research program, now under consideration in Congress.
The lunar science institute is modeled after the highly successful NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at Ames. Established in 1997, the Astrobiology Institute promotes, conducts and leads integrated multidisciplinary astrobiology research in addition to training a new generation of astrobiology researchers in the United States.
Source:Xinhua
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