Conference Information

Conference Program

110th Annual Conference Program Highlights
November 6-8, 2005
Nevele Grande Resort and Country Club
Ellenville, NY

TO THE MOON AND BEYOND!

To be presented by Harrison Schmitt, astronaut, November 7, 2005

In December 1972, the Apollo 17 Mission became the most recent field trip to the Moon by human explorers. This 13 day adventure in space took Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt to the Valley of Taurus-Littrow in the southeastern rim of the 500 km. diameter basin filled by Mare Serenitatis. After 72 hours on the lunar surface, including 22 hours outside the lunar module Challenger, the astronauts returned over 250 pounds of samples to Earth. The story of this mission captures all the adventure, excitement, beauty, and human drama of the exploration of space.

The samples, and the visual observation, photography, and geophysical data related to them, completed the documentation of the first human exploration of the Moon. Apollo activities on the Moon, and the international scientific studies related to them, have given us a first order understanding of the evolution of the Moon as a small planet. Our understanding of the early history of the Earth has been greatly enhanced as a consequence. In particular, it now seems unlikely that the Moon formed as a result of a giant asteroid impact on the Earth but rather was captured after forming independently as a small planet in the same part of the solar system.

Proximity to the Earth, lack of atmosphere, gravity only one-sixth that of the Earth, planetary position as the smallest of the terrestrial planets, and potential life-sustaining resources almost certainly assure a role for the Moon in future lunar activities in support of human exploration, utilization, and settlement of space. The Moon can be considered as a stepping-stone towards Mars and beyond and also as the low cost supply depot for deep space exploration and settlement. A privately financed approach to the return of humans to the Moon and deep space appears to be the most likely means of being successful in such an endeavor.

Biographical Sketch of Harrison Schmitt

Harrison Hagan Schmitt, a native of Silver City, NM, has the diverse experience of a geologist, pilot, astronaut, administrator, businessman, writer, and U. S. Senator. He received his B. S. from Caltech, studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Oslo, and attended graduate school at Harvard. His Ph.D. in geology in 1964 is based on geological field studies in Norway. As a civilian, Schmitt received Air Force jet pilot wings in 1965 and Navy helicopter wings in 1967.

Selected for the Scientist-Astronaut program in 1965, Schmitt organized the lunar science training for the Apollo Astronauts, represented the crews during the development of hardware and procedures for lunar surface exploration, and oversaw the final preparation of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Descent Stage. He was designated Mission Scientist in support of the Apollo 11 mission. After training as back-up Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 15, Schmitt served as Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 17 - the last Apollo mission to the moon. On December 11, 1972, he landed in the Valley of Taurus-Littrow as the only scientist and the last of 12 men to step on the Moon.

In 1975, after two years managing NASA's Energy Program Office, Schmitt fulfilled a long-standing personal commitment by entering politics. Elected in 1976, and he served a six year term in the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977. Senator Schmitt, the only "natural scientist" in the Senate since Thomas Jefferson was Vice-President of the United States, was a member of the Senate Commerce, Banking, Appropriations, Intelligence, and Ethics Committees. In his last two years in the Senate, Schmitt held the position of Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space and of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. He later served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the President's Commission on Ethics Law Reform, the Army Science Board, as Co-Chairman of the International Observer Group for the 1992 Romanian elections, and as Vice Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference in Spain.

Harrison Schmitt consults, speaks, and writes on policy issues of the future, the science of the Moon and Planets, and the American Southwest. His scientific research concentrates primarily on the synthesis of data related to the origin and evolution of the Moon and the terrestrial planets and on the economic geology of the lunar regolith and its resources. Schmitt presently is Chair Emeritus of The Annapolis Center (risk assessment) and is Adjunct Professor of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaching "Resources from Space." His current board memberships include Orbital Sciences Corporation, Edenspace Systems Corporation, and PhDx Systems, Inc., and, as a retired Director, he is a Member of the Corporation of the Draper Laboratory. He is a member of the Energy Department's Laboratory Operations Board and the Mcguire Energy Institute's Board of Advisors and is co-chair of NASA's Human Planetary Landing Systems Capabilities road-mapping effort. Schmitt founded and is Chairman of Interlune-Intermars Initiative, Inc., advancing the private sector's acquisition of lunar resources and Helium-3 fusion power and clinical use of medical isotopes produced by fusion-related processes.

Schmitt's honors include 1973 Arthur S. Fleming Award, 1973 Distinguished Graduate of Caltech, 1973 Caltech Sherman Fairchild Scholar, NASA Distinguished Service Award, Fellow of the AIAA, Honorary Member of the Norwegian Geographical Society and Geological Association of Canada, 1989 Lovelace Award (space biomedicine), 1989 G.K. Gilbert Award (planetology), and Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of America, American Institute of Mining, and Geological Society of London. Dr. Schmitt has received honorary degrees from several U.S. and Canadian Universities. In recognition of past service, the U.S. Department of State in July 2003 established the Harrison H. Schmitt Leadership Award for U.S. Fulbright Fellowship awardees.