352th Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar 6 - 10 June 2005 Lunar Science - the Next Decade Physikzentrum Bad Honnef Bad Honnef, Germany

Goal and Purpose of the Seminar

With the announcement of a new US initiative to return to the Moon and numerous missions reaching out to the Moon, the scientific interest in lunar research has received new momentum. The fact that more than 30 years have gone by since the Apollo program has ended has led to an increasing gap between lunar scientists who participated in the Apollo program and a younger generation of scientists who are going to work in the current and upcoming missions. As a consequence, a lot of knowledge, insight and expertise in lunar science needs to be transferred to a new generation of lunar scientists. This is particularly true since many nations are now entering the arena of lunar science which have not participated before in lunar programs. In addition, new technologies have made it easier than ever to participate and collaborate in the data analysis of data returned from lunar missions.

It is the purpose of "Lunar Science - the Next Decade" to stimulate the interest of the young generation in the field of lunar science, to bring the relevant unanswered questions which await answers to them and to establish links among the new and old generation of scientists. At the same time, we intend to show graduate students that new opportunities for doing research in lunar science are opening up due to the renewed interest in lunar exploration.

The seminar is structured in the introductory part as a tutorial, which will bring together the relevant background needed in lunar science in a concise form (cosmology, planetary systems formation, mineralogy, geology and instrumentation). In a second part, reviews of the current state of knowledge in several lunar disciplines will then set the stage for a topical workshop, where results from lunar missions are discussed with an emphasis on new results from the European mission SMART-1.

The course is intended mainly for graduate students and physicists who wish to increase their knowledge in the field. The lectures are given by outstanding experts in the field. The language is English.