The International Lunar Observatory (ILO) initiative saw significant progress in 2004. After researching the benefits and possibilities of conducting lunar astronomy (astronomy from the Moon), the originator of the project, Space Age Publishing Company (SPC), has convened a network of about 20 of the world’s foremost lunar development and astronomical experts to serve on the initial ILO Advisory Committee. The formation of the Committee is complemented by a new ILO website linked to www.spaceagepub.com by SPC at the start of the new year.

Members of the ILO Advisory Committee hail from Canada, Japan, India, Russia, Europe and across the USA. They are considered to be among the world’s leading astronomers, astrophysicists, observatory technicians, space authors, engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers and visionaries, and occupy important positions throughout the international space community. Additional members are currently being identified in China as well as other key global space and astrophysics centers. Committee members will spend 2005 determining the most meaningful scientific return possible from placement of a small robotic telescope at the lunar South Pole. Many ILO Advisory Committee members are also members of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), the world’s foremost network of space science professionals involved in lunar exploration. The ILO Advisory Committee is also tasked with helping to gain institutional support for the ILO mission.

The new ILO website delivers updates and detailed information on the ILO initiative. The site also contains detailed information on the benefits humanity gains by conducting astrophysics from the Moon and the field’s brief history, which includes Captain John Young’s use of a telescope / camera in the shadow of the Lunar Module during 1972’s Apollo 16 mission.

Space Age Publishing Company is excited about the new committee and looks forward to educating the public about the tremendous as-of-yet unutilized advantages of lunar astronomy (operating observatories on the Moon). “This newly-forming ILO Advisory Committee is challenged to establish a toe-hold for lunar base build-out and to meet the great 21st century imperative for human survival and advancement: Seeing Humanity Become a Multi-Planet Species,” says SPC founder Steve Durst.

The ILO mission’s feasibility was confirmed in the ILO Phase B Study/Final Report that SpaceDev, Inc. completed for SPC’s subsidiary, Lunar Enterprise Corporation, on 19 November 2004. The ILO report was presented the following week at the ILEWG’s International Conference on Utilization and Exploration of the Moon 6 (International Lunar Conference 2004) in Udaipur, India by SpaceDev CEO and founder Jim Benson.

The new ILO webpages can be found at www.spaceagepub.com/ilo/ilo.home.html. Anyone with questions or desiring more information about this exciting aspect of humanity’s renewed lunar exploration efforts should feel free to contact SPC at any time (please note that we are on HST). Aloha.
 
 

About Space Age Publishing Company:

Space Age Publishing Company, publisher of Lunar Enterprise Daily and Space Calendar weekly, operates offices on Hawai‘i Island, Hawaii (1988), and in Palo Alto, California (1977), USA, and pursues a business plan for its third office on the Moon. With its Lunar Enterprise Corporation subsidiary, Space Age advances and supports a wide variety of scientific, commercial and international lunar activities and enterprises – such as the International Lunar Observatory – consistent with a human return to the Moon within the decade. Space Age also promotes Hawaii Space Tours, Stanford on the Moon and the Ad Astra Kansas initiatives.