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AIM HIGH: Some alumni want Stanford to shoot for the
moon.
Rod Searcey
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years from now, when moon studies are old
hat, maybe Stanford alumni will sit around at reunions and reminisce
about leisurely afternoons hanging out in the lunar dome, drinking beer
and watching the earth turn. Remember those no-gravity touch football
games?
This may sound fanciful, even ridiculous, but it’s no joke to
a group of ’65 alums promoting “a Stanford lunar
presence” in coming years. “The giggle factor is reasonable
and expected,” says Steve Durst, a Palo Alto science editor who
is spearheading the Stanford on the Moon project. “It’s
inevitable that all major universities will eventually pursue lunar
studies. We want Stanford to be a leader when the time comes.”
Durst is owner and founder of Space Age Publishing, which produces
newsletters for the space industry. He and three colleagues are part of
an organizing committee for the International Lunar Conference to be
held in Hawaii in November.
Stanford on the Moon began with conversations at Reunion 2000,
prompted by Durst’s class book entry that referred to the
optimism and energy of the Apollo era. “We feel like that has
been lost in the past 30 years,” says Durst. Last April, he and
some classmates formed an exploratory committee to promote the Stanford
on the Moon concept. What such an initiative might involve is
undetermined, Durst says, but it could be as ambitious as placing a
radio telescope on the lunar surface that could be operated by the
School of Engineering.
Although he has had conversations with Stanford officials, including
director of overseas studies Amos Nur, Durst is not seriously
advocating a Semester in the Sea of Tranquility. But he wouldn’t
rule it out. “By the end of this century, there will be a human
settlement on the moon,” he says. “It’s not a matter
of if, but when.”
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