The Lunar Science Conference kicked off today, as scientists met in the US to decide what they actually want to do when they get back to the Moon.

“This is going to open a new era of scientific understanding,” says Pete Worden of NASA (The Register). “We will learn how we can live on another world. … We’re going back, and this time we’re going to stay.”

NASA scientist Chris McKay told the conference a whole new culture needs to be created at the agency.

“I would argue that long-term planning has been something that NASA has not been very good at. We are going to the moon to stay – and to stay means 50 years,” he says (San Jose Mercury).

The San Francisco Chronicle also features McKay, pointing out that we don’t really know what 50 years on the Moon would do to a human body:

So McKay, a planetary geophysicist and committed seeker of extraterrestrial life, is arguing that the single-most essential experiment before humans get too far along in planning for human occupation of the moon is to send plants there and watch them grow.

“I want to be a lunar botanist,” McKay says.

David Morrison, of the new NASA Lunar Science Institute that is running the conference says, “We want to use the moon as the core location for science.”

Via NASA Watch

Eugene Hargrove, a professor of philosophy from the University of North Texas told the conference astronauts should avoid writing their names on the places they might land (New Scientist). His talk is summarised on this pdf.

Image: NASA Glenn Research Center (NASA-GRC)