International Lunar Exploration Working Group

The International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) is a public forum sponsored by the world's space agencies to support "international cooperation towards a world strategy for the exploration and utilization of the Moon - our natural satellite" (International Lunar Workshop, Beatenberg (CH), June 1994).[1][2]

ILEWG was founded by several space agencies: Australian Space Agency (ASA), Italian Space Agency (ASI), British BNSC, French CNES, German Aerospace Center, ESA, ISAS, NASA, Japanese NASDA, Roskosmos.[3]

Operations and conferences[edit]

ILEWG has been organising since 1994 the ICEUM International Conferences on Exploration & Utilisation of the Moon[4] with published proceedings,[5] and where community declarations have been prepared and endorsed by community participants. ILEWG has co-organised and co-sponsored lunar sessions at EGU, COSPAR, EPSC.

The 8th gathering was held on July 23–27, 2006, in Beijing, China, and agreed on the new Lunar Beijing Declaration.[1]

Members[edit]

ILEWG Executive Director:  Prof. Bernard Foing (ILEWG Past-President, 1998 - 2000)

ILEWG Vice-presidents: Prof. Tai Sik Lee (2016 - current), Prof. Jacques Blamont (2010 - 2016), Dr. Simonetta di Pippo (2006 – 2008), Dr Robert Richards (2005 - 2007)

ILEWG Past-Presidents : Dr. Michael Wargo (2008 - 2010), Prof. Wu Ji (2006 - 2008), Prof. Narendra Bhandari (2004 - 2006), Prof Carle Pieters (2002 – 2004), Prof Mike Duke (2000-2002), Prof Bernard Foing (1998 – 2000), Acad. Erik Galimov (1996 – 1998), Dr Hitoshi Mizutani

Roadmap[edit]

The roadmap or timeline envisaged includes a 15-year period of robotic operations before crewed missions.[3]: 9  Robots would pilot in-situ resource utilisation and construct habitation for later crew.

EuroMoonMars[edit]

As part of research efforts towards the colonization of Moon and eventually, the colonization of Mars, ILEWG founded the EuroMoonMars initiative, which comprises field campaigns in Moon-Mars analogue environments.[6]

The EuroMoonMars field campaigns have been organised in specific locations of technical, scientific and exploration interest. The campaigns started with EuroGeoMars2009 (Utah MDRS, 24 Jan-1 Mar 2009) with ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, NASA Ames, VU Amsterdam and GWU.[7]

EMMIHS Campaigns[edit]

Currently, ILEWG is collaborating with the International Moonbase Alliance (IMA)[8] and the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) on a series of EuroMoonMars, IMA and HI-SEAS (EMMIHS) campaigns, at the HI-SEAS analogue facilities in Hawaii.[9]

The Hawaii - Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat is located at 8,200’ (2,500 meters) in elevation and IMA's founder, Henk Rogers, is its owner.[10] As of 2018, IMA, an organization dedicated to building sustainable settlements on the Moon, has been organising regular simulated missions to the Moon, Mars or other planetary bodies at HI-SEAS. Dr. Michaela Musilova is the Director of HI-SEAS[11] and she also takes part in missions as a Crew Commander, Flights Director or CAPCOM.

The EuroMoonMars campaigns consist of research activities for data analysis, instruments tests and development, field tests in Moon-Mars analogues, pilot projects, training and hands-on workshops and outreach activities.[12][13]

EMM IgLuna 2019 Campaign[edit]

IgLuna is the first ESA Lab inter-University demonstrator project,[14] and is hosted by the Swiss Space Centre (SSC)[15] with the vision to create an analogue habitat inside lunar ice caps. The campaigns were held from 17 to 30 June 2019 and involved 18 student teams from 9 countries across Europe. The students developed modular demonstrators and tested them during a field test conducted inside the moon-like extreme environment of the Glacier Palace inside the Matterhorn glacier.

EuroMoonMars Field Campaigns[16]
Year Campaign Notes
2009 EuroMoonMars-Eifel Collaboration between ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, VU Amsterdam, Austrian Space Forum OEWF, GWU, Ecole de l’Air
2010 EuroMoonMars-DOMMEX Collaboration between ILEWG, ESA ESTEC, NASA Ames, VU Amsterdam, GWU, Ecole de l’Air, FloridaTec, UCL Louvain
2010 EuroMoonMars SALM La Réunion Island
2011 EuroMoonMars2011 (MDRS) First EMM-MDRS mission
2012 EuroMoonMars2012 (MDRS) Crew: Stoker, Battler, v’t Houd, Bruneau, Cross, Maivald, Svendsen, Oltheten, Nebergall, Orgel

Support: Foing, Ehrenfreund, Elsaesser, Rammos, Rodrigues, Direito, Roling

2017 LunAres (Poland) Crew: PMAS SGAC

Support @ESTEC/Mission control: Foing, Lillo, Authier, Blanc et al.

2018 EMM-Iceland scouting campaign Crew: Foing, Heemskerk, Sitnikova et al.

Support: 4th Planet Logistics

2018 EMMIHS-0 (scouting campaign) Crew: Rogers H&A, Foing, Wilhite, Machida

Support: BluePlanet: Ponthieux, Cox et al.

2019 EMMIHS-I Crew: Musilova, Sirikan, Mulder, Weert, Burstein, Pothier

Support: BluePlanet: Foing, Ponthieux, Cox, Rogers

2019 EMM-IgLuna campaign IgLuna SSC support: Benavides, EuroMoonMars VUA/ILEWG

Crew: de Winter, Heemskerk, Albers, Clement, Bois, Daeter, Vaessen, Glukhova, Sitnikova, Dimova, Wanske, van der Sanden, Foing

Support: Kruijver, Dingemans, Beentjes, Korthouwer, Moritz, Grosjean et al.

2019 EMMIHS-II Crew: Musilova, Kerber, Castro, Wanske, Pouwels, d’Angelo

Support: BluePlanet: Cox et al., support@ESTEC/VUA: Ageli, Foing, Heemskerk, Beniest, Sitnikova, Preusterink

2020 EMMIHS-III Crew: Musilova M., Brasileiro L., Edison K., Heemskerk M&R, Rajkakati P.

Support: BluePlanet & ESTEC/VUA

2020 EMMIHS-IV Crew: to be confirmed

Support: BluePlanet & ESTEC/VUA

2021 CHILL-ICE Crew I: Kerber, Elwertowska, Poli

Crew II: Cardinaux, Smith, Christianen

Mission Control: Pouwels, Heemskerk, Kerber, Weert, Downes

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b July 2006, Leonard David 31 (31 July 2006). "Multi-Nation Moon Collaboration Backed". Space.com. Retrieved 2021-05-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ INTERNATIONAL LUNAR EXPLORATION WORKING GROUP (ILEWG)
  3. ^ a b Global Robotic Village & International Lunar Bases Nov 2009
  4. ^ David 2004-12-01T11:55:00Z, Leonard (December 2004). "Lunar Robotic Village, Moon Base Gains International Support". Space.com. Retrieved 2020-01-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "NASA/ADS". ui.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  6. ^ Foing, B. H.; EuroMoonMars 2018-2019 Team (2019). "EuroMoonmars Instruments, Research, Field Campaigns, and activities 2017-2019" (PDF). 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (2132): 3090. Bibcode:2019LPI....50.3090F.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Boche-Sauvan, L.; Pletser, V.; Foing, B. H.; Team, Eurogeomars (2009). "Human Aspects and Habitat Studies from EuroGeoMars Campaign". EGUGA: 13323. Bibcode:2009EGUGA..1113323B.
  8. ^ "ILEWG". International MoonBase Alliance. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  9. ^ "Emmihs-esa". emmihs-esa.webnode.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  10. ^ "Henk Rogers". International MoonBase Alliance. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  11. ^ "Mission Commander Talks Latest Research at HI-SEAS Habitat | PISCES Hawaii". Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  12. ^ "EMM IMA HI-SEAS campaign February 2019" (PDF).
  13. ^ Foing, Bernard H. (2018). "Experimental Training and Capacity Building: EuroMoonMars Workshops and Field Simulations 2016-2018". Cosp. 42: PCB.1–6–18-6. Bibcode:2018cosp...42E1085F.
  14. ^ Benavides, Tatiana; Heemskerk, Marc; Foing, Bernard; De Winter, Bram (2019). "IGLUNA - Habitat in Ice: An ESA_Lab project hosted by the SSC". EGUGA: 17807. Bibcode:2019EGUGA..2117807B.
  15. ^ "IGLUNA - a space habitat". Swiss Space Center. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  16. ^ "EuroMoonMars Extreme Field Analogue Campaigns". cosmos.esa.int.