Monday / 26 March 2001

'Lunar Odyssey 2001' Concludes First LUNEX Convention Today. An open session on lunar exploration taking place today at the 26th European Geophysical Society General Assembly in Nice, France is the closing event of the 1st Convention of Lunar Explorers Society which started 8 March in Paris. Sponsored by ESA, NASA, ISAS, ILEWG and the Society, this event consists of three panels. Recent results of lunar science is the subject of the first panel chaired by S. Dunkin, which includes studies primarily based on data from Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions and investigations on the origin and evolution of Earth-Moon system, planetology, and other aspects of lunar geoscience. The second panel chaired by H. Hoffmann deals with international lunar exploration program, reporting current status of ESA's SMART-1, Lunar-A and Japan's SELENE, and discussing other future lunar exploration initiatives. The third panel chaired by R. Bonnet focuses on lunar outreach activities, which includes B. Foing and others' report on the goals and activities of 1st Lunex conference, and forums on 'The Millennium Project' and 'Lunar Village.' The session concludes with a celebration of the 1st LUNEX Convention. This event, with the upcoming workshop 'New Views of the Moon' this fall in Berlin, will significantly promote international cooperation and boost lunar enterprise throughout the world. For more information about this event visit http://www.copernicus.org/EGS/egsga/nice01/programme/P35..oral.htm.

Lunar Tektites May Have Triggered Extinctions. Darryl Futrell, a California-based petrologist who studies meteoritic stones called tektites, believes there is strong evidence to suggest that volcanic explosions on the Moon have produced climate changes and mass extinctions by showering Earth with tons of natural glass. Futrell has identified volcanic structures within layered tektites whose chemical composition suggests a lunar origin. Futrell's mentor, Apollo lunar scientist John O'Keefe (1916-2000), also believed that the Moon periodically hurls volcanic debris onto Earth, and the fact that Apollo 12 and 14 astronauts found rocks with tektite-like chemistries on the lunar surface adds further evidence that tektites come from the Moon. Futrell feels the most recent 'Moon shower' to deposit natural glass on Earth occurred within the past 770,000 years."The Earth has experienced about 12 tektite events in the last 65 million years," Futrell says. "Even though another event may not occur for thousands of years, the slight possibility that it could occur tomorrow needs to be taken into consideration."

Fox Network Still Under Fire from Critics of Moon Hoax Show. KJTV-34 in Lubbock, TX, a Fox affiliate which broadcast the original Moon Hoax program, granted skeptics an opportunity to rebut. KJTV local news anchor Jeff Klotzman interviewed skeptical writer Jimmy Reynolds and Center for Critical Thinking representative Harvey Madison, during a two minute segment. "It wasn't much, but we at least had a chance to hit back, " says Reynolds. During the broadcast, Klotzman also wanted viewers to understand the the Moon Hoax program was created by Fox Entertainment rather than the Fox news division. "KJTV, to their very great credit, went out of their way to distance themselves from the (Moon Hoax) program," says Reynolds. A debate with Moon Hoax show creator Bart Sibrel was held Saturday in Huntsville, AL at Madison Square Mall.