Print this pageField Exploration Analysis Team (Feat): from Overview
The Field Exploration Analysis Team (FEAT) is a non-affiliated group of geologists, geophysicists, planetary scientists, and engineers interested in the role of field geology as applied to the future exploration of the Moon. FEAT thus provides a forum to discuss, evaluate, and recommend various strategies in regard to fieldwork on the lunar surface. Some of the topics that are and have been considered by members of FEAT are: astronaut geological/geophysical training in the field and classroom, possible lunar-analog sites and field exercises, lessons from the Apollo Program, geologic exploration equipment including roving vehicles, sampling tools, fieldwork in pressurized suits, analytical equipment in the field including analog testing, hypothetical EVA scenarios, the nature of geophysical experiments to be deployed on the Moon, the human-robotic synergy during lunar exploration including telepresence, and the fundamental science questions that will be addressed during the anticipated return to the Moon. FEAT has regularly held open group meetings at the Annual Meetings of the AAPG and GSA as well as at LEAG meetings and special lunar exploration workshops (e.g., the 2007 meeting in Tempe, Arizona, on the Lunar Exploration Architecture). FEAT has also sponsored several field trips for its members and other interested parties such as members of SMD and ESMD at NASA Headquarters and other centers. To date the most detailed document produced by members of FEAT is the “White Paper,” which can be viewed at the following website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/feat/ . Finally, a fundamental contribution that FEAT can make to future lunar exploration is to recruit young, field-oriented geoscientists and planetary scientists into the ongoing discussions on the nature of fieldwork on the Moon. These scientists will no doubt have an enormous impact in the way that future lunar explorers are trained to do fieldwork.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90090©2009 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, June 7-10, 2009