Planetary Science and Exploration Seminar, Clive Neal - "Why the Moon Needs an International Lunar Resource Prospecting Campaign"

The Moon is a highly valued destination for human space exploration because it is close and it contains a wide array of lunar and Solar System science targets, which include resources that could be used to sustain humans on the lunar surface. These resources have the potential to enable sustainable human space exploration, develop a vibrant cislunar economy, and directly benefit society here on Earth. However, recent rhetoric about the importance and value of these resources has used the term as if we know they are reserves. An immediate and vital next step has not yet been realized to define the reserve potential of such resources, and that is designing and implementing a coordinated international lunar resource evaluation (prospecting) campaign. This talk discusses the issues that still need to be addressed by such a campaign, including why it needs to be international in nature and how the coordination can be started and evolved, as well as exploring the benefits that would come from prospecting on the Moon.

Clive R. Neal is a lunar evangelist and Professor of Planetary Geology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, with 40 years of experience studying all aspects of the Moon and lunar exploration. He is passionate about establishing human permanence on the Moon in a way that benefits society here on Earth, while maximizing the scientific return that enables commercial involvement.

Neal has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles and was a co-editor of the New Views of the Moon 1 and 2 volumes. He chaired NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) from 2006-2010, where he led the development of the U.S. Lunar Exploration Roadmap, and again from 2015-2018, when he formed the LEAG Commercial Advisory Board. In 2015, he received the NASA Wargo Award for the integration of exploration and planetary science throughout his career.

Neal was an advisor to the National Academies Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) from 2016 to 2017, and a member from 2018 to 2024. In 2019, he was invited to give testimony at the sixth meeting of the National Space Council regarding the importance of in-situ resource utilization. In 2025, Neal gave a technical presentation on lunar resource prospecting to the UN-COPUOS Legal Subcommittee; he gave another technical presentation to that subcommittee in 2026.

Also in 2026, Neal received two prestigious awards: NASA’s Eugene Shoemaker Distinguished Scientist Medal, which honors individuals who have made significant, career-spanning contributions to the field of lunar and planetary geoscience; and the AGU’s Waldo E. Smith Award, given biennially in even-numbered years to a senior scientist in recognition of extraordinary service to Earth and space science.

Currently, Neal is a member of the ESA Human-spaceflight and Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC), a Steering Committee member of the NASEM study of Key Non-Polar Destinations Across the Moon, the co-chief editor of the new Space and Planetary Resources Journal, and a member of the Lunar Science Advisory Board for ispace-US.

Neal was educated in the UK, receiving his PhD from the University of Leeds. He moved to the U.S. in 1986, where he spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, studying Apollo samples. He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 1990.

Speaker-suggested reading: Neal, C. R., et al. (2024). The Moon needs an international lunar resource prospecting campaign. Acta Astronautica, 214, 737–7.

10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.11.017