Lunar and Planetary Seismology Forum Successfully Held at ISSI-BJ

On January 11-12, 2017, the ISSI-BJ forum on Lunar and Planetary Seismology was successfully held. Over 30 leading scientists from 8 countries participated in the forum, which was convened by Philippe Lognonné (University of Paris Diderot/Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France), Ip Wing Huen (National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taiwan), Yosio Nakamura (The University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Geophysics, USA), Mark Wieczorek (CNRS/Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris,  France), Wang Yanbin (Department of Geophysics, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, China), Tilman Spohn (Former Chairman ISSI-BJ SC, DLR, Germany), Maurizio Falanga (ISSI-BJ, CN; ISSI, Switzerland).

The Forum started with an overview of the Apollo seismic experiment, followed by the outline of the goals and challenges of planetary seismology. Next, the achievements of the Apollo seismic experiment have been reviewed, and the science goals of a new post-Apollo seismic return on the Moon have been identified. The participants then proceeded to review the perspective of planetary seismology on other bodies of the solar system from Mars, where a major seismology mission (INSIGHT) is in preparation, to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, where seismology experiments using astronomical techniques have already been successfully implemented. Finally, the participants discussed the new developments and future projects in Japan, Russia, USA, Europe and China.

The Forum ended with an extensive discussion during which the participants summarized the outcomes of the Forum. All participants shared the vision that future seismology at the moon, and further out into the Solar System, will develop on the same fundaments which prevailed for terrestrial seismology from its very beginning: a full dedication to open, free, international collaboration and free circulation of data. This Seismology Forum was no doubt in particularly strong resonance with the spirit and missions of ISSI-BJ.

 An issue of Taikong, ISSI-BJ magazine, will be devoted to the content of this Forum for distribution to the science communities and space science institutions.