Asimov Debate on Moon, Mars and Beyond Held at Museum of Natural History, 3/15

The American Museum of Natural History will ask "Where next for the manned space program?" March 15th with its 10th Annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate "Moon, Mars and Beyond: Should we return to the Moon, or should multiple destinations be the goal?"

Where to go next is one of the hottest topics for NASA's manned program. Central to the subject are thorny issues that relate to science, launch hardware, international competition, national security, shrinking budgets, and political will. The Obama administration's recent decision to delay indefinitely of our next voyage to Moon while simultaneously planning a new launch vehicle to take us out of low earth orbit makes this Asimov Debate particularly topical and newsworthy.

The event will be moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astronomer, and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Panelists will include Kenneth Ford, Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, Lester Lyles, United States Air Force (Ret), a member of NASA's Human Space Flight Plans Committee, Paul Spudis, Lunar and Planetary Institute, who conducts experiments on lunar orbiting missions to map permanently dark regions poles and search for water ice deposits, Steven Squyres, Cornell University, the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, among others and Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, with a focus on exploration and settlement of that planet, who is also the President of Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace research and development company.

The event will take place in the LeFrak Theater, first floor - Enter at 77th Street, American Museum of Natural History.

Admission for the event is $15 for adults and $13.50 for members, students and seniors.

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