Paul D. Spudis (1952–2018) was an American geologist and lunar scientist. His specialty was the study of volcanism and impact processes on the planets, including Mercury and Mars.
Spudis was well known as a leading advocate of a return to the Moon to use its resources to establish and supply a cislunar space transportation system.[4]
In 1976 he earned a B.S. in geology at the Arizona State University. Following his graduation he spent several months working with Dr. Ronald Greeley at Ames Research Center studying various aspects of Lunar and Martian geology, before transitioning to an internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, during the Mars landing of that year. The following year he went to Brown University to study planetary geology, with a focus on the Moon. A year later he earned his master's degree and moved back to Arizona where he started working for Dr. Greeley who had just joined the faculty at Arizona State University. In 1982 he earned a PhD in geology at the university.
After graduation, he went to work for the U.S. Geological Survey. In the following years he spent in lunar studies and promoting the idea of lunar exploration. He became a principal investigator at the NASA Office of Space Science, Solar System Exploration Division, planetary geology program. He later joined Lunar and Planetary InstituteinHouston as a staff scientist.
Eventually Spudis joined the Johns Hopkins UniversityApplied Physics Laboratory, and became senior staff scientist. He returned to the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston in 2008 and was a senior staff scientist there.
He served as a member of a 1991 White House committee, the Synthesis Group, in Washington D.C. In 1994 he was the deputy leader of the Clementine mission science team. He also served on numerous science advisory committees. At Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory he developed an imaging radar system for the Indian mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1. He was a member of the 2004 Presidential Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy. He was a team member of the Mini-RF experiment on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
Spudis, a crater on the Moon, is named after him. This crater is next to the famous Shackleton crater on the south polar region of the Moon, which has been an area of particular interest for future lunar landing missions.
^"Paul Dee Spudis". American Men & Women of Science. Vol. 6 (22nd ed.). New Providence, N.J. 2005. p. 1036.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^2016 Columbia Medal acceptance speech – Paul Spudis (video). 19 April 2016. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube. American Society of Civil Engineers 2016 Columbia Medal acceptance speech and technical talk by Paul D. Spudis, Lunar and Planetary Institute
Bussey, Ben; Spudis, Paul D. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-81528-2.
Spudis, Anne; Spudis, Paul D. (2005). Moonwake: The Lunar Frontier. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN1-4257-0091-8.
Spudis, Paul D. (2010). Blogging the Moon: The Once and Future Moon Collection. Apogee Prime Books. ISBN978-1-926837-17-8.
Spudis, Paul D. (2016). The Value of the Moon: How to Explore, Live, and Prosper in Space Using the Moon's Resources, Smithsonian Books. Smithsonian Institution. ISBN978-1588345035., ISBN978-1588345035
Papers
Ryder, Graham; Spudis, Paul D. (1979). Volcanism prior to the termination of the heavy bombardment: Evidence, characteristics, and concepts. Conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust. pp. 132–134.
Spudis, Paul D.; Ryder, Graham (1980). Apollo 17 impact melts and the geology of the Taurus-Littrow highlands. Conference on Multiring Basins. pp. 86–88.
Spudis, P. D., 1985. A Mercurian chronostratigraphic classification. In Reports of Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program - 1984. Technical Memorandum 87563. Washington, DC: NASA, pp. 595-597.
Spudis, P.D.; Asmar, S.W.; Bussey, D.B.J.; Duxbury, N.; Friesen, L.J.; Gillis, J.J.; et al. (2002). Sykes, M. (ed.). The Future of Solar System Exploration, 2003-2013. Lunar Exploration Manned and Unmanned. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 272. pp. 77–88.
Aldridge, E. "Pete" (Chair); Fiorina, C.S.; Jackson, M.P.; Leshin, L.A.; Lyles, L.L.; Spudis, P.D.; et al. (June 2004). A Journey to Inspire, Innovate, and Discover. President's Commission on Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy.
Spudis, P.D. (2011). "Chapter 12. The Moon: Port of Entry to Cislunar Space". In Lutes, C.D.; Hays, P.L. (eds.). Toward a Theory of Space Power: Selected Essays. Institute for National Strategic Studies. Washington DC: National Defense University.
Spudis, P.D.; Lavoie A.R. (2011). Using the Resources of the Moon to Create a Permanent Cislunar Space Faring System. Space 2011 Conference and Exposition. Long Beach, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. p. 24. AIAA 2011-7185.
