Lionel Wilson
Emeritus Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Lancaster University
Visiting Professor, University of Hawai'i
Visiting Professor, Brown University

Various small commercially-sourced missions are scheduled as part of the run-up to NASA's Artemis programme to return humans to the Moon. These provide opportunities to explore features that can shed light on the timing and nature of the most recent lunar volcanic activity. Lancaster scientists are involved in two of these, planned to visit the Ina caldera, a location of unusual lava flows, and the Mare Tranquillitatis pit, an opening into a sub-surface cavity that might be developed into a habitat for astronauts.

Lionel Wilson is an emeritus professor at Lancaster University and a visiting professor at Brown University and the University of Hawai'i in the U.S.A. He focusses on understanding the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics of volcanic eruptions on the rock-dominated bodies in the Solar System, and has been involved in analysing data from virtually all spacecraft missions to Mars, Io and our Moon over the last 50 years.