Washington DC 11-12 October, 2005

Rome, 11-11-2005

Dear Madam/Sir,

The International Conference "Moon Base: a Challenge for Humanity" - Washington Workshop "Jamestown on the Moon", held on October 11th-12th 2005 has been a great meeting, thanks to the participation of the scientific, industrial and institutional communities at highest level.

This workshop, as a natural following step in the Moon Base conference project, provided a significant opportunity for US and Italian industry players and decision makers to meet and cooperate to a common strategy for the Human Exploration, Settlement and Exploitation of the Moon. Many questions have been addressed during the previous Venice workshop. In order to give answers to them, five workgroups have been set up for the preparation of this meeting, each one having the task of providing solutions and models on the respective topics. The results presented in Washington, have shown a full achievement of our objectives.

On behalf of the Conference Chair, Co-chair and all the Organizing Committee, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the people who have contributed to the success of this event, and to the realization of the conference.

First and foremost, I would like to thank the secretariat staff, whose generous and reliable work has been fundamental in the organization process of the conference. My second thank goes to our hosts, the International Academy of Environmental Sciences, in Venice, and the Washington Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, for their excellent hospitality. Third, I record my gratitude to the session chairmen, and the workgroups co-ordinators, for their roles and value contributions. Of course we express our particular thanks to the speakers: working in short times, they have taken the difficult task of sharing their knowledge and vision with the audience, for a wonderful and unique quality discussion. They are the real heart of this conference, and we are truly grateful for their work. Moreover, I would like to thank the industrial and institutional sponsors, for their support and backing. The realization of this meeting could not have been possible without their inspiration and effort. Last but most important, I would extend our grateful appreciation to the enthusiasm of the attendees, which has made this conference a resounding event.

The time we have spent together in Venice, and Washington, DC, will be a fruitful contribution to the future works of this great project.

We are proud that the scientific level of the meeting has been recognized to be of highest value, while the speakers coming from the world of institutions, provided remarkable contributions to the understanding of the Moon Base project affordability, and the industrial world presented their innovative and effective point of view on the issues addressed by the workgroups.

During the Washington workshop, 38 speakers presented their work, including the keynote speeches given during the social time. In particular let us remind the one by Michael Griffin, the NASA administrator, during the gala dinner at the Air and Space Museum. Considering the full conference, about 100 authors provided a total impressive number of 122 papers, consisting in presentations, articles, movies and other documentation. All this material is now available for download. In fact, on Friday October the 5th 2005, the full review of the Washington workshop, in addition to the Venice one, has been published in the official website of the Moon Base conference (www.moonbase-usa.org and www.moonbase-italia.org), including the list of the updated presentations, sorted by topic title and speaker name. A new Gallery section, containing all the pictures and the videos of the talks, will be on-line within few days.

Moreover, the full articles based on their respective presentations, will be provided by the authors in the next future, thus printed in the Press Proceedings and also published in the web site.

In addition, the final, analytical and comprehensive Moon Base Report, including summaries of the papers and comments from workgroups co-ordinators and session chairmen will be distributed through the various information channels. Finally, we are going to realize, inside the web site, an information section, allowing the follow-on of the conference, and the exchange of ideas, even with people who didn't attend the workshops.

Please, don't hesitate to contact the organizing staff through the secretariat e-mail (secretariat@moonbase-italia.org) for any question or suggestion.

Sincerely Yours,

Walter Pecorella

(Conference Chair)