Astrogeology Research Program

The Astrogeology Research Program is a program of the United States Geological Survey concerned with the study of planetary geology and planetary cartography. It is housed in the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Center was established in 1963 by Eugene Merle Shoemaker to provide lunar geologic mapping and to assist in training astronauts destined for the Moon as part of the Apollo program.

Since its inception, the Program has participated in processing and analyzing data from various missions to the planetary bodies in the Solar System, assisting in finding potential landing sites for exploration vehicles, mapping our neighboring planets and their moons, and conducting research to better understand the origins, evolutions, and geologic processes operating on these bodies.

Gene Shoemaker founded the Astrogeology Research Program August 25, 1960. The research program started out as the Astrogeologic Studies Group at the United States Geological Survey center in Menlo Park, California. The research program was moved to Flagstaff, Arizona (starting in December 1962 and completed in 1963). Flagstaff was chosen as the location due to its proximity to Meteor Crater and the volcanic craters and lava flows of the San Francisco volcanic field. Dr. Shoemaker retired from the USGS in 1993. He remained on Emeritus status with the USGS and maintained an affiliation with Lowell Observatory until his death in a car accident in Australia in 1997.

Gene was involved in the Lunar Ranger and Surveyor programs and continued with the manned Apollo programs. He culminated his lunar studies in 1994 with new data on the Moon from Project Clementine, for which he was the science-team leader. Gene collaborated closely with his wife, Carolyn, a planetary astronomer. The discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy (which impacted Jupiter in 1994) with colleague David Levy, gained them worldwide fame. This was just one of Gene's many great accomplishments.

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