Look for a step forward in creating an international network of science gear to be planted on the Moon.

The stage is set at NASA’s Ames Research Center for some seven to nine nations to sign a Statement of Intent today to work together on putting a geophysical network across the Moon - one that could gather data from locations on both the nearside and farside of our celestial companion.

Early candidate devices include seismometers, laser reflectors and heat flow equipment. Working groups have been busily sorting through ideas of what core geophysical instruments each country will contribute to the automated network, as well as formats, data rates, and other communication needs. A future working group will begin the process of where the constellation of nodes that make up the network would be positioned on the lunar landscape.

The International Lunar Network would carry out high-priority science explained Jim Green, Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. “There’s a lot of work to do…but we’ve started the process,” he told me at this week’s NASA Lunar Science Institute meeting, held at the space agency’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.