Dr. Michael Duke

Professor Michael Duke is the Director of the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space at the Colorado School of Mines, a NASA Space Commercialization Center. Dr. Duke has 40 years in space science and lunar exploration. He has worked at Johnson Space Center for 25 years as Lunar Sample Curator, Chief of the Solar System Exploration Division, and Chief Scientist for the JSC Human Exploration office. He has also worked in areas of space resources since 1977 and is the co-author of NASA SP509 "Space Resources." Dr. Duke is an advocate of human exploration, particularly of the Moon. Organized Conference: Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (1985). He was the PI for Moonrise: South Pole - Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission, now in a competitive Phase A study for NASA's New Frontiers Program, for launch by 2010. In competition with Juno, a Jupiter Orbiter mission. One of these two will be selected by June, 2005. Michael Duke works with other faculty at Colorado School of Mines, working on projects to develop lunar resources and capabilities for manufacturing products in space.