[Lunex Press Release - 14.11.2008]
The Young Lunar Explorers (YLE) participating at the LEAG-ICEUM10-SRR conference at Cape Canaveral, Florida, discussed and approved the Young Lunar Explorers Declaration 2008. The YLE declaration presents goals for the near, medium and long term future of lunar exploration, from a perspective of the YLE group. The YLE declaration was included in the LEAG-ICEUM10-SRR conference declaration, approved by the conference attendants on the last day of the conference.

Young Lunar Explorers Declaration 2008
We, the Young Lunar Explorers, make the following declaration for the joint annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, the 10th International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon, and the Space Resources Roundtable that has taken place in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

We are a diverse group of experienced space professionals, young professionals, and students interested in the future of space, representing the multidisciplinary and multicultural nature of the space industry. We hope to bring the best of humanity to the Moon, and to bring the benefits offered by lunar exploration back to Earth.

The young lunar explorers of the world can and shall play an important role in the international lunar exploration program. This conference was taken as an opportunity to convey to the Young Lunar Explorers the latest scientific results from lunar exploration, to stress the importance of commercial lunar exploration, and the illuminate the many opportunities to participate in lunar exploration, through competitions, Earth-bound analogue studies and student lunar spacecraft projects among others.

We recommend:

• To create a central database about lunar projects and contests relevant for Young Lunar Explorers.
• To continue to make funds available to Young Lunar Explorers to attend to lunar exploration conferences. Partial funding is preferred to full funding, in order to bring more Young Lunar Explorers.
• To organize “show and tell” sessions in conjunction with the poster session in future lunar exploration conferences.
• To stress the importance of new commercial opportunities to young lunar explorers.
• To establish a network between the professional lunar exploration community and the Young Lunar Explorers to communicate opportunities of cooperation, such as project based support and internship.
• To create a framework to promote and increase mentoring and exchange of information between lunar exploration experts and Young Lunar Explorers.
• To create a list of people in geographic locations for contact purposes and outreach tasks.
• To continue to emphasize the support for student payloads opportunities to the Moon. Given capabilities such as the unpressurized cargo slot on the Orion, this can become reality within the next 10 years.