The purpose of ALPO's Lunar Meteoritic Impact Search is to coordinate the observation of lunar impact events. The vision is to develop the program and resources to make serious professional research of these "lunar flashes" a reality in the near future. For the time being, we will use the resources given and coordinate the observations of willing participants to develop a catalogue of lunar impact events. Several questions to answer in the immediate future include: Just how common are these "impact flashes" that have been observed on the Moon as of late? Is it possible to observe these impacts during the occurrence of every major meteor shower when the Moon is favorably placed? What can these flashes tell us about the impactors themselves? What sorts of models (these are for the theorists in our audience, of which I am not) of size, composition, kinetic energy to light efficiency, etc. best match the observed flashes? How can systematic observations of lunar meteors best complement ground-based observations of meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere? What can both sets of observations (previous questions) tell us about the meteor stream itself? (This is more long-term, but) Is it feasible to position a lunar-orbiting satellite to constantly monitor for and observe lunar flashes (during meteor showers and at other times) in various bandpasses (perhaps taking spectra) on the dark side of the Moon?

These questions are simply the beginning and one can appreciate what sorts of possibilities this opens up. We stand on the shoulders of at least one giant, the late Gene Shoemaker whom I worked with in my undergraduate college days. Dr. Shoemaker revealed that the craters we see on the Moon are actually from impacts rather than volcanoes.  We are picking up one of the torches he dropped in his untimely passing by venturing into this field of lunar flash studies.