Paul D. Spudis is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. His research is on the deposits and environment of the poles of the Moon with the aim of understanding their potential as sites for future exploration and use. He was educated at Arizona State University (BS, 1976; PhD, 1982) and Brown University (ScM, 1977). He was deputy leader of the Science Team for the DoD-NASA Clementine mission in 1994, the Principal Investigator of the Mini-SAR radar imaging experiment on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon in 2009, and a team member of the Mini-RF imaging radar experiment aboard NASA's current Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. He has served on two White House study groups, including the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of US Space Exploration Policy in 2004. He has been awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Theodore von Karman medal from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Space Pioneer award of the National Space Society. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, five books, and numerous articles for the popular press.

Preface; 1. The multi-ring basin problem; 2. From crater to basin; 3. The 'archetype' basin: Orientale; 4. An ancient basin: Nectaris; 5. A modified basin: Crisium; 6. A transitional basin: Serenitatis; 7. The largest basin: Imbrium; 8. Geological processes in the formation of lunar basins; 9. Multi-ring basins on the terrestrial planets; 10. Multi-ring basins and planetary evolution; References.