The Moon Society Organizing Conference

July 22nd & 23rd, 2000

Caesars Palace -- Las Vegas, Nevada

PROGRAM & Tentative Schedule -- Updated 7/18/2000 -- v. 2.03A

PROGRAM ELEMENTS

Moon Society Organization	Transitioning ASI to a New Role
Moon Society Presentations	Other Players in the Moon Game
Other Moon-Theme Presentations	Moon Society Chapters
Moon Society Workshop	Exhibits & Poster Sessions

 

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Saturday Morning Program	Saturday Afternoon Program
Sunday Morning Program	Sunday Afternoon Program
Poster Session	Facilities

Email Greg Bennett at grb@asi.org

• Additions, Corrections, Deletions, Time-slot Conflicts
  • Requests for new Program Space (we're packed)
  • Audio-visual needs other than overhead
  • Time-limit change requests
  • Time-slot change requests
  • Further definition and descriptions of program items
  • Inclusion as a panelist

Saturday Morning - July 22nd, 2000  

8:30-8:45 am Introductory Remarks: Gregory R. Bennett

8:45-12:00 noon SESSION I: Moon Society Organization

• BASICS
  • 8:45-9:05 am Vision (1) & Mission (2) Statements
    • Vision Statement: the Future we Envision
    • Mission Statement: our Game Plan to realize our Vision
  • 9:05-9:15 am Incorporation Status Report
  • 9:15-9:20 am Treasurer's Report
  • 9:20-9:45 am By-Laws Report
• Break until 10:00 am
• 10:00-10:30 am Officers' Elections
  • Nominees Introductions
  • Additional Nominations from the floor
  • Elections
• 10:30-11:00 am Standing Committees - To some extent we are just moving committees from ASI to The Moon Society. But some new Committes will be formed because The Moon Society's Mission and niche are broader than those of ASI
• 11:00-12:00 noon Project LETO Strategy meetings
  • Business Plan
  • Facilities
  • Site
  • Architecture
• noon-1:30 pm lunch break on your own

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 Saturday Afternoon - July 22, 2000

1:30-2:30 pm THEME PRESENTATION I

• Cost-Saving Approaches to a Lunar Passenger Transportation System - Simon Rowland - A comprehensive analysis of cost, funding, and engineering of a tourist moonships that would take visitors on a high-speed course to the Moon using innovative strategies such as electrical propulsion, power beaming, air-launching, tethers, low-cost design, creative propellants, airline-like operations and fast turnaround, ground-based maintenance of the system, and with redundancy and reliability built into the system. - 45 min + Q&A - Transparencies.

2:30-3:30 pm SESSION II: Transitioning ASI to its new role and form -

• Presentation of Proposed re-definition of ASI and its relationship to the Moon Society, a WIP
  • The Artemis Project
  • The Foundation
  • Membership
  • Chapters
  • Artemis Project Website
• Discussion, taking under advisement suggested modifications, with Action Point Identification and Adoption. We can expect "growing pains" and other problems.

3:30-5:00 pm SESSION III: Other Players in the Moon Game

(1) Brief Introduction of the known players. (Some representatives may be present.)_ These include:

• (A) Groups interested in the human return to the Moon, industrial development and settlement, and / or more lunar science probes
  • National Space Society - NSS
  • Space Studies Institute - SSI
  • Space Frontier Foundation - The Foundation
  • FINDS - Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space
  • Lunar Research Institute - LRI (Al Binder's group, carrying on the analysis of Lunar Prospector data)
  • TransOrbital (associated with ASI)
  • Applied Space Resources - ASR
  • LunaCorp - RadioShack has just come aboard as a sponsor of LunaCorp's proposed Icebreaker mission, contributing one million dollars
  • SpaceDev - now in partnership with Boeing to develop private space missions, including missions to the Moon
  • Lunar Reclamation Society - NSS Milwaukee
  • Oregon L5 Society & Oregon Moonbase
  • Space Explorers - The People who run the Moonlink™ Missions using Lunar Prospector and Clementine data.
  • Lunar Explorers Society - just founded
• (B) Groups more occupied with lunar science done from Earth, but interested in science done by orbiters and landers
  • American Lunar Society - small national amateur astronomer Moon Observing group
  • ALPO - Assoc. of Lunar & Planetary Observers, Moon Section (also observers)
  • Geologic Lunar Researche[r]s Group
  • World Lunar Organization - an umbrella group whose members are other organizations, intended to catch all of us, with American Lunar Society people spearheading. The thrust seems to be to inform other organization's of each organizations projects and achievements - and maintain an updated list of who is doing what. So we will want to network and or associate somehow with this new paper entity.

2) Establish a Liaison Committee:

• (A) To keep the contact list and to serve as liaison - keeping up with what each group or organization is doing: their active and proposed projects, their completed projects etc., and where there might be mutual benefit through synergy.
• (B) To look at PROJECTS ongoing or proposed elsewhere and see if The Moon Society wants to lend support (if so, what kind) and/or become involved in those projects.

  In other words, SYNERGY IN ACTION is much more important in producing real effects than establishment of some sort of pecking order with us at the top. We needn't worry about that. Cream rises to the top. IF WE take the lead in ESTABLISHING synergies on projects throughout the lunar-interest community, and OFFER our future conferences as a common WATERING-HOLE place to showcase and organize such synergetic joint venture projects in the future - then we will be seen by all as the de facto leader. That is much more important than any posturing game.

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 Sunday Morning, July 23, 2000

9:00-9:45 am MOON THEME PRESENTATION - Lunar Surface Sling to Bootstrap Space Development - Bruce Mackenzie - The key to Lunar development is inexpensive transportation and low-cost initial systems. This proposal establishes 3 rotating tethers to provide two-way transportation to Luna without large expenditure of propellant. They begin to export of Lunar materials. More importantly, we buildup equipment on the Lunar surface, growing to a capable robotic Lunar base. The initial system is established with only a few medium-class launches, for much less expense then sending people to the Lunar surface.

• Lunar Surface Sling - a horizontal turntable and tether on the Lunar surface. The tether can be extended outward, about 5 km, until its tip reaches orbital velocity. Small (20 kg) payloads of Lunar material are released from the tip of the tether into Lunar orbit. Other spacecraft are caught and slowed down, to bring additional equipment to the Lunar surface. The entire sling assembly is assembled and tested on Earth. A single launch vehicle delivers it to a hill near the north or south Lunar pole (other locations are also reasonable).
• Rotating Orbital Tethers - a pair of long (5 to 10 km) rotating tethers in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) throw mining equipment from Earth orbit to the Lunar Surface Sling. They catch the raw materials coming back from Luna. The Tethers and surface sling are fully reusable. They do not use propellant as long as there is two-way traffic. Instead, they recover kinetic energy of downward traveling payloads, and return that energy to upward traveling payloads. Even during periods of one-way traffic, the tethers can be reboosted with electric thrusters tuned for maximum efficiency, about 10 times more efficient than chemical thrusters. The LEO tethers also boost communications satellites to pay for themselves.
• Robotic Lunar Mining Base - additional equipment is delivered via tethers, to build up an infrastructure on the Lunar surface. Including: miniature tele-operated rovers (10 Kg) to load lunar regolith, solar cells or RTGs for power generation, power storage equipment, communication relays, navigation beacons, and scientific instruments.
• Refining & Manufacturing - In later phases, regolith is refined in high orbit where solar power is continuously available. The products include: oxygen for propellant; aluminum, steel, glass and fiberglass for spacecraft and habitats; slag for shielding; and possibly water.
• Manufacture - Later, finished goods are made in LEO where launch costs are lower and it is relatively cheap to support people. These includes: solar panels, tethers, spacecraft frames, trusses, rovers, habitats, and food. Some products are sold for use in LEO, providing a cash flow for further development.
• Crewed Base - although this proposal does not require people on the Lunar surface, the tethers could deliver equipment to establish and support a crewed base. Second generation tethers would be built in LEO primarily from Lunar fiberglass. They could deliver payloads up to a few tones, such as small habitat modules. Third-generation tethers about 50 km long would transport people to the Lunar surface and back in Gemini class vehicles with reasonable accelerations and little propellant use.
• The conclusion is we can begin Lunar development and export of Lunar resources with only a few launches, using robotic equipment on the Lunar surface and reusable rotating tethers for inexpensive two-way transportation.

MOON SOCIETY PRESENTATIONS

• 9:45-10:30 am The Moon Society Website - Jim Burk & Panel -- Jim will present his proposed workup of the new Moon Society website and its many features and seek audience input. 30-60 minutes. Transparencies.
• 10:30-11:15 am "Building Virtual Organizations on the Internet"
  • Randall Severy, CyberTeams, Inc., 104 South Main St., Mt. Airy, MD 21771
  • The growth of the Internet has revolutionized the way people work together on a scale not seen since the invention of the telephone. In addition to providing enormous productivity gains, the Internet provides the infrastructure necessary to create "virtual organizations", a collection of geographically dispersed individuals and groups. Most volunteer organizations, as well as most commercial companies, have struggled with the challenges of communicating effectively between individuals and teams that are geographically distributed. The Internet now provides the tools to solve those challenges.
  • Using the Internet, people can now collaborate on projects, hold meetings, and share documents with colleagues from all around the world without ever leaving the comfort of their office or home. Volunteer organizations that used to rely on expensive long-distance telephone calls or slow mail service for communication can now function as effectively as the most efficient companies.
  • This presentation reviews some of the most effective tools now available on the Internet for building virtual organizations, supporting a wide range of activities from real-time conversations and meetings to shared information libraries. Artemis Society International and the Mars Society, organizations that operate almost exclusively over the Internet, are using these tools today, and real-life examples of the use of these tools are included in the presentation.
• 11:15-12:00 noon " Building the Artemis Project Business Team" - Panel Discussion
  • Randall Severy, Chairman, Artemis Project Business Team
  • Abstract: The Artemis Project Business Team was recently formed to include representatives from each Artemis Project Program Participant. The new Business Team provides a forum for sharing ideas among the program participants and a means to help program participants benefit from their participation in the Artemis Project. Some of the early tasks of the Business Team will be to define what it means to be an Artemis Project program participant and to develop a list of benefits of participating in the Artemis Project.
  • The panel will include several members of the Artemis Project Business Team (suggested panel members: Randall Severy, Greg Bennett, Dale Amon, someone from TransOrbital, and any other Business Team members in attendence). The panel discussion will provide a brainstorming session for building the Business Team.
• noon-1:30 pm Lunch break on your own

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Sunday afternoon, July 23, 2000

1:30-3:00 pm MOON SOICETY CHAPTERS SESSION

• 2:30-2:00 pm Organizing, developing, growing a local chapter - panel discussion by chapter representatives on hand
  • As Chapter Coordinator Margo Duesterhaus will not be able to attend, this will not be a workshop
  • Peter Kokh - ASI-Milwaukee
  • Simon Rowland - "How to get people to show up"
  • OTHERS?
• 2:00-2:15 pm New Resources Available to Chapters - Introducing the "Space Chapter Hub" - if time and space are available - Peter Kokh The Space Chapter Hub is a website, now under construction, where Space Chapters of whatever parent organization, can share tools and resources and expertise. All Space Outreach Chapters, however they might differ in focus and emphasis, face the same challenges and obstacles, and have the same potential tools in their toolbox.The Space Chapter Hub is intended to be an "inter-denominational" watering hole for space chapters to help one another be more productive, while reducing demand for support on headquarters staff.
• 2:15-3:00 pm Chapter Website Workshop - Randal Severy - How to put up a chapter website on free Society webspace with the easy to use WebSite Director Light software

   

3:00-5:00 pm MOON SOCIETY WORKSHOP

• Lunar Building Materials made on location - Peter Kokh - 2 hours - Transparencies, Lunar Simulant display
  • Introduction
    • (1) "What is the Moon made of": What is regolith? What elements does it contain? What minerals does it consist of?
    • (2) "What can we make out of what the Moon is made of": metal alloys; glass, fiberglass, glass compostes; ceramics; concrete; other possibilities
  • Summary of the present situation -
    • What research has been done on mining and processing? Work left undone and Orphaned.
    • Difficulties and Challenges: expertise, technical, psychological, financial, communications
  • Group brainstorming - what can we do to get things off of the stall in which this research has been for over a decade
    • Setting up an Information clearing house: a site that suggests thesis topics for masters and PhD students in various disciplines
    • Active and aggressive recruitment of professional expertise - people willing and able to take up the challenge: mining experts, mineralogists, chemists, chemical engineers, metallurgists, ceramics people, glass people, concrete people, architects willing to work with Made-on-Luna building materials, others.
    • Moon Society Task Force with Committee Status to carry on after Las Vegas
    • Leave Las Vegas with a game plan for the Society and some individual action items

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POSTER SESSION, time or times to be determined, in the display room or in conjunction with the Lunar Materials Workshop

" Lunar Arts & Crafts" - Peter Kokh

• Presentation of Lunar Paint project by the Lunar Reclamation Society
• Presentation of new Lunar Arts & Crafts Projects underway or proposed

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FACILITIES - essentially the same facilities available to us that we have for the Lunar Development Conference:

• Pompeian Ballroom
  • floor plan for the Pompeian
  • The Pompeian is in the Palace Tower, Promenade Level - 3rd floor
    • Pompeian I - general sessions, set up classroom style
    • Pompeian II - displays
    • Pompeian III and IV - food functions (Lunar Development Conference Thurs-Fri only)
• Forum Board Room - across the hall
  • Conference office
  • Small business meetings

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