Introducing
Moonbeams
A new Moon Society Publication

November 10, 2008 - Premier Issue
January 25, 2009 - 2nd issue
May 11, 2009 - 3rd issue
September 13, 2009 - 4th issue
April 17, 2010 - special Apollo 13 issue
updated February 28, 2011 - 7th issue

ARCHIVE: to download, click on issue cover or number

1.1 Fall 2008	2.1 Winter 2009	2.2 Spring 2009	2.3 Summer 2009
2.4 Winter 2010	(Special) - A13 issue	2.5 Winter 2011

About Moonbeams

The Role of Space-Future Fiction
in Advancing Moon Society Goals

Science-Fiction has played a strong role in fostering an interest in Space Exploration, Settlement, and Travel. As far back as the earliest days of NASA and the Apollo program, many NASA personnel and future astronauts have admitted that their individual early interest in space was awakened, and/or nourished by exciting and positive visions of what could be the greater world of our future. Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein are just two of the many classic authors frequently cited.

Of course, not all science-fiction tales paint positive pictures. There has always been some who painted dark, forbidding scenarios. There have always been those with a "say it ain't so" attitude towards the restrictions of Physics. There have always been those more engrossed in fantasy and magic rather than reality. It is only natural that the story reflects the personality of the writer.

When the Artemis Society and the Artemis Project™ were launched at the World Science Fiction Convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1994, part of the game plan was to launch a new science-fact science-fiction magazine, Artemis, that would contain positive and realistic stories about our future in space, as a way of attracting new members to the Artemis Society. Eight quarterly issues were published before the plug was pulled. Successful entries to the crowded world of new stand paper publications are difficult. If you don't quickly attract enough sales, the New stands don't keep putting you on their racks.

Warned of such obstacles, a plan by the future President of the Moon Society, Peter Kokh, to introduce a rag to be named "PSSST!" for "Plausible Solar System Settlement Tales" at a new science-fiction convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "First Contact" that same fall, September 1994, were shelved.

Through the years, a number of short science-fiction pieces have been submitted to Moon Miners' Manifesto, and MMM has published a few. Every year in the April issue, MMM has published a page (sometimes less) of World Space News stories. And ever year, we've hooked some readers who failed to notice the tag line at the end of the page, printed upside down:
Our secret? Simple, "tell them what they want to hear!"

Now it is time to revisit the idea. This time we are looking at electronic publication, in pdf file version only. Hard copy publication could come later.

In the past, as MMM has been a hard copy publication, any fiction pieces have been published by the MMM publisher, The Lunar Reclamation Society, the Milwaukee/SE Wisconsin chapter of the National Space Society.

The Editor of the premier edition mockup was Peter Kokh, but a new editor, Charles (Chuck) Lesher, a Moon Society Phoenix member from Chandler, Arizona, and author of the feature piece in the first issue of Moonbeams, has volunteered to take it over. The premier edition released above bears his look. It is only appropriate that Chuck put his own stamp on it, redoing the cover, changing the fonts, etc.

Producing the mockup has proved an effective way to get this effort started and adopted.

Charles has been writing science fiction for several years. The editor's email address will be moonbeams@moonsociety.org

Moonbeams issues are freely accessible, without the need to use a Moon Society username and password. The function of Moonbeams is both to expand the vision of our own members, and to draw interested visitors into the Society. Anyone downloading an issue of Moonbeams, may freely circulate it to others. Indeed, we encourage you to do so!

As we kick off this publication, we make no promise of how often it will be published. We would like to put it out on a quarterly schedule. A more conservative answer is whenever we have enough good material to make a good publication, and have the time to edit it.  We'll see what happens! 

Chuck has included a call for submissions, society members encouraged to try their hand in short pieces (250 words) in the form of a "letter home" from a future settler/pioneer.

Readers are welcome to submit short stories, limit 5,000 words.

As Moonbeams produces no revenue stream, authors will not be compensated, and retain full rights for republication elsewhere. In the future, as readership increases, we may revisit this policy.

Email Submissions [moonbeams@moonsociety.org] should be in electronic form: MS Word, Text files, or pdf format. Handwritten, typed, and printed submissions that need to be keyed in will not be considered.

Writers may submit via CD or DVD to the following address:

Initial Guidelines as to what is acceptable:

Additional Sci-Fi efforts by Moon Society Members

• Chip Proser, Moon Society Advisor and Producer of the Moon Colony Video series, has produced a pilot: Tranquility Dome. It is a bit on the dark side (as the story opens there has just been a nuclear strike exchange on Earth). We'll have to wait and see how the completed production turns out. We don't much like the repeated use of domed cities, a sci-fi artist cliché, as domes pressurized inside against vacuum outside are an intrinsically unstable structures.

New - O1.16.2010 - For our Apollo 13 Essay Contest (Theme: "Space Exploration is worth the Risk," Chuck Lesher, editior of  Moonbeams, will produce a special edition to highlight the top ten finalists. It would be a spectacular edition filled with Apollo 13 pictures and author bios/photos, plus photos form Apollo 13.

Help wanted: