Paul Blase stands behind the exhibit he had just assembled for its debut at ISDC 2008 in Washington, DC

It took a Moon Society team in several states, the UK, and Saudi Arabia to design and build this exhibit including its working microwave beaming system. The cost to the Society was about a thousand dollars. We have had it on display at International Space Development Conferences in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and at a number of other occasions in between. This project has earned the Moon Society much respect as a "can do" organization - "the little engine that could!"

To multiply the effectiveness of this exhibit in changing public attitudes towards Space Solar Power, we produced an online kit so that others could replicate what we had done. 

See: http://www.moonsociety.org/projects/spb-demo/online_kit/

However, each time we unpacked it, assembled it, disassembled it, and repacked it, some damage has occurred. It has been clear from the outset that, as designed, the unit is much too fragile. It took quite an effort to put our "Humpty Dumpty" together again for this year's ISDC in Huntsville. This could be the end of the line.

If we are going to effectively educate the public with such an exhibit, we need to redesign this exhibit from scratch to take the kind of abuse that comes from repeat handlings. We mention these problems in our Online Kit.

If you have craft, model-making, and handyman experience, we invite you to read through out Online Kit and send us suggestions for a much more durable Version II. This will probably mean using different, less fragile materials. It may mean co-designing packaging that does a better job of protecting the kit from shipping abuse.

Want to help? Have ideas and suggestions? Write sps-demo@moonsociety.org

Don't forget to enter our Space Tourism Essay Contest!

Details:

 http://www.moonsociety.org/reports/space_tourism_contest.html