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Actions & Discussions Moon Society Elections 2009 Town Meeting Discussions Apollo Moon Party Report - next? Project Teams Moon Miners' Manifesto, other Publications Chapters & Outposts International Presence Events Publicity Meetings Calendar |
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The Society's primary focus is the Creation of an International Lunar Research Park open to space agencies of all nations, as well as contractors, entrepreneurs, and universities.August 5th Meeting:
Supporting research and development of building materials (metal alloys, glass, glass composites, concrete, ceramics, etc.) from the more abundant elements in moondust (regolith, or rock powder blanket that covers the Moon. We would advance this research by pursuing the spin-up process.
Spin-up: pre-developing the technologies that will be needed to move beyond the initial Earth-dependent footholds established on the Moon or elsewhere. Entrepreneurs can do this profitably, here and now, by ferreting out Earth markets for such technologies, thus billing the consumer for “spin-up” -- loading the shelves in the process with the technologies we anticipate needing -- instead of billing the Space Budget (and tax-payers) for “spin-off.” NASA, because of budget constraints, confines itself to R&D of hardware and systems needed for short and intermediate range goals.After some concerns were addressed, there appeared to be broad and strong support among the Leadership Council members for this recast of the Society's goals and efforts
Read: Beyond NASA's Goals issued on July 20, 2009, the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing. There is an image link to this report on our homepage.
Elections Report: Vice President Charles F. Radley and Treasurer Dana Carson and Chairman of the Board Scotty Gammenthaler were reelected. Shaun Moss (Melbourne, Australia) and James Rogers (Longview, TX) were elected to the Board, replacing retiring directors James Gholston and David Dunlop. Dave will retain his staff position as Director of Project Development
Charles Radley will register The Moon Society with NASA's NSPIRES program, which will enable us to seek NASA grant funds available to non-profit educational organizations.
We discussed introducing special multi-year dues rates, as well as higher levels of membership. at the August 19th meeting, treasurer Dana Carson will report on financial guidelines for the former, and Peter Kokh will suggest special dues rates and levels for them.
Peter Kokh, David Dunlop, and James Rogers will work as a committee to define standards for a proposed lunar frontier art competition. Without standards that educate artists about conditions on the Moon that they should consider, we risk getting only unrealistic science-fictional and even fantasy entries. Meanwhile, we need to seek out sponsors to contribute attractive prizes. This contest, will then be announced on the website, in Moon Miners' Manifesto, in MMM-India Quarterly and elsewhere, possibly including the NSS Downlink formatted email newsletter. We are very much in need of artwork and the service of concept illustrators.
Peter is working to identify available outreach materials for a second Apollo Moon Party focused on Apollo 13, with the the "Space exploration and development are worth the risks." This is an attractive topic for an Essay Contest among High School Students. There could be a College level competition as well. We will be working to complement available materials with new ones. Such a Contest could be announced during Space Week.
We are also looking at a workshop with three-breakouts to further develop the concept of an International Lunar Research Park; the different teams could approach the challenge from the viewpoint (a) of the organizing contractor, (b) of the participating national space agencies, and (c) of engaged enterprises and academic institutions. ISDC 2010 is a possibility, but we'd prefer to roll out the results of a prior workshop at that event.
We are working to identify practical ways for chapters and outposts to observe Space Week, October 4-11th, in a way that brings the Society more publicity. This is easier said than done. An exhibit is only effective if people see it. Having an exhibit in conneciton with another event guaranteed to draw traffic is always better than trying to start out from scratch and watching no one show up. Public outreach, talking to people about space and our dreams, can be very rewarding. This year we have less than two months to prepare, but lessons learned will help us plan more effective events next year.
That includes President, Secretary, and two Board seatsWe thank retiring officers for their service : James Gholston, David A. Dunlop
And this time we will have more months to plan carefully! I think it would be a big mistake, and risk the same ho-hum reactions in the public with each new Apollo mission, to do an AMP for each one of them. On the one hand, all the even # missions seem to be boring repeats of the mission just before only in a different location. On the other hand, all the odd # missions are notable and suggest special ways of handling the event. Doing just the odd # missions would entail one celebration per year, allowing us to get better and better at it.top
- A11 - the first!
- A13 - (April 2010 ) near disaster - theme "Space is worth the risk"
- A15 - (July 2011) Lunar Rover Debut - Manned Lunar Rover design competitions (unpressurized, pressurized)
- A17 - (Dec 2012) the last - Lessons from Apollo missions mandate that we must return, this time to stay
The 40th Anniversary of Apollo 13 near disaster and successful recovery
Sunday April 11 - Saturday April 17, 2010 - The emergency occured on April 13th, 1970
OUR THEME: "Space is worth the Risks" - The pioneering of every froniter brought with it many risks. People did die, and in the end it was worth it. None of us who live in the Americas or Australia would be living here, if our ancestors had not accepted deadly risk as a acceptable price for the opportunity to live a more meaningful building a new frontier. We cannot allow those who have become danger-shy to impose that risk-aversity on anyone else! Volunteers have the right to risk their lives for opportunity.
- The "deadly" Moon and how we will meet all the challenges and learn to handle them as if by second nature even as all forntier-pioneering folk before us have done. Comparison to the home country of the Eskimo and Innuit in the arctic.
- Disadvantages are the key and the clue to turn them into Opportunities
- A poll on the acceptability of risk, by age, demographics, income, etc.
- The Movie Apollo 13, the Book Apollo 13, patches, other memorabilia
- A list of Books and Films about similar heroism (Shakleton's call, and misadventures)
- Appearnaces or video snippet from Jim Lovell, Tom Hanks, Gary Sinese, others
- A "Houston, we have a problem!" Cartoon contest
In preparation for ISDC 2009, we put together MMM Classic #20 ahead of schedule so that it could be included in a CD on “MMM’s first Twenty Years” which the National Space Society then produced in quantity (1,000) so that a CD could go into the registration packet for each ISDC attendee. You can freely download this issue and all previous classic issues from:An Introductory version of the new MMM Glossary, was published May 19th. The illustrated introductory version lists over 300 terms, some new words, some old words given no meaning. Many more entries are "under construction" or at least on the "to enter" list.
http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_classics/
Ahead of the game, we decided to launch some-thing new this semi-annual “break” – July – when the MMM editor has a month off. The idea is to collect in PDF volumes all the non-time sensitive articles from the 1st 20 years, on specific themes.
MMM Classic Mars 1 (years 1-10) and 2 (years 11-20) are now online, as of August 1st.
They are, like the Classics, free access pdf files, no member username and password needed.
To download them, go to:
http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_themes/
Over time special Classics issues will focus on the following topics, one topic per issue. In cases where there is a lot of material, as with “Mars” there will be 2 or more issues as needed.
• Lunar Resources & IndustriesThese publications will appear as we find time to put them together. A fringe benefit of organizing all past articles by theme, is that it can serve as preparation for an eventual “MMM the Book.” That is a project title, not the book title, which will be determined later.
• The Lunar Economy
• The Lunar Homestead
• Arts & Crafts, Performing Arts
• Health, Sports and Exercise
• Other Destinations: Mercury, Venus, Ceres, asteroids, Europa, and other Solar System Destinations
INDIAEvents: Annual Events, ISDCs and more.
See MMM-India Quarterly - a free access pdf file newsletterCHILE - Planning for the proposed Moon Mars Atacama Research Station coninues. If you wish to be involved or just update, join our google group: http://groups.google.com/group/moonmars
President Peter Kokh and Director of Project Development, David Dunlop, a team that doubles as Editor and Assistant Editor of MMM-India Quarterly, have been encouraged by the reaction in India to the first three issues of "M3IQ" which response has included three inquiries about setting up Moon Society chapters in India. We are also picking up regular members (for MMM) of Indian origin living in the USA.
We see enormous potential and considerable enthusiasm. To move this effort up a notch, we've added a link on the "About the Society Page" and a fresh page introducing our expanding initiatives within India.
This effort is still in the infancy stage, but the only policy that makes sense is an actively progressive one. In the end, it will be individuals and groups within India who make this effort their own, that will make this a successful venture.
We have taken advantage of sizable student groups from India attending the ISDC in 2008 and again in 2009, and with as many contacts in India as we can find.
Contact: mmm-india@moonsociety.org
Those interested in helping create Moon Society chapters in Indiea should contatct
As we have also been involved in Mexico for some time, and now have an inquiry from Colombia, it now makes sense to look for English to Spanish Translaters so that we can prepare outreach materials for Spanish speaking countries.The Moon Society is looking more International every day.
The member-organized Moon-Mine Project in central Sweden which we support is making major advances.
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As Chicago is a 90 mile hour and a half commute from where most of the Moon Society (and Lunar Reclamation Society) exhibits are stored (in Milwaukee) we expect to provide a major contribution to the exhibit room. And as we have worked closely with the conference organizers for over twenty years, we expect a good chunk of presentation opportunities as well.
Hotel room rates and conference registration rates will be considerably lower than those in Orlando.
The hotel is brand new - The Intercontinental O'Hare. (map) (Hotel's in Chicago's downtown "Loop" have a very hight hotel tax.)
Chicago has excellent air connections to everywhere. (Flights to Midway will involve higher transit costs to the hotel which is near O'Hare.) Plan now on coming, or at least keep the dates open! Chicago 1989 was a super-ISDC and the same people are bringing us this one. We can only expect the biggest and best ever.
On Saturday evening, August 1st, Peter was the only guest on a KDKA radio show, 10:00-10:30 pm EDT. The subject was Helium-3, a resource that could open the Moon for development. The tone of the host's announcements and questions indicated a skeptical attitude. We think we did score some points. At least two biased listeners (sister and brother-in-law) thought so.
There is always the risk that we will be "used" on an interview, whether live or published. But that is a risk we have to take.
Guido Meyer (see profile), our Crew Journalist on our moonbase simulation exercise at the Mars Desert Research Station in 2006, interviewed Peter Kokh and other attendees at the recent International Space Development Conference in Orlando. His article on "Space Solar Power" got picked up by the July issue of PV (Photovolataic) Magazine. He sends pdf files of the Cover and of the article itself. Guido not only did a splendid job for us at and after our MDRS exercise, he has gotten us press whenever he could since then. Many thanks, Guido.