What’s New in the Moon Society?

Frontlines Masthead
Volume 2010, Issue January
Published January 11, 2010 - updated January 17, 2010


Management Council Actions & Discussions
Town Meeting Discussions
Project Teams
Moon Miners' Manifesto, other Publications
Chapters & Outposts   
International Presence                    
Events
Publicity
Meetings Calendar

Pre-Frontlines Reports
2008.02.15
2006.01.30
All Reports
Frontlines past issues:
2008 2009 2010
January
February
March

April
May
June
July
July

August
September

October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May (no report)
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January


About Frontlines

This is our 23rd issue. Frontlines is a formatted monthly Moon Society news report that comes out each month just after the first (of two) Management Council meetings each month, and/or after the publication of the month's issue of Moon Miners Manifesto. These reports are being archived, so members and visitors can check past reports.

Frontlines reports on Society activities, efforts, and projects. You pay your dues, and have a right to know what we are doing to make your membership worthwhile, and to address your interests in a place for humans on the Moon.

We have been making steady progress on a wide variety of fronts. We want you to hold us accountable for continuing to do so!

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Current Management Council Actions & Discussions

January 6th Meeting
We approved the  proposed Apollo 13 - 40th Anniversary essay contest with the theme "Manned Space Exploration is worth the risk" to commemorate the safe recovery of the crew in the face of almost certain disaster.
For the list of prizes and contest entry details see the Announcement
Proposed conference to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 23-27, 2010.
We gave tentative approval of Moon Society Co-sponsorship of event (name to be determined)
This is conditional upon the National Space Society becoming the principal sponsor, which in turn is conditional upon the formation of  local San Juan/Puerto Rico NSS chapter, which at this time appears to be in process.

This is not conditional upon the Space Renaissance Initiative co-sponsorship. While SRI may or may not choose this event as their official first Congress, they will be invited to participate and have one of the main tracks.

Charles Radley, Moon Society Vice-President, will be the Conference Chair. President Peter Kokh and Director of Project Development David Dunlop will be giving assistance.

The Society will not be giving financial assistance, nor be at any financial risk.

This Conference is listed on our Conferences 2010 page
The next Management Committee Meetings will be held on January 20th
If you would like the Management Committee to consider a new initiative or idea, contact president@moonsociety.org
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Town Meeting Discussions

NOTE: Our next Quarterly Town Meeting will be held on Skype group chat February 10, 2010
Town Meetings will be held the week before the Board Meetings in February, May, and August - that is, three times a year - There is a calendar listing Society Meetings at the bottom of the Conferences 2010 page. You may download this one-page ready-to-print calendar with several artwork options from the bottom of our Downloads Page.
If you do not have Skype, please go to www.skype.com and download this free software. Do not download Skype 4.0 as on that version, group chat is not allowed. But Skype 4.1 is okay! When you register for it, you will be prompted to select a "Skype name" this can be your name in the format "firstlast" all lower case, or you can pick a nickname.

Then
go to the top menu and click on Contacts, "Add a Contact" and search for Peter Kokh
and select peterkokh, and add to your new contacts list. Then, when you want to join the meeting, just click on his name in your contact list and you should immediately find yourself in the Town Meeting group chat.


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Moon Miners Manifesto & Other Moon Society Publications

 MMM #231 December was published December 6, 2009.
 MMM #232 February will be published early that month
The December issue began MMM's 24th year of uninterrupted, continuous publication, ten issues a year, since MMM #1 in December 1986. 
Members can download MMM pdf files here (username password required) If you have no username and password, or have forgotten it, please contact us as soon as possible and we'll get you up and running

MMM-India Quarterly #5 was published January 11, 2010
All "M3IQ" issues may be freely downloaded from this address
http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/
MMM Themes Collections - http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_themes/
MMM Classic "Eden on Luna" 1 (years 1-10) and 2 (years 11-20) and two Mars theme issues, had been online. The Eden on Luna issues gather all the articles on Lunar mini-biosphere systems, recycling, and other environmental issues - a core focus theme of MMM from day one.

This past month, we published the following new theme issues:
We are working on the following
  • The Lunar Economy
  • Select Editorials from MMM's first Twenty Years (those still relevant)
Next on the list are
  • Astronomy
  • Lunar Resources & Industries
  • Economics of the Lunar Frontier (exact title TBD)
These Theme Issues are, like the Classics, free access pdf files, no member username and password needed. See download address above.
• The Lunar Homestead
• Arts & Crafts, Performing Arts
• Health, Sports and Exercise
• Other Destinations: Mercury, Venus, Europa, and other Solar System Destinations
These 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.

Introducing new, special "Vector" pages:
Members and visitors may wonder what the Moon Society stance may be on interrelated space issues. The following pages are now online:
Yet to come:
  • http://www.moonsociety.org/astronomy/
  • others?
We hope to make these pages accessible by direct link from our homepage. The current idea is to add a "Vectors Menu" just below the "Destinations Menu" in the right hand column of our homepage.

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.

As of this writing, the Lunar Reclamation Society website (which hosts the MMM Glossary) has been down for several weeks on a technicality. We hope to have it up soon.

Many people have asked us to produce a "subject index to MMM."

As the glossary grows and matures, it will become just that or a working substitute.

But perhaps even more essentially, it will serve as a guide to the wide-ranging content of MMM, which many new members, not bothering to read through the MMM Classics, will not fully realize after just their first year's ten issues.

We might even push the Glossary as an "Explore Me First" guide not just to MMM but the hopes and aspirations and goals of The Moon Society.

Moonbeams #5 (our near term science-fiction electronic rag) is still open for submissions:  The editor  is Chuck Lesher, of Moon Society Phoenix.
If you have a "high frontier" tale in you, work it out and email it to moonbeams@moonsociety.org

To download the first four issues, go to the archive site. Moonbeams issues are freely available in pdf file format, and members and visitors are welcome to circulate them freely and widely. The purpose is to provide fictional illustrations of what life could like on the Lunar Frontier and elsewhere within the Solar System.
2010 1-sheet Meetings Calendars have been published, in 7 artwork versions, 4 horizontal, 3 vertical
Just print on card stock and frame
Two new issues of Selenology have been published.
The Spring 2009 and Summer 2009 issues of this newsletter from our affiliate The American Lunar Society can be downloaded from this directory, using your Moon Society member username and password - http://moonsociety.org/members/selenology/

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Chapters & Outposts Report
- see the updated map of Moon Society Chapters and Outposts
Also check our regularly updated Chapter Events page

Society Chapters come in two versions: Community-based (St. Louis, Phoenix, Houston, Tucson) and Campus based (College of Menominee Nation - Green Bay Campus). The Nashville Outpost may be our next full status Chapter. The San Diego Outpost has four members and meets every other month, but has not organized (selected officers.) The Milwaukee Outpost now has four member but will not organize separately, but continue to  meet conjointly with the Lunar Reclamation Society NSS chapter which has been partnering with the Moon Society, and with Artemis Society International before it, since 1995.

An Outpost consists of one or more members in a local community that serve as (a) local contact(s) for area members and prospective members of the Society, and which have not yet met the qualifications to be given a chapter charter. To establish an outpost and become a local contact person for the society, write the Chapters Coordinator. There is no reason why a prospective campus chapter cannot start as an outpost, one or more not-yet-organized members.

International Chapters - see below

Outpost Formation Plug - take a look at our Chapters & Outposts map [http://www.moonsociety.org/chapters/chapter_outpost_map.html]

If you live in an unrepresented area, why not take the plunge?

We are ready to give you ample help and direction, including names and addresses of current and former members in your area (xx miles form your zip code location.)

There is plenty of material and how-to information on the Space Chapters Hub website that we share with the chapters of The National Space Society and The Mars Society..

Write: chapters-coordinator@moonsociety.org
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International Presence
LATIN AMERICA
The Moon Society is assisting the Space Renaissance Initiative in organizing a conference to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 23-27, 2010 which would be the latter's first international conference. It will also endeavor to advance ongoing sputtering efforts to create a Latin American Space Agency. Initially, we were aiming at an October 2010 time frame, but realizing that does not give us enough lead time, we are now looking at a 2011 date.
Several Latin American countries already have their own space agencies. Brazil's is by far the most advanced and that country indicates that it will continue to work on its own, and would not be party to a regional Space Agency.

Mexico has just created a Space Agency, and Chile may soon follow suite.

Our decision to spin off a Spanish Language Moon Society website and to create a number of papers and flyers in Spanish, should help promote this effort, as well as to promote the creation of Spanish-language Moon Society chapters in Mexico and in Chile, the two nations in which our efforts are currently concentrated.

We are looking for proficient English to Spanish Translators

On December 17th, we put up a temporary Spanish Homepage placeholder
Note: originally we had this in the directory "es" which is now "en"

INDIA

See MMM-India Quarterly - a free access pdf file newsletter

MMM-India Quarterly #5 (Winter 2010) was published January 8, 2010
The Newly announced Moon Society India is moving swiftly to come into its own. Indian writers have contributed a major portion of the 5th issue of Moon Miners' Manifesto - India Quarterly - "M3IQ" as we have come to call it.
 Eventually, M3IQ will either become an all-India publication or be replaced with a new publication put together inside India. This is as it should be, and we in the Moon Society look forward to the Moon Society India organization coming into its own, with pride and satisfaction.
(2) From Moon Society India leader Pradeep Mohandas
The Moon Society India was announced to India and the world on November 14, 2009. We are now concentrating on organizational details as well as aiming at a major presence at the SEDS India Conference to be held in Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu state in February.
Those interested in helping create Moon Society chapters in India should contact

Contact: pradeep.mohandas@gmail.com
CHILE - Moon/Mars Atacama Research Station continues to advance. If you wish to be involved or just update, join our google group: http://groups.google.com/group/moonmars
Currently our focus is on firming up the organizational structure needed to build and operate this facility; to complete a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation to fund a team trip to Chile; and working with an independent NASA contractor who has offered to design and build a central facility (most likely the Command & Operations Center) that will function "off-grid, all as a donation.

This project promises to be much larger than first conceived, and much more difficult to launch. It is understandable, then, that dates are slipping. We hope that this does not cost us essential support locally and nationally, in Chile itself.

MMARS will not only be a research facility, it will be an anchor for involvement of students at all levels. From the ranks of students will come the future leaders who will return us to the Moon to Stay. We hope that the MMARS project will enthuse students the world over.

We have identified a very varied list of research opportunities. Which directions MMARS will take will depend on which support facilities (labs etc.) are funded and built first and which researchers join the team first.

Our time spent on brainstorming and designing MMARS is gaining us many great and improved ideas that will be applicable to a Lunar Analog Station in the US someday. Identification and acquisition of a precise site is the first hurdle to be vaulted. Then comes finding funding for a startup.

As to Chile itself, while this country does not have the population nor the economy to become a space-faring country, it does have the Atacama Desert, arguably the premier location for both Moon and Mars analog research, and already the host of a growing complex of world-class astronomical observatories. Given the importance of analog research to prepare the way to the Moon and Mars, this role is not an insignificant one

If the Moon Society's role in Chile is to expand beyond a merely advisory one, we need to develop a family of chapters within Chile to play a supporting role at MMARS.  And we need to clone the Society "in Espaņol."
SPINNING OFF A Spanish version of the Moon Society Website, and a Spanish language edition of Moon Miners' Manifesto - "Sociedad Lunar" y "Manifesto de Mineros de Luna" (the editor's amateur translation attempt.)
The Moon Society Management Committee has given its support to this proposal. But more than a vote is needed. We do not have the team to pursue this goal. Instead, we must recruit such a team. We have recruited Jesus Raygoza of Mexico City who has both a wide knowledge of and interest in Space affairs and is fluent in both English and Spanish to start the process as soon as we send him a list of web pages and documents needing translation. Jesus has been working in Mexico build a Moon Society presence there as well as campaign for the creation of AEXA, a Mexican Space Agency with a small but effective budget. (Espaņol)

We are looking for proficient English to Spanish Translators, webmasters, and editors.

As we have also been involved in Mexico for some time, and now in Chile, it makes sense to  prepare outreach materials for Spanish speaking countries, including the growing Spanish speaking population within the United States. The United States is now the 2nd largest Spanish Speaking Country in the Western Hemisphere (after Mexico), and soon worldwide (eclipsing Spain).

If you can help in any way or point us in the right direction, please contact us
Write: president@moonsociety.org
Subject line: Spanish
Subject line: Spanish "at large chapter" in the USA
Subject line: Mexico
Subject line: other Spanish-speaking nations
Subject line: etc.
SWEDEN
The member-organized Moon-Mine Project in central Sweden which we support, is making major advances towards becoming a functioning research facility, thanks to Society Advisor and ISRU (in situ resource utilization) expert, Niklas Jarvstrat.
AUSTRALIA
New Board member Shaun Moss of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia has helped organize a new NSS chapter there, the Victorian Space Alliance, that will represent the interests and work of NSS, the Moon Society, and the Mars Society. He thought that a coalition chapter would be the strongest option.

The Moon Society is looking more International every day.
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Events: Annual Events, ISDCs and more.

April 11-17, 2010 - Apollo Moon Party #2 - 40th anniversary of the near disaster Apollo 13 missions
  • See Essay Contest "Manned Space Exploration is worth the Risk"Announcement.

May 27-31, 2010 - International Space Development Conference: ISDC 2010 in Chicago, IL
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.

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Publicity Report

MMM Library subscriptions project courtesy of the Lunar Reclamation Society, publishers of MMM. We have received 6 so far. If you would like to have MMM go to your local library, send ch/mo for $10 (one year) to the publishers,

“Lunar Reclamation Society”
PO Box 2102
Milwaukee, WI 53201
(include the name and address of the library)

Looking for volunteers to put out fliers at various space conferences and science fiction conventions they may be attending. Let us know about space conferences and science fiction cons that you are planning to attend. Write president@moonsociety.org

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CALENDAR for Leadership/Management Council/Town Meetings

We meet on the ASI-MOO on the 1st & 3rd Wednesday nights monthly, 9-11 pm ET, 8-10 pm CT, 7-9 pm MT, 6-8 pm Moon Leaders room. Directions from the Commons: "north", then "moon-leaders"

Anyone may choose to audit our meetings and to contribute input to discussions. Use your Moon Society username and password, or sign in as a guest. Note: let us know in advance so we can tell the Door Dragon to let you in!
NEXT: January 20th, February (and March) 3rd and 17th


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