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Proposed conference to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 23-27, 2010.The next Management Committee Meeting, an offical Quarterly Board Meeting, will be held on February 17th
We gave tentative approval of Moon Society Co-sponsorship of event (name to be determined)
This was to be 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 has now happened, and been approved. However, NSS has withdrawn its offer to sponsor the conference because of what it considers a high risk of financial failure given the terms of the proposed hotel contract.Our Vice-president Charles Radley has arranged for a Moon Society Visa Card from Capital One
The Space Renaissance Initiative has withdrawn its involvement.
Meanwhile a name has been picked, The Puerto Rico Space Congress. That may prove to be a handicap if the event is sufficiently successful to warrant planning an annual of biannual sequels, as the name ties it to the island, and does not easily lend itself to a traveling location. NSS' ISDCs are in a different city each year. However, perhaps this "detail" can be fixed.
Charles Radley, Moon Society Vice-President, will be the Conference Chair. President Peter Kokh and Director of Project Development David Dunlop have offered advisory assistance, but neither expects to be able to attend.
The Society will not be giving financial assistance, nor be at any financial risk. Nor have we as yet reviewed our offere to cosponsor the conference, now that NSS has withdrawen its offer to be the principal sponsor, a role which may now fall to the new Puerto Rico NSS Chapter. So it remains to be seen how this will play out. We wish Charles good luck.
This Conference is listed on our Conferences 2010 pageWith this card, Capital One will donate $50 to our organization after you make your first purchase, as well as 2% of your purchases at gas stations and major grocery stores, 1% of other purchases, and up to 10% of your purchases at select merchants. Apply now to make supporting our cause a simple everyday event.
https://www.cardlabconnect.com/AffinityPortal/visitorAction.do?affinityName=SupporttheMoonSociety
The Apollo 13 - 40th Anniversary Essay Contest: "Manned Space Exploration is worth the Risk"We have been receiving some great entries. You have until April 1st to submit your entry!
The top entries will be published in MMM, online, and in a special edition of Moonbeams!
If you would like the Management Committee to consider a new initiative or idea, contact president@moonsociety.org
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The main topic of discussion was NASA's new marching orders from the Obama Administration. No one was bitterly opposed. One had mixed feelings. Everyone else seemed to find more positive encouraging aspects than discouraging ones.
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.
All "M3IQ" issues may be freely downloaded from this addressMMM Themes Collections - http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_themes/
http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/
The following issues have been published:Introducing new, special "Vector" pages:
We are working on the following
- Mars 1 & 2
- Eden on the Moon 1 & 2 (environmental themes)
- Select Editorials
- Asteroids
- Tourism
- Research
- Select Editorials
Next on the list are
- The Lunar Economy (Exo-economics)
These Theme Issues are, like the Classics, free access pdf files, no member username and password needed. See download address above.
- Lunar Resources & Industries
- 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.
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/mars/
- http://www.moonsociety.org/asteroids/
- http://www.moonsociety.org/tourism/
- http://www.moonsociety.org/research/
- http://www.moonsociety.org/art/ - the idea behind this page is to help members and visitors visualize the possibilities!
- 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.
If you have a "high frontier" tale in you, work it out and email it to moonbeams@moonsociety.org2010 1-sheet Meetings Calendars have been published, in 7 artwork versions, 4 horizontal, 3 vertical
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.
Just print on card stock and frame
A new issues of Selenology has been published.
The Fall 2009 issue 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/
LATIN AMERICAEvents: Annual Events, ISDCs and more.
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 (actually, it awaits final approval from one house of Mexico's legislature), 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
INDIA
See MMM-India Quarterly - a free access pdf file newsletterCHILE - 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 - This report is unchanged from last month's report. Activity continues behind the scenes.
MMM-India Quarterly #6 is in process aimed at an April release date
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 is in the final stage of improving proposed bylaws needed for incorporatiion, as well as aiming at a major presence at the SEDS India Conference to be held in Vellore, 113 km west of Chennaiin Tamil Nadu state, and 150 km east of Bangalore in April
Those interested in helping create Moon Society chapters in India should contact
Contact: moonsocietyindia@gmail.com
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.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.)
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."
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)SWEDEN
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.
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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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.