Introducing the "To The Stars International Quarterly"

http://www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/T2SIQ_1_Oct2012.pdf  - http://www.nss.org/tothestars/

Update: Issue #2 published January 19, 2013 - http://www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/TTSIQ2_January2013.pdf

Bookmark this Directory to find added future issues: http://www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/

2012.10.08 How the idea of this publication was born: At an August 25, 2012 meeting of the National Space Society International Committee in Lake Grove, IL outside Chicago, with Dave Dunlop (committee chairman) and four others from the National Space Society, we discussed how NSS could reach out internationally.

Dave and I feel strongly that the idea of reaping a boatload of foreign paid memberships is a pipe dream - lower standards of living, high postage for  hard copy mailing, currency exchange rates which "punish those who are outside North America" - and when it comes to forming chapters, laws in some countries (India among them) which explicitly do not allow formation of Indian chapters of non-Indian organizations.

The opening suggestion was  to simply change the "I" in M3IQ (Moon Miners' Manifesto India Quarterly) from India to International and email this publication to the hundreds of foreign students in NSS email database. But the India project is close to my heart, and I wanted to keep the current title, organization, and feel . My counter offer was to use 90% of the same edited material in each new M3IQ and rearrange it by topic rather than by space faring country, with a new masthead for distribution via the NSS International list-serve.

I proposed to drop the MMM in the title and replace it with TTS - "To the Stars" as that is the translation of the Latin name of NSS hard copy quarterly, Ad Astra,
implying a connection to NSS (but with Moon Society co-sponsorship). TTSIQ will publish the same reports that are in the concurrent Moon Miners' Manifesto India Quarterly issue, but rearranged in these headings

  1. Earth Orbit and Mission to Planet Earth
  2. Cislunar Space and the Moon
  3. Mars and the Asteroids
  4. The rest of the Solar System
  5. Starbound
  6. Teachers & Students Section
To The Stars International Quarterly #1 was co-published with Moon Miners' Manifesto India Quarterly #16 on October 8, 2012, with 2 access addresses, given above.

In addition to the National Space Society and the Moon Society (both mutually affiliated since ISDC 2005), OpenLuna.org and the Space Renaissance Initiative are listed as original co-sponsors. We are hoping that SEDS, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, will join us.

The significance of this extended publication venture is that collectively we will reach many more people around the world.

NSS is interested in growing its international membership.

The editor, however, is interested in enthusing more people all around the world about the possibilities and potential of space exploration and development, letting people elsewhere organize their own pro-active societies.            PK