E-Report 2006-01-30

 

To all Current and former members of The Moon Society and Artemis Society International.

Moon Society Progress Report

January 30, 2006

 

MOON SOCIETY MISSION at MDRS

A lot has happened since our last E-Report in October, in which we let you know that our first Moon Society Mission to the Mars Desert Research Station was finally given a definite slot in the 2006 MDRS field season as Crew #45, to serve for the two week period February 25 - March.

The "Artemis Moonbase Sim 1" [ Simulation 1] crew has been selected. A basic crew of 6 persons, plus 3 who will join us for part of the exercise, bring an enormous pool of talent and some exciting projects to undertake. It is an International crew with 3 from Canada, 1 from Germany, and the remaining 5 from the US. Two are women. Crew member ages range from 36 to 68 and come from many walks of life. There will be three experienced MDRS "veterans" on the crew, who have served on previous Mars Society crews. We have every reason to expect a fruitful and successful exercise!

We have a mission website:

http://www.moonsociety.org/moonbasesim/

Check out the Crew page to learn about the crew

and the Research page to learn about our projects

This site is still under construction, but improvements are being made daily.

Our $7,000 rental fee for the MDRS facilities is now 60% funded, with $1,400 coming from each of three principal sponsor organizations: The Moon Society, the Lunar Reclamation Society (publishers of Moon Miners' Manifesto), and the National Space Society with whom we forged an affiliation last May. An additional $1,650 has been set aside by The Moon Society and the National Space Society earmarked specifically for needed equipment.

The Moon Society front page (www.moonsociety.org/) now sports a "make a donation" button which calls up a secure PayPal.com page linked to The Moon Society account, on which you can use a credit card to make a donation. Unfortunately, there is no provision on this page for specifying a use to which you want us to apply your donation. If you want it to go to a specific purpose, such as funding our mission(s) at the Mars Desert Research Station or for artwork acquisition or for convention expenses, or any other purpose, you must send an email to treasurer@moonsociety.org, mentioning the date and the amount of your donation made on PayPal, and specifying the use to which you would like it applied. Failing that - if you do not send an email with specific instructions - your donation will go into the General Funds.

We now also have a second store at CafePress.com with mission logo items and apparel. Profits from online purchases at this store will help fund our moonbase simulation exercises in Utah. You will find the store at:

TARGET="_new"

http://www.cafepress.com/moonbasesim/

There is a link on this page to our main Moon Society store at CafePress

http://www.cafepress.com/moonsociety/

To encourage individual contributions to the Artemis Moonbase Simulation program at MDRS, we are announcing the following incentives:

A) for a $50 donation, pick out any item (specify size if relevant) at either of our CafePress Stores (/moonsociety/or /moonbasesim/) under $14.00 and email president@moonsociety.org with your request, and the details of your donation (amount, date, whether by check, money order, or by credit card on PayPal) and when we have verified your donation, we will order the item you wish shipped to the address you specify.

B) for a $50 donation, current members only (instead of selecting a logo item) may elect to have their memberships extended by 6 months. Email president@moonsociety.org with your request, and the details of your donation (amount, date, whether by check, money order, or by credit card on PayPal) and when we have verified your donation, we will extend your expiration date.

C) for a $100 donation, you may pick out any item (specify size if relevant) at either of our CafePress Stores (/moonsociety/ or /moonbasesim/) over $14.00 and email president@moonsociety.org with your request, and the details of your donation (amount, date, whether by check, money order, or by credit card on PayPal) and when we have verified your donation, we will order the item you wish shipped to the address you specify.

D) for a $100 donation, current members may (instead of selecting a logo item) elect to have their memberships extended by one full year. Lapsed members may elect to rejoin the society for one full year at no further expense. In either case, you must specify this in an email to treasurer@moonsociety.org. If you know your membership # (current or lapsed) please include this information. If your residence has moved in the interim, please give us both your current and former addresses, to help us identify you as a returning member rather than a first time new member.

E) for a $150 donation, you may specify any item at either CafePress store (specify size if relevant) _as well as_ a new, renewed or extended one year membership. Email president@moonsociety.org with your request, and the details of your donation (amount, date, whether by check, money order, or by credit card on PayPal) and when we have verified your donation

 

OTHER INITIATIVES

We have forged new affiliations with the American Lunar Society (ALS), whose Lunar Study and Observation Certificate Program we have already been cosponsoring, and with The Planetary Society of Youth (TPSY in India) with whom we had previously cosponsored a Moon Mission Design contest. Members of ALS or TPSY now have access to our Moon Miners' Manifesto archives. In exchange, Moon Society members can now access the publications of those organizations at:

http://www.moonsociety.org/members/selenology/

and

http://www.moonsociety.org/members/tpsynews/

respectively.

As with accessing the archives for Moon Miners' Manifesto, you will need your username and password to access these files. If you do not have a username and password, or do not remember what they are, email president@moonsociety.org

 

LOOKING AHEAD

Where are we headed? The Society has a membership much smaller than our ambitions require. We need to both grow the membership, find more dedicated volunteers, and continue to seek more ways to better extend our human and financial resources by leveraging our connections to other like-minded organizations. To date we have established affiliations with the American Lunar Society, a group of amateur astronomers especially fascinated by the Moon, with The Planetary Society of Youth in India, and with the National Space Society which has a relatively large membership base counting many Moon enthusiasts. Meanwhile we continue to seek additional pragmatic and ad hoc ways to collaborate with The Mars Society. We are open to networking with other groups when we can identify concrete projects and endeavors on which we can work together.

It is very helpful in seeking new partner organizations to work with, to have senior Society officers attend the various principal space conventions held each year. However, the Society has historically never supported such attendance out of its general funds. Officers must reach into their own pockets for event registration, transportation, and hotel expenses. Last year, the Society president attended NSS' International Space Development Conference in Washington, DC, The Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium in Sudbury, Ontario, and the Mars Society Convention in Boulder, CO as well as paying his way to and from Salt Lake City, UT to take part on MDRS Crew #34. We cannot continue to pay for such things out of pocket. Members who feel such attendance is essential can make donations via PayPal accompanied by an email to treasurer@moonsociety.org noting that the donation is attended for convention attendance expenses. Link to 2006 Conferences List.

This is your Society! You may well have a great suggestion for a project that The Moon Society should undertake. We are all The Moon Society. We are all volunteers. Those actively working on current projects have their plates full. Thus the most helpful way to promote your new project idea is to do the footwork for us, presenting a more fully baked proposal. What resources will be needed for this project (volunteer hours, money, other resources)? What informational footwork can be done (background, previous similar projects, interested parties, potential funding sponsors, etc.)? In other words, if you want to propose a project, volunteer to take it through the first phase before handing it over to others in the hopes that they can then run with it. We are not asking for an open-ended commitment of time, but a limited one. In other words, we are looking for "we should ... and I will help" suggestions, not "you should ... and I'll watch" ones!

This is your Society, and we want you to contribute to its future. Any member can choose to join the Leadership Council (in a nonvoting capacity) at which Society directions and initiatives are discussed. We meet online on the ASI-MOO twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings 9-11 pm ET, 8-10 pm CT, 7-9 pm MT, 6-8 pm PT, etc. Email president@moonsociety.org for directions.

Please feel free to email me on any pertinent matter.

To the Moon!

Peter Kokh
President, The Moon Society
president@moonsociety.org
kokhmmm@aol.com

NOTE: for those who prefer to send a check or money order by mail:

The Moon Society
P.O. Box 940825
Plano, TX 75094-0825