President’s Report to Our Members on The State of The Society
for our 7th Annual Membership Meeting
December 17, 2014
On the occasion of our Annual Meeting, it is worthwhile to pause and consider the state of our organization, and contemplate the ways in which we can face our current challenges and move forward as an organization advocating for a human presence on the Moon. Below are some of the main threads occupying the leadership:
1) Moon Miners’ Manifesto – for over two decades our “in-house” newsletter has been exploring ways of developing the Moon under the editorship of Peter Kokh, who has earned significant recognition for his work. However, Peter can’t keep producing MMM forever. The time has come to implement an editorial team that will transition MMM to its next incarnation.
This is an exciting opportunity for members to develop a 21st century platform to inform the world of why the Moon and its development is important for our planet. Interested members are urged to e-mail president@moonsociety.org to get started.
2) The Website – we are in the end phases of the transition to our new website. At this point the main work is migrating links. If you would like to help out with the website, please contact Philip at moonsociety@philipcrume.com
3) Membership Initiatives – we continue to seek ways to engage the younger audiences and, more importantly, enable their participation in achieving the goals of The Moon Society. The challenge is transitioning them from passive ‘friend’ers and ‘like’ers into active participants in the work of the society. We have some resources to make projects happen; we’re looking for young leaders to guide those projects.
4) Projects – The Moon Society envisions a number of projects to advance our cause:
-Lunar Lava Tubes – a project to study communications architectures for robots exploring lava tubes. Potential to morph into a real and significant science project under the right leadership.
-Solar Sail Moon Sat – a project to study orbital operations, especially in the context of a ‘pole-sitter’, of a solar sail satellite. Could be done with a CubeSat, but requires much proposal and grant work.
-Robot Park – a project to provide a set of robots and a regolith ‘sandbox’ to test surface operations that would be controllable from the internet.
-Moon Backgrounders – a project to create a series of powerpoint presentations on topics like Moon 101, The Cislunar Economy, Moonbase Basics, and Selenology that would be available through the website to members and others to use in making educational public presentations.
-Lunar Labs – a project to create a series of STEM projects that teachers could use in classrooms as part of their educational curriculum, on topics like Mooncrete (90+% complete), Aqua Luna (water electrolysis and fuel cells), and a lunar orbit math exercise.
-Your Project – Have a Moon project you want to advance? Let us know!
5) Moon Marketplace – we are in the process of updating the Moon Marketplace on our website to allow the purchase of The Moon Society apparel and goods, as well as our partnership with the NASA Federal Credit Union (which membership is available to all TMS members), links to books of particular interest at Amazon.com, our tip jar, and other ways to monetize the activities of The Moon Society to help fund our projects.
6) Marketing materials – we have been creating a number of tools to help publicize The Moon Society, such as our recent postcards and ‘Carpe Lunam’ buttons. We need a membership brochure, fliers, and more materials we can use to help spread the word of how our Moon gives us the opportunity to grow new industries, as well as to tap the resources and energy of space for the benefit of Earth.
7) Public Outreach – we always encourage our members to attend local conferences, give Rotary talks, and otherwise engage the public in learning about our Moon. It’s important that you represent yourself as a member of The Moon Society, so that more people will start looking to us to learn about our celestial companion.
As the space industry changes, so too must the organizations that support that industry. Your Moon Society is facing those challenges head-on, and strategizing the means to adapt. We look for your input in this regard at our Annual Meeting on Wednesday, December 17th.
