We are pleased to officially announce that The Moon Society, founded in 2000 and committed to the permanent settlement of Luna, and the Artemis Society International, founded in 1995 and with similar goals, are now one organization.
The Artemis Society International, according to its Bylaws, was “organized exclusively for the purpose of establishing a private lunar base”, and was registered as a non-profit corporation in State of Alabama in August 1995. According to its original filing, the Artemis Society International would work to “establish [a] self-supporting human presence on the moon”.
In the late 1990s, Artemis Society International was the world’s largest and most visible space advocacy organization focused solely on the Moon. It was featured on the Discovery Channel, Space.com, and many other news and media outlets.
The principal members of both The Lunar Resources Company and Artemis Society International were instrumental in the formation of the Moon Society in 2000. However, the three organizations remained separate until recently. There had been a desire for them to forge slightly different paths, but over the years the parent organizations became inactive while the Moon Society surged forward.
In 2018, the Moon Society began serious discussions with the principals of The Lunar Resources Company and Artemis Society International to come to an agreement to merge the organizations. This culminated in the Moon Society offering to purchase outright all of the outstanding shares of the for-profit Lunar Resources Company from its original and current shareholders. In January 2020, we achieved ownership of over 50% of the corporation, which allowed us to issue and file paperwork with the state of Texas to formally assume control of the corporation.
These actions gave the Moon Society clear ownership of the intellectual property, trademarks, and other assets previously owned by the Lunar Resources Company, which includes the Artemis Project plan that the Artemis Society International was originally formed to advance & advocate.
We have now merged the boards of all three organizations into one board (that of the Moon Society) and moving forward we will be working as a single organization with a non-profit focus.
In the near future, we will be revising the Artemis Project plan and supporting materials such as the Artemis Data Book, which has been online since the 1990s at www.asi.org
Members of the space advocacy community and the general public are invited to join our efforts to create a sustainable lunar civilization and to help begin the settlement of our solar system.