Archives for: February 2006, 14
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About The Moon Society Blog
by Moonbase Team 
About our title: We are taking advantage of the first Moon Society Crew exercises at the Mars Desert Research Station, February 26-March 12th, 2006 to kick off our new Moon Society blog. We hope to keep the blog running as a permanent Moon Society outreach tool after this first "Artemis Moonbase Sim 1" mission is over. We think that the subtitle "Artemis Moonbase: Under Construction" is appropriate, not just for this mission, but for everything the Moon Society does: all its projects, its efforts at collaboration with other space advocacy organizations, any contests or competitions, etc. All our efforts make sense only if they help advance the day when the first private enterprise civilian outpost on the Moon becomes a reality. "Artemis Moonbase" is thus more than a trademark name for the project begun by The Lunar Resources Company and Artemis Society International. It becomes the code name for all our efforts to advance the day when human settlements will flourish on the Moon, developing and using local resources to support their own needs and as a basis of trade with Earth and low Earth orbit markets as well as emergent markets elsewhere in space.
In the Masthead above, the symbolism is clear. to the left is an image suggestive of the Mars Desert Research Station where we begin our efforts, here on Earth (left hemisphere of the globe at center) that will lead to the Moon (right half of globe at center) and a first moonbase module deployment. The graphic shown is artwork by Artemis Society and Moon Society founder Gregory R. Bennett in 1994 to suggest how a module would be landed vertically, and then swung down to rest on a horizontal frame. It does not matter if we end up doing things this way or not. Meanwhile, the shading in the background goes from light (we see the present more clearly) to the dark (the future is harder to discern) also symbolizing the bright skies of Earth, left, and the black skies of the Moon, right.
- 02-12-2006, Peter Kokh, President, The Moon Society.
02/14/06 11:51:38 pm, Pre-Launch Update from Hugh S. Gregory
by Moonbase Team
The following was written by Hugh S. Gregory of Vancouver, Canada who is flying on the Artemis One Expedition as Crew Scientist-Surveyor and PI of Project MAST. Hugh has also been invited by the Moon Society to undertake the tasking of Crew Trainer for which he is very well qualified with three previous MDRS trips under his belt.
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Feb 13th, 2006 21:53PST
. . . . . this is Artemis Control.
We are now at the T-minus 12 days and 13 hours until the Big Blue lander undocks from the Selene Launching Complex to commence the 5 hours orbit transfer down to a land mark locally known as The Whispering Sands where Powered Descent Initiation will occur. At this time the Crew's 2IC or XO Laurel Ladd, is finalising the dietary requirements of the Artemis One Crew.
This is very important for a Moon bound crew as everything must be hauled "up" from Earth with us. There is NO opportunity to go to the local green grocer or butcher when you are 240,000 miles from home and the same applies to crews who use the Mars Society's research stations. Everything must go in at the beginning. If you run out of something, well, lets just say the menu's will get very inventive.
This was my experience when I last visited as Commander of MDRS Crew 35 last year. We didn't starve and proper preplanning saw us run of of food on the last day as planned. At this time all systems on the Artemis Habitat are in nominal and telemetry shows no major system problems at this time. Further updates as events warrent.
This is Artemis Control. . . . . . . .
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