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The Solar System becomes a Gated Community
by kokhmmm 
by Peter Kokh
Today, August 24th, will go down in astronomical history as the day little, but still fascinating, Pluto and its three moons got kicked out of a now Gated Community. The Gate & Fence is a definition chosen to exclude any world that does not fit the pre-1930 demographics of the Solar Club.
To do this, the International Astronomical Union [IAU] took the definition chosen by its committee tasked with creating a definition of a “Planet”
“a body orbiting the sun that was big enough so that gravity would overcome internal forces and squash it into a roughly spherical shape.”
and added one more qualifier:
“a planet must also be massive enough to clear other objects out of its orbital zone.”
This last phrase was designed to keep out Ceres and Pluto and Xena.
The trouble with this standard is that
a) this clearing operation is incomplete. If it were complete, we would not be threatened by near Earth objects, NEOs.
b) most of what clearing process that has occurred took the better part of a billion years.
c) Mighty Jupiter and Neptune didn’t exactly “clear” their orbits, but shepherded the stragglers into Trojan (Lagrange 4 and 5) orbital positions, 60 degrees ahead and behind them in their paths around the sun.
The winners are those who have always resented Pluto, and wanted a definition that would forever keep the Planetary Club membership fixed.
The losers are the public. Elevation of Ceres, a mini-planet in its own right, preservation of Pluto’s status, and an open door to other ice planets beyond would have much better fostered public interest in the solar system and the universe in general.
With this sad step, we took one giant leap backwards towards the days when the only worlds were Earth, Heaven, and Hell, and all the rest were just lights in the sky.
Creating gerrymandered definitions that preserve club membership to the historic planetary demographics is a big mistake.
It would have been so simple to just create classes of planets:
a) the four rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
b) dwarf rocky planets: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta
c) the four gas giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
d) the small outer icy planets: Pluto, Xena, and others yet to be discovered.
The contrived nature of the new definition is clear from the fact that the rocky planets and gas giants are two vastly different classes of worlds.
To keep club membership at eight, the definition has to be vague enough to embrace both small rocky worlds and larger gas giants, yet specific enough to exclude the dwarf rocky worlds and outer ice worlds. Gerrymandered.
If we have a definition that has the latitude to include both of these groups, then why not one a bit more general to include the other groups?
“It is a puzzlement”, said the King of Siam.
I don’t think this is the end of the story. The public repercussions of Pluto’s demotion will erode public interest in astronomy. After all, astronomers clearly do not have their act together, and are acting like an Old Boys Club.
Meanwhile, we are busy discovering more and more exoplanets - planets around other suns, and you can be sure, that the demographics of these systems will sooner or later force us to back off this “gated community” definition.
Oh yes, one more thing. The committee had proposed elevating Charon. This may seem absurd but you should not think that Pluto and Charon would have been planets separately. Indeed, I think that given that they both rotate around a common center of gravity well above Pluto’s surface, should classify them as “a binary planet system.”
So not ...... Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and Xena
but .... Neptune, Pluto-Charon, and Xena.
Now that would have been wonderful!
But I am even more disappointed that Ceres’ claim is not being honored. It is a world with enough gravity to force it into a spheroidal shape, and to stratify its material into layers, densest at the core. Clearly, Ceres and Gaspra or Eros are different types of objects. Yes, Ceres was too small to force order among the fragmentary objects in its orbital zone. But that does not change what Ceres is in itself.
Ceres is bound to play an important role if humankind ever ventures beyond Mars and into the realm of the outer gas giants. See “Ceres: largest asteroid or mini-planet” in MMM #196 June 2006, pp 4-6. It is high time that Ceres got the recognition due it both as a mini world in itself and as to its strategic potential in the saga of homo solaris.
It is a pity that the astronomers couldn’t see the wider picture. But horse blinders are an occupational hazard of any “specialized” profession. Who would have suspected that persons whose occupation is to explore the universe at large, could have such closed small minds.
No apologies. Sometimes, punches shouldn't be pulled.
08/24/06 01:34:59 pm, 
Design a Banner for Our Front Page
by kokhmmm
Design a Banner for our Website Front Page
and win a Free Membership or Renewal
May 3, 2006 - The Moon Society Leadership Council has given its support to a design competition that could produce a Banner for the Moon Society Website.
DETAILS:
* The Moon Society is not obliged to pick or declare a winner, if no entries meet our enthusiastic approval.* If we pick a submitted banner design for our front page, the prize will be a new one year membership or a one year renewal, as applicable.
* If other designs are also well received, we may accept them for use on other pages, awarding (a) runner up prize(s) of one half year membership or renewal
* CONTENT: The ideal banner should convey "the journey from where we are now, a membership society on Earth," to "where we want to end up, a civilian pioneer society on the Moon." How to suggest this is entirely up to the artist.
* INCLUDED WORDING: The words "The Moon Society" need not appear as they will be prominent elsewhere on the page. You may wish, however, to include the rally cry "To the Moon to Stay!"
* ANIMATION? - short answer, "no." But if you incorporate the rally cry above, you could have two frames, the first with "To the Moon" and then, when all the rest of the page has finished loading, a highlighted "to Stay!" could pop up (and remain). Feel free, however to come up with other ideas, so long as once the page is loaded, the banner will remain static, in its final phase.
* LOW BANNER SIZE in kilobytes will be a judging/decision factor. The banner should load in no more time than does the full moon logo which is 160 KB.
* Deadline July 1st, with (a) winner(s), if any, to be announced on August 1st, to coincide with announcement of society officer and director election winners.
* Email your entry as an attachment to president@moonsociety.org with the words "Banner Entry" in the subject line. Your submission may be in any standard image form (.gif, .jpg, .tff, .psd, .pict, etc. or as a paint file.) or in pdf file format, but should be attached by itself, with any explanatory remarks accompanying the image in the message body text.
This Contest Announcement to be posted on our front page, on our blog, and sent by email to all current and former members for whom we have current email addresses, and who do not employ spam filters without white listing society email.
Other Space Site Banners presented for inspiration.
http://www.marssociety.org/images/msoc_graphic_sm2.jpg
This is a logo, not a banner, but an example of passage from present to envisioned future
http://www.nss.org/images/NSS-site-header2.jpg
http://hiwaay.net/~hal5/images/hal5_pic.gif - NSS Huntsville, AL chapter
http://www.asi.org/images/2001/asi200100001.gif
http://www.moonsociety.org/blog/skins/custom/img/blog_masthead_PK2.gif
http://www.seds.org/banner/header3.jpg
http://www.aiaa.org/images/util/top-rotate4.jpg
NOTE: Our Banner Contest has ended. There were no entries that met our design requirements.
New! - Powerpoint Slide Show of Artemis Mission
by kokhmmm
Link: http://www.moonsociety.org/moonbasesim/moonbasesimone_multimedia.html
During our recent Moonbase Simulation exercises at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, it was Gerry Williams of Mars Society San Diego who was the voice of CapCom for about half of the two-week mission.
Now Gerry has taken a pick of the photos taken during the mission and put together a Powerpoint Slide show.
You can download this slide show at:
http://www.moonsociety.org/moonbasesim/moonbasesimone_multimedia/
Click on the file:
Artemis_Sim-1.ppt
Enjoy, and use it to Spread the Word!
And thanks again, Gerry!
Help us redesign the Moon Society Website
by kokhmmm
Three years ago, member John Schrock led an effort to redesign the Moon Society front page at
It was a welcome improvement.
In the past year and a half, we have added more menu options and features. But whether it is a matter of layout, color, or content, "what's new" doesn't jump out at the casual visitor. We have had a problem changing the "changing picture" regularly and that has not helped.
We would very much appreciate your feedback. What do you like or not like about the front page? What improvements would you like to see?
To stimulate your thoughts on all this, take a look at the front pages of these four space organizations.
Two that haven't changed in a while in layout or template:
The Space Frontier Foundation
http://www.space-frontier.org
The Mars Society
http://www.marssociety.org
Two that have recently been totally redesigned.
The National Space Society
http://www.nss.org
The Planetary Society
http://planetary.org
Tell us what you like, don't like about each. Be specific.
Your input will be a big help to us in considering how to present a better face to visitors and members alike.
We have become a more dynamic society.
We've got to let that show!
please email me personally with your inputs
president@moonsociety.org
or
kokhmmm@aol.com
Thanks,
Peter Kokh
NOTE: If you've checked our website lately, you will see that, keeping all the your great inputs in mind, we have opted for an evolutionary approach. We hope you find the website easier to use, what you want easier to find, and that it is more interesting. The real test of how well we're doing is if you find yourself visiting it more often! - PK
The View from 3 Weeks after Mission’s End
by kokhmmm
The View from 3 Weeks after Mission’s End
By Mission Commander, Peter Kokh
Filed April 5, 2006
Artemis Moonbase Sim 1 (MDRS Crew 45)
February 26-March 11, 2006
First, deep apologies from all of us on the Artemis Moonbase Sim 1 Crew. We got this blog up and running with every intention of submitting personalized reports all throughout the mission. And that didn’t happen.
The reason is simple. We had undertaken a hefty list of projects and they occupied a lot of our time. Then we had the obligatory reports to file with our Mars Society hosts every day. That took more time. More importantly, because we had such a slow satellite uplink from the middle of Nowhere, Utah, sending our reports took hours. We had to fight frequent service interruptions.
We were left with low energy levels at the end of the day. Even when we did technically have some time left, we spent that on relaxation.
So that was a big lesson for us. Don’t plan too much. Don’t promise too much.
We hope that most of you followed along anyway. But for some of you that might not have been easy. Our own crew website at moonsociety.org/moonbasesim/ was moved to a new location on the Nursing Society Server (our webmaster, William Fung-Schwarz, takes care of that site also) in the wake of two multi-day server crashes of the Moon Society website. But the move was not completed by the time the mission began, leaving visitors in the dark. The /moonbasesim/ site has since been restored at its original location.
Some of you will have been able to follow anyway, on the official Mars Desert Research Station website:
http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs05/
Where our reports and pictures are permanently stored under the Crew 45 section.
I have encouraged the individual crew members to post their reflections on their experiences.
You will find my Mission Summary Report at:
http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs05/0311/sum.asp
We left MDRS feeling a great sense of accomplishment, despite the fact that a combination of over-planning and sickness on the part of some crew members had kept us from achieving all our goals.
Now, three weeks after arriving home, unwinding, letting it all sink in, and further digesting our experiences, I’d like to share with you some reflections.
First, our major goals were these:
#1. Stir up enthusiasm amongst the membership, encouraging more members to renew, and motivating more visitors to join.
#2. Attract major publicity and name recognition for the Moon Society. That would help attract new members as well as new funding.
#3. Gain experience from our exercise that would leave us better prepared to situate, design, outfit, manage, and maintain our own Lunar Analog Station someday.
#4. Fully fund this mission (rent and equipment expenditures) with enough money left over for a down payment on a sequel.
Of these four goals, the third was the only one where I believe we did well.
On goal #1: There has been no discernible growth in the Moon Society membership to date, but that may come later.
On goal #2: All our efforts to attract major publicity failed. While M.D.R.S. as a standing facility, continues to attract Media attention worldwide, individual crew exercises do not. Two expected media visits did not occur for whatever reasons. However, our exercise was followed on the Ad Astra Online section of Space.com and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the National Space Society's quarterly, Ad Astra. We did get a bit part in the new BBC documentary “The Moon,” but not anything that we can expect to draw in new members.
On goal #3: This first mission is stalled at about 78% funding. In two months, we must make up the difference, reaching into our own pockets if need be. If that is the case, it seems unlikely that we would undertake a sequel with even more ambitious projects. We need to make up a $1,500 shortfall and then some towards next year, in order to change that assessment. Meanwhile, we wish to thank all of you who did contribute! For your individual contributions we are deeply grateful. You should know that all of the crew members contributed their own transportation costs to and from Utah, and some of us paid for other items out of pocket. It is not to late to make a contribution. Go to www.moonsociety.org and look for the Make a Donation button in the left hand menu column. This calls up a secure PayPal page in which you can make a credit card donation. You must accompany your donation by an email to treasurer@moonsociety.org specifying that your donation is for the Moonbase Simulation exercise. Failing that, your donation will go into the general funds.
While this seems like a grim report, the fact remains that our projects were overall very successful and we have a lot to be proud about.
The Mars Desert Station area is indeed very Marslike. We had little choice but to concentrate on exercises that would be relevant for moon bases and Mars outposts alike. That had the happy result of providing our host, the Mars Society, with results that benefited their own goals as well. Such a result was intended, of course -- we wanted to be welcome to come back!
William Fung-Schwarz’s MarsSkin space suit experiments contributed to the ongoing evolution of analog spacesuits at MDRS. See his final report at: http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs05/0311/mcp.asp
Laurel Ladd’s modeling of an Early Space Frontier Diet, based on dry and dehydrated foodstuffs supplemented with fresh produce and veggies (on occasion) from our let’s pretend Greenhouse (in operation for three months or so) was a great success. Fiber- and protein-enriched, the meals were well received and no crew member reported any gastrointestinal unwanted side effects. An Online Cookbook, startup edition, is planned, and it will be something Moon and Mars crews to come can add to, should they decide to pick up where we left off.
Our own (commander’s) project of constructing a “simulated” pressurized tunnel between the MarsHab and the GreenHab was also successful. The idea was to create a visually separate “tunnel” through the outdoors, so that crew members could transit inside in ordinary clothing, while their comrades out on the “lunar” or “Martian” surface just outside the “tunnel” would need to wear the EVA suits. The simulation program at M.D.R.S. depends on the admitted illusion, created by wearing the appropriate apparel, of being on Mars itself (or the Moon itself) in order to get the best results from testing equipment and procedures to be used in real situations on Mars or the Moon. Previously, crew members going to the GreenHab had to make an unconvincing mental not that if they followed a certain path they would not be exposed to vacuum (the Moon) or to the unbreathable atmosphere of Mars. The “tunnel” had to provide nor real resistance to the sometimes fierce local winds. The result improved our own level of simulation, and that of all future Mars crews to come.
http://w3.marsstuff.com/media/mdrs/fs05/images/crew45/c45d13str01.jpg
Our Dust Control Study may prove helpful to the Mars Society in upgrading the Hab to allow experiments and exercises not now feasible, as well as help us in better designing our own analog lunar station someday:
http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs05/0310/dcs.asp
But back to a “Three Weeks After Review”
It was a learning experience! On the one hand, it does not seem possible that we could have done it differently or better, given the circumstances. But if we do get the chance to do something like this again, either in Utah or elsewhere, we’ve learned enough to make some major changes.
We need to have a Mission building Team where the following roles are filled by different individuals.
* Fundraising & Sponsor Solicitation
* Budget Manager with the power to veto spending requests
* Engineering Team to design experiment apparatus
* Media/Publicity Team to pin down coverage
* Crew Selection & project proposals
In plain fact, some mistakes and bad calls were made because one person was taking on all these roles. That happened largely because we had only three and a half months to put the mission together. And while we had a lot of cheerleaders, and some very helpful support on details, there were no volunteers for the above major roles. Most members have day jobs that already provide all the load that they can handle. That is, everyone is already busy. The bottom line, however, is that before we try this again, we very much need to grow the society membership base substantially.
In my next report, I will talk about what more we could do at MDRS, and what we would have to gain by going elsewhere, and how much that might cost.
And I want to talk about a membership drive.