Sparkplug Roles for Individual Members
Chapter and Local Contact activity is not for everyone. Nor are the "team player" opportunities
offered on our website. We want to empower those more comfortable working alone and those who, through
location, schedules or other reasons, find team activity coordination burdensome. To this end, we have
identified the following four "Sparkplug" activity roles ideal for the individual. Perhaps one of these
is just right for you.
Click on any of the above for a description..
Note: our development of the Sparkplug idea and of the above four Sparkplug activity areas was inspired by an encounter at ISDC 2004 in Oklahoma City, Memorial Day Weekend, 2004 between Peter Kokh and member Kenneth Murphy of Texas. Ken had brought along an amazing Moon-focused information exhibit that he had put together himself for the purpose of outreach in his local community. We wanted to empower other individual members to do similar things that support the Society's goals and efforts..
Ambassadors
This is a term used by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to refer to individuals who communicate the excitement of planetary exploration to the public. Just substitute lunar exploration and development for planetary exploration, and you get the idea. Amassadors arrange events and/or find events already scheduled at which to give presentations and talks, highlighting them with visual aids. Ambassadors can also set-up and staff information booths and exhibits. The idea is to match your free time availability with outreach opportunities and to be on the lookout for these, creating them yourself as needed.
To learn more about how you might use your talents in this manner,send an email, with "Ambassador" in the subject line, describing your interests, abilities, and related experience to: sparkplugs@moonsociety.org.
Interpreters
By the title of Interpreter, we dignify those self-motivating members who take it upon themselves to interpret the vision, mission, and goals of the Society in ways that the average lay person and the public in general can better understand. This may include creation of original artwork, graphics, illustrations, even cartons that make the vision more concrete and easier to grasp. Under the title of Interpreter we recognize also those who write articles and books, those who create supportive websites that funnel visitors to the Moon Society, those who create documentaries, etc. In short, interpreters of the dream. We are blessed to have several member "Interpreters" hard at work using their own lights and operating on their own schedule. We can always use more.
For suggestions of how you might use your talents in this manner, send an email describing your interests, abilities, and related experience to: sparkplugs@moonsociety.org with "Interpreter" in the subject line, and we will get back to you with any ideas that come to mind.
Pathfinders
By the title Pathfinder, we dignify those who engage in Research & Development that may accelerate the day when pioneers are living on the Moon, and using the Moon's resources to provide for as much as possible of their own needs as well as to provide income-earning exports to defray the cost of what they cannot provide for themselves. This covers a lot of territory: technologies that may make transportation to the Moon faster, cheaper, safer; technologies to process lunar regolith, to produce made-on-Luna building materials; modular factories; modular architecture and modular biospherics systems; modular power generation, storage; modular recycling systems; modular food production systems; the list goes on. We honor those as "Explorers" who are scouting ways to make the dream real, whether they do so through a regular day job, or by using facilities and equipment to which they may have after-hours access, or by working totally on their own in a hobby capacity in ground-level experimentation. The Society is blessed to have a few member "Explorers" hard at work using their own lights and operating on their own schedule. We can use many more.
For suggestions of how you might use your talents in this manner,send an email message describing your interests, abilities, and any facilities to which you have access to sparkplugs@moonsociety.org with "Pathfinder" in the subject line, and we will get back to you with any ideas that come to mind.
Pioneers
By the title Pioneer, we dignify those entrepreneurially inclined members who brainstorm technologies not yet "on-the-shelf" for any possibly profitable terrestrial applications, then develop business plans for an enterprise designed to earn a profit here and now from those terrestrial applications alone, and thereby work to put at least a close analog of a needed technology on-the-shelf, ready for further adaptation to frontier conditions. This we call "spin-up" and is just the reverse of the time-honored "spin-off" path. Instead of applying NASA technology, already developed at the expense of unwilling taxpayers, they do the R&D themselves at the expense of willing consumers -- and probably at a lower cost. This type of pioneer enterprise activity would fit in well with the Artemis Business Plan.
The Society is presently considering a series of steps to identify, and create a list of such needed technologies. For a preliminary short-list of suggestions, send an send an email message describing your interests, abilities, and related experience to:sparkplugs@moonsociety.org with "Pioneer" as the subject line, and listing your areas of interest, expertise, and experience.
For those who do not have regular access to email, or who prefer to contact us by regular mail, inquiries about any or all of these "Sparkplug" activities should be addressed to:
The Moon Society
Program Services: Sparkplugs
P.O. Box 080395
Milwaukee, WI 53208
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Page created 11/27/2004
