The Moon Society - Who We Are & What We Do

The Moon Society, founded in 2000 by Gregory R. Bennett, seeks to inspire and involve people all over the world in the continued study and exploration of the Moon with the goal of accelerating the day when there will be civilian settlements on the Moon, making use of local resources through private enterprise both to support the pioneers themselves and to help alleviate Earth's stubborn energy and environmental problems.

What we are not

We are not designers, builders, or purchasers of rockets, habitat modules, or other hardware which will be involved in this effort. (Some of our members may be employed or involved with such efforts individually.)

Rather, our purpose as a society is both to help remove obstacles and to help lay foundations. We seek by all legitimate means available to us to promote developments that will aid those pioneers will go to the Moon to succeed in their ventures, and to advance the day when they will do so.

Our Vision says Who We Are

We envision a future in which the free enterprise human economy has expanded to include settlements on the Moon and elsewhere, contributing products and services that will foster a better life for all humanity on Earth and beyond, inspiring our youth, and fostering hope in an open-ended positive future for humankind.

Our Mission

Our Mission is to inspire and involve people everywhere, and from all walks of life, in the effort to create an expanded Earth-Moon economy that will contribute solutions to the major problems that continue to challenge our home world.

Briefly, we seek to address these goals through education, outreach to young people and to people in general, contests and competitions, workshops, ground level research and technology experiments, private entrepreneurial ventures, moonbase simulation exercises, tourist centers, and other legitimate means.

Our Strategy and Game Plan

Our strategy and game plan are guided by the "Lunar Frontier Enabling Test" which paraphrases the "Space Frontier Enabling Test" formulated by the Space Frontier Foundation.

A "lunar frontier enabling" project, technology, or policy is one which has as its effect the acceleration of the creation of low cost access to the lunar frontier, and to the space frontier in general, for private citizens and companies, and/or which enables or accelerates our use of space resources, and/or accelerates the rate at which wealth can be generated on the Moon and in space.

In other words, we ask this question: is the project or policy going to provide a return on our investment of time, energy, and money, if we define "return" to be the economically sustainable human habitation of the Moon and of space in general?

Any project, competition, paper, technology demonstration or other activity which does not meet this clear standard, no matter how well designed and energetically pursued, is simply a waste of time and resources and energies -- a detour or diversion.

The Society has limited resources. We must use them to best effect. The "Lunar Frontier Enabling Test" helps assure that we do just that.

This will involve:

Promotion of public and entrepreneurial interest in the exploration, research, development, and habitation of the Moon

Stimulation of the advancement and development of applications of space and related technologies and encouragement of entrepreneurial development thereof

Collaboration between various societies and groups interested in developing and utilizing the resources of the Moon.

Tools of the Trade

There are many ways to move our efforts forward:

• Moon Miners' Manifesto, our monthly newsletter endeavors to suggest and illustrate the unsuspected possibilities
• Moonscapes, our new formatted email newsletters goes to current and former members - anyone in our  database for whom we have a current email adress, and to anyone else who wishes to subscribe (write moonscapes@moonsociety.org) with "subscribe" in the subject line)
• Check our Publications page for more published resources, many available to non-members as well
• public outreach by the Society and its chapters and outposts
• conference papers, panel discussions, symposia, and displays
• brainstorming workshops
  • to define new projects
  • to compose position papers
• design and engineering competitions  (groundlevel technology demonstrations)
• contests.
• promoting "spin-up" predevelopment of technologies needed on the lunar frontier for the sake of profits from their anticipated terrestrial applications.
• And eve more ways to be identified

Our Members

Our members hail from many nations and from many walks of life. People in general, not just specialists, will settle the Moon, and it is fitting that people in general, not just space technology specialists, help prepare the way and lay the foundations for this great adventure to unfold.

But we do need specialists, and not just "rocket scientists." The propulsion people may get us to the Moon, but it will take mining engineers, chemical engineers, experimental agriculture specialists, biosphere specialists, and persons with many other critical talents to help make our settlements viable and enduring.

Whatever your interests, talents, experience, and expertise, you have a role to play and we welcome you to join our teams or help start a new one. For suggestions on how to help, write us at president@moonsociety.org [subject line "How can I help?"] and tell us about yourself.

Our Affiliations

We are now an "affiliate organization" of the National Space Society, an umbrella organization which promotes all visions of a human future in space. We are "mutually affiliated" with the American Lunar Society and with the Planetary Society of Youth (India) sharing programs and publications. We are open to other affiliations that may be useful.

Our Collaborations

We actively seek areas of common interest with other organizations that may have a different focus to their efforts. We have been actively collaborating with the Mars Society on several fronts, including the renting of the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah for moonbase simulation exercises.

Areas of collaboration can include workshops, position papers and press releases, public outreach and other projects or activities. However differently we are focused, we are all in this together. "Turf-retentiveness" is a failed philosophy of the last half century.

We need your help

If you are a current member, write us about your areas of interest, talents, experience, expertise. Even if you have no free time, you may be able to help recruit others.

If you are a lapsed or former member, we invite you to rejoin a society that is on the move. Explore our website and lean about all the exciting things we have been doing of late.

To those of you who may or may not have heard of The Moon Society before, we extend our invitation. Joining the Society may allow you to pursue your dreams of humanity's future in space more effectively!

If you have talents to apply to our manifold efforts, splendid! If not, or you simply lack time to devote to new efforts, your dues will still contribute to the effort and make you a part of this movement. And you can help even more by recruiting others, spreading the word.

Help us realize the Moon's destiny as part of Greater Earth and as the door to the Universe at Large!

To the Moon!

Joining or Renewing

DUES include Moon Miners' Manifesto - (20 pages, ten issues per year) -

To request 3 recent Sample Issues in electronic PDF file format, write: 
President@moonsociety.org  with "send sample MMM issues" in the subject line

Those currently in our database, current or former members, can renew or rejoin at our special
"3 years for the price of 2" offer

Color PDF files available to all members via Moon Society username/password access
Members can request Black/White hardcopiies sent to their mailbox at no extra charge.

Pdf MMM $35 Students/Seniors: $20

Print MMM: US/Canada $35, Other: $60

Membership Services - P.O. Box 940825, Plano, TX 75094

Program Services - P.O. Box 080395, Milwaukee, WI 53208

president@moonsociety.org (414) 342-0705 = (888) 266-2385