11|12|2006


















Some LRS Chapter Initiatives through the years
  • '87 June. Designed and fabricated a self-standing lightweight collapsable chapter space display unit for its debut at the X-Con science fiction convention, and which has been used over three dozen times in various outreach endeavors.
  • In the late eighties, we helped start several other chapters in Madison, Fox Valley, Sheboygan, Rockford, and Detroit. Efforts in Janesville and La Crosse failed. Today, the Sheboygan Space Society still survives and the current Badger Space Explorers in Madison traces its roots back to the NSS chapter we helped start there.
  • In the late eighties, we collected over 500 signatures on our "Return to the Moon to Stay" Petition (RTMTS) (not to be confused with the NSS sponsored "Return To The Moon" Petition (RTTM)
  • '87 July. Launched a second publication, Moon Miners' Review (MMR) to appear twice annually during MMM's semi annual break (August, January). MMR was discontinued in 2004 to allow time for publication for the MMM Classics.
  • '88 May. Helped rescue and make real a stalled grass roots effort to produce a private Lunar Polar Orbiter to look for lunar ice in polar permashade areas. Our networking in the halls of ISDC '88 in Denver launched Space Studies Institute's Lunar Prospector project, and led to the enlistment of Al Binder, current Principal Investigator. We also suggested the name "Lunar Prospector".

  • '88 September. MMM goes "national", with the signing on of the Seattle L5 and Fox Valley NSS chapters, both since defunct. The current Seattle NSS chapter does not trace back to Seattle L5.
  • '89 May. Organized the first "Chapters to Chapters Room" at ISDC '89 in Chicago in which NSS Chapters had the opportunity to showcase their displays, literature, and projects to one another.
  • '90 August. Founded "LUNAX": Lunar National Agricultural Experiment, in 1990, to encourage high school science and ag-science classes to conduct experiments that would yield useful data. Results: one Green Bay, Wisconsin girl high school senior's experiment won first prize ($8,000) in a Future Farmers of America competition. Most teachers saw the "nightspan dark hardiness experiment" as a student-interest-catching fad, and did not take seriously our need to send us experiment results. We hope to renew interest in these experiments on an individual basis, by publishing guidelines on the web. LRS member and LUNAX Exec. Director David A. Dunlop hopes for a fresh start in '07
  • '91 October. Hosted the organizing meeting of Wisconsin Space Business Roundtable. WSBR was very active for several years, but is now in limbo.
  • '95 November - with MMM #90, Artemis Society International became the major client for our newsletter
  • '96 We failed in our effort to organize the "Amtrak Suborbital Shuttle", a Conference on the Way to a Conference, Chicago to ISDC '96 New York - not enough participants by the must-commit date.
  • '98 We put on a very successful International Space Development Conference '98 at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, May 22-25, 1998, with over 450 registered, and 80 speakers in 5 tracks plus a top display room, adding substantially to our chapter exhibit collection, notably the table top Lunar Homestead model.
  • '00 August - The Moon Society takes over Membership Services from Artemis Society International and becomes MMM's largest client.
  • '01 May - We begin producing pdf files of each MMM issue, #145 ff., for the Moon Society's overseas members.
  • '04 August - LRS President Peter Kokh is elected president of the Moon Society, and begins an effort to leverage connections to other organizations: The Mars Society (August '04), The National Space Society (with which he negotiated an affiliation agreement between NSS and the Moon Society at ISDC '05), The American Lunar Society '05, Minnesota Space Frontier Society '06, and Calgary Space Workers '06.
  • 2005 - Peter Kokh joins the refit crew, #34, at the Mars Desert Research Station February 6-20.
  • 2005 - May 23rd, at the 2005 International Space Development Conference in Washington, DC, Peter Kokh negotiates an affiliation agreement between the Moon Society and the National Space Society.
  • 2006 - LRS cosponsored the Moon Society's first moonbase simulation crew at the Mars Desert Research Station, kicking off the funding drive to raise the $7,000 rent due to the Mars Society, by kicking in the first 20% thereof, $1400, from remaining profits earned by putting on ISDC 1998 in Milwaukee. LRS President Peter Kokh, now also President of the Moon Society, commanded the seven person crew,crew #45, February 26 - March 12, 2006 at the facility outside Hanksville, Utah.
  • 2006 December 9th - LRS and MMM celebrate their 20th anniversary. 20 years ago, on Saturday, August 23, 1986, members of the Chicago and Minnesota chapters of the L5 Society (would merge into the new National Space Society on March 27, 1987) had gathered local SE Wisconsin L5 members in a room and got them committed to starting a new L5 chapter. At our anniversary celebration, one of those Chicago members, Larry Ahearn, and two of those Minnesota members, Ben Huset and Scot Shjefte, along with several of those Wisconsin members present 20 years ago where on hand to celebrate the event: first chapter president Myles Mullikin, founding editor of Moon Miners' Manifesto Peter Kokh, first chapter Vice-President Terry Nielsen, and other original members Dave Riedel and Rodney Schroeter. PHOTOS

In Addition

  • Speakers Provided to date:
    • Locally to many school classes, community groups, science fiction conventions
    • Outstate to events in Madison, Neenah, Sheboygan
    • Out of state to events in Chicago, San Antonio, Huntsville, Cleveland, Toronto, Dayton, Indianapolis, Houston
  • Videos for Community Access cable TV produced by Bob Bialecki
  • Several Mission Control™ brainstorming Workshops conducted at various conferences and conventions
  • Chapter displays set up at many events through the years
  • LRS has sponsored these Field Trips
    • '88 Fermilab, west of Chicago
    • '89 Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
    • '90 Argonne National Lab, SW of Chicago
    • '91 Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant Visitors Center, plus Manitowoc Maritime Museum including the WWII Submarine Cobra
    • '92 The Biotron, Space Hydroponics Agriculture Lab, UW Madison; plus the UW Spaceplace
    • '93 Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry, and the Crown Space center
    • '94 Six Flags Great America and its new "Shuttle America" ride
    • '96 1st annual Rockets for Schools suborbital Super Loki launch in Sheboygan
    • '97 2nd annual Super Loki launch in Sheboygan'98 3rd annual Super Loki launch in Sheboygan
    • '01 Argonne National Lab, SW of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago, downtown, to see the "2001: Building for Space" Exhibition

Can you think of a great nearby field trip destination? email us at