MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

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and other festivities by Peter Kokh While “new traditions” (as oxymoronic as it sounds) are being made all the time, there is little doubt that those that command our observance most deeply are those which are oldest, rooted in our collective gitgo times. So it is with Holidays: Christmas, Easter, New Years go back millennia (two at least). Thanksgiving goes back nearly four centuries. The 4th of July will be 220 years old next time around. We can expect that as the lunar frontier becomes fully established with the coming of age of the first native born generation of Lunans, the holidays and festivals they will most cherish will include those observed by those establishing the first beachhead. The Apollo 11 landing (July 20th) is sure to be observed, as is the “infamous” day of retreat, the liftoff of the Apollo 17 crew (December 10th). But neither of these “trivia” dates will rival the enthused celebration of the “Day of the Return” when humans come back to the Moon intent on setting up an open-ended “permanent” presence leading to genuine settlement. The first crew may only set up camp and then return to Earth, to be followed by the first crew intent on staying a full day-night cycle (the lunar “sunth”) or more. So closely connected with the observance of the Day of the Return will be the celebration of that first successful “overnighting” and the greeting of that first “sunrise” - “First Night’s End”. Finally, “Ever Since Day” will mark commencement of uninterrupted human presence on the Moon. If I were to put a friendly wager on which of these will be the most honored in Lunan settlement tradition, it would be on “First Night’s End”. There will be a special flavor to this holiday, the shared mutual congratulations at having survived this “initiation” imposed by the Moon itself. And for all non-native born Lunans, there will be a special personal resonance with memories of their very own “First Night” and “First Night’s End”. Other history-rooted anniversaries may mark the birth of the first native born Lunan. And later, the first native born grandchild (i.e. second generation, whose health will be the final test of whether or not humans can stay on the Moon indefinitely) [See MMM # 47 JUL ‘91, p. 5 “Native Born”] Not all Lunan Holidays and festivities will take root in such historic occurrences. Some are sure to be bound up with the Moon’s natural rhythms, much as a growing minority of us terrestrials observe the equinoxes and solstices. Local sunset and local sunrise will be big deals, something to mark with a special meal or wine or friends - simply because they occur on a 28+ day cycle, not a 24 hour one. If a particularly appropriate Lunan Calendar is adopted [see MMM # 7 JUL ‘87, “Moon Calendar” - , republished in MMM Classics #1], with “sunths” of 28.5 (24 hr.) days instead of 30.5 day calendar months, with the discrepancy with Earth reckoning made up with occasional “leap” (“intercalary”) “sunths” or weeks, Lunar New Years may only approximate the fall of New Years on Earth. In such a case, the observance of religious feasts and holy days may also vary with that on Earth, without spiritual harm to those who honor them. This will be much to the chagrin and resistance of religious fundamentalists (those who give major importance to the minor, and minor importance to what really matters, and call every one else heretic and infidel.] Solar Eclipses on the Moon are the flip side of Lunar Eclipses on Earth. They will be much more of an experience for Lunan pioneers and settlers than any eclipse on Earth (even total Solar). They will last several hours locally, and possibly may occasion the morning or afternoon “off” (work or school) as the case may be. And it will be the most favorable time for looking for city lights on Earth’s nighttime face. In time, other “political” milestones will come to be honored in settlement tradition - the day when home rule is won, or independence declared, for example. Historic and festive holidays will not be the only early-rooted traditions. Pioneering songs and ballads, even candidate settlement anthems, are sure to be written, sung, performed, and loved. There may arise too special festive foods with historic significance. We have pretzels and crossover buns associated with Lent, unleavened bread associated with Passover. Eggnog, Christmas cookies, Easter Eggs, Pumpkin Pie are among many foods especially popular at specific festive times. On the Moon, many long-loved foods and recipe delights will not be available early on. Special early frontier substitute food and menu items, beverages too, even if in time the need to make such substitutions eases, may be prepared and consumed with relish on commemorative occasions. Associated with such holiday tradition meals may be time-revered toasts, blessings, and mutual greetings. Certain plants are associated with various observances on Earth; poinsettias and mistletoe with Christmas, for example. And plants grown successfully in the early outpost days may come to be associated with various Lunan observances in like fashion. The first humans to return to the Moon may think that all they are doing is erecting, deploying, setting up, demonstrating, testing, etc. But even the little incidental things they do, may in time take on special meaning and color not at all obvious at first, to become ritually repeated. This will all occur sometimes spontaneously, other times with alertness, if not deliberateness, as a part of fulfilling the very human need to impose on nature’s own rhythms, a festive and commemorative cultural rhythm of our own. Such cultural rhythms are a major element of the social glue that binds generations together. In this way they will bind future Lunan generations, much as similar traditions have always served in terrestrial communities throughout the globe, and throughout historic and prehistoric times. Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 16
wh will pi neer? Leaving the familiar lush green hills of Earth for the Magnificent Desolation of the Moon for an open-ended stay won’t appeal to many by Peter Kokh Space. Alien planetscapes. As it starts to get real, it will also start to slowly dawn on media sci-fi-nurtured enthusiasts that the real thing is much less “nifty”, “neat, “futuristic”, “utopian” etc., than imagined. The frontier will be a rough, hard place with few creature comforts, few opportunities for self-indulgence. We won’t be stumbling on new aliens every week, indeed, perhaps never. Nor will we be visiting shining exotic cities. Space, real space, offers little non-economic perks beyond one: the chance to start over, to start fresh, to have a hand in shaping the roots of a raw new community. Many immigrants came to America, Canada, and Australia with visions of making great wealth, and indeed some have done so. But many more came motivated by the lure of freedom. At first this conjures up images of political or religious oppression in the “old country”, but as proud as we may be of our political and religious freedoms, I suggest that this is only one type of liberty. Many more down to earth pragmatic people may have been drawn to our shores in search of another freedom altogether. Cultural freedom. Freedom from civilizations in which almost every aspect of life is stiflingly set. The freedom to start over. The opportunity to have a hand in shaping a new way of life. When it comes to space and the call goes out for would be pioneers, not to go on some exotic mission, but to leave Earth behind, perhaps never to return, it is not those in search of the excitement that Science Fiction visions promise who will respond. It will be those for whom the futuristic, the ultramodern, the high tech, the super-sophisticated, the exotic, etc. means little. Those vulnerable to such turn-ons are best advised to stay on Earth, even as their spiritual ancestors stayed in genteel sophisticated Baltimore and other eastern cities instead of following Horace Greeley west. Those first in line to volunteer will be those for whom the pleasures and gratifications of Old Earth have long become empty, for whom terrestrial creature comforts weigh less than the opportunity to roll up the sleeves and get the nails dirty building a raw new world up from scratch. Those who seek mainly to “consume” the “new”, will stay home. It is those whose bell is rung by the satisfaction of making very real personal “contributions” to an untamed infant world, to help polish the rough edges of this frontier one by one - it is these who will apply. It will be tempting for governments, multinational companies, and other major players involved in opening the frontier to exercise a high degree of a priori control over who gets to go. Planners will say we need so many engineers, so many architects, so many workers. They will attempt to screen for personality problems. The temptation to “micromanage” who gets to go will be enormous. The need to micromanage will have many impassioned defenders. But! with the best in our own time-honored traditions of individual self-selection. It can be argued that “we” can’t just let “anyone” who imagines space or the Moon or Mars is for him or her to go - we’d get too many unsuitable people: antisocial types, alcoholics and addicts, criminals, psychopaths, “God knows what.” But there is another way to let personal freedom rule and still not end up burdened with a lot of unsuitable people putting a drag on struggling frontier settlement communities. That way is to make sure that “self-selection” is “informed” self-selection. The public in general must be disabused of Sci-Fi-fed misconceptions about space. The dangers, the risks, the lack of creature comforts, the sacrifices and hardships, the substitutions and the do-withouts, the hard work, the isolation, etc. must all be drummed in over and over. That for every person willing to pioneer Antarctica you could problem find many thousands willing to pioneer Mars, a much less friendly place, is eloquent testimony to endemic mass misconceptions. One public perceptions are corrected, replaced with the much harsher reality, far fewer people will be so eager to volunteer for the frontier. But those who do, all these reality checks notwithstanding, are far more likely to have the “right stuff” than any group carefully selected by micro-managers out of a flood of unenlightened mis-enthused volunteers. What we need is a philosophy, then a policy of “educated self-selection.” This said, can we predict who will be more likely to volunteer, to have the “right stuff”? Much will depend on the life experience of the prospective volunteer. Climate, Culture, Education can all predispose on the “environment” side, irrespective of genetic or inherited personal qualifications. Those from hardier climes Obviously, those already happily adapted to hardier terrestrial climes will find life on the Moon or Mars far less depressing than those addicted to life in Earth’s more idyllic and comfortable climatic oases. So it would not be surprising if among the “informed self-selected” settlement and frontier applicants we will find an above average representation of arctic, subarctic, north temperate dwellers, as well as desert peoples. We might expect them in general to be hardier, less deluded with expectations of paradise. That means Alaskans and Canadians and Snowbelters and Scandinavians and Icelanders and Siberians and Eskimos and Patagonians and Falkland Islanders, etc. There are also temperate and tropic mountainous areas where life is challenged. Such places too may nourish the “right stuff”. While there will be some sunshine oasis people, it would not be surprising if their ranks made up the bulk of disillusioned returnees to Earth. The Frontier will be rough. No offense to all you readers in California, the desert Southwest, Florida, and elsewhere where the “good life” is easy - but if you would shudder about a job-relocation to Wisconsin or Minnesota, perhaps you had better take an honest introspective hard look and think twice about early frontier space locations. And if you were born and raised in a hardier clime but have made a “life-style-motivated” relocation to a place where life is undeniably easier and more comfortable, an honest session of introspection may suggest that you confine your participation But it is not the only way to go, nor is it consonant Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 17
Page 1 and 2: MMM Classics The First Ten Years Th
Page 3 and 4: more reason than now for an alterna
Page 5 and 6: private quarters for more crew, mor
Page 7 and 8: Sooner or later someone will die on
Page 9 and 10: Spacesuit design has been hampered
Page 11 and 12: KEY: A. Lander core with power and
Page 13 and 14: ment/construction schedule would be
Page 15: Why most planets and asteroids have
Page 19 and 20: Permanence has to be earned, not pr
Page 21 and 22: Moon Guns & Other Mysteries by Greg
Page 23 and 24: Frontier Musings [cf. MMM # 91 DEC
Page 25 and 26: Good Reading on Mars Astronomy Maga
Page 27 and 28: Nor do we have to wait until we are
Page 29 and 30: fly such instruments first in low E
Page 31 and 32: drilling holes for heat conducting
Page 33 and 34: Starting your backyard/armchair tou
Page 35 and 36: erately undertook to settle their r
Page 37 and 38: jump). They will want to exercise i
Page 39 and 40: Making do without the “Outdoors
Page 41 and 42: When people think of putting stagin
Page 43 and 44: have an advantage over return to LE
Page 45 and 46: MMM #95 - MAY 1996 Towards a Calend
Page 47 and 48: [Republished in MMM Classics #3] MM
Page 49 and 50: elements very easily. Pass over it
Page 51 and 52: e ratcheting backwards with every 8
Page 53 and 54: hydrogen that has to be brought fro
Page 55 and 56: eflected in the price of those ribs
Page 57 and 58: Spacesuit Aversion The quest for al
Page 59 and 60: Well down the road, if ways are dev
Page 61 and 62: of the regolith material that becam
Page 63 and 64: MMM #97 - JUL 1996 The Spiritual As
Page 65 and 66: Potluck customizing A machine produ
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enough of that to comfortable house
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[Article Series Conclusion] SPIRITU
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heard by pups? There are legends an
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Pluto—Charon Cable Car by Robert
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new gravity situation as if by seco
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One such facility per zero-G venue
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a facility would allow lunar and Ma
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y Peter Kokh By “stuffs” we mea
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y Peter Kokh I remember Tom Rogers
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horizontally. While this was probab
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on science fiction as an old slippe
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gentle western slope is a textbook
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cosmic rays, splashout from other i
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circumference of 5.655 km or 3.5 mi
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of being outdoors in the undiluted
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MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

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