Norwescon Artemis Project Briefing Outline

At Norwescon 19, in 1996, I tried a different approach to organizing the briefing that seemed to work really well. The major change was to move the paragdigm shift to the very beginning, even before the Artemis Project title slide. This worked very well; it set the stage for the message to come, and dealt with the initial concept shock while the audience was still wondering what the Artemis Project was all about.

The flow went like this:

1. Government Space to Commercial Space

   Start with this because you have to deal with concept shock. People think of space as a big, expensive government thing.

   Graphic: NASA's historical budget, from 1962 to 1996.

   Discussion: "If they can land a man on the moon, why can't they land a man on the moon?" NASA budget looks like a going-out-of-business curve. US government is bankrupt; it's not going to start any major new space development programs within our lifetimes. Official NASA policy (see the NASA web sites) is that the public concept of the glory of Apollo is a dilemma (their word) to be solved; it was a one-time political situation not likely to recur. A socialized space program isn't going to work any better than any other attempt at establishing a socialist economy; this decade has taught us how well socialism works. In short, government ain't gonna do it, and there's no reason to believe they will. If it's going to get done, we have to do it ourselves; and for the program to continue, it has to be done as commercial enterprise.

2. The Moon is the Front Door to the Universe

   Graphic: Shopping list of how the moon is the place to start, no matter where you want to go.

3. "Moonbase Artemis" title slide

   Given that situation, we put this program together.

4. Reference Mission

   This is what we're doing.

5. You can go, too.

   . . . and this is where we're going.

   Graphic: Commercial SSTO.

   Discussion: Overview of Your Vacation on the Moon.

6. How Much it Will Cost

   At Norwescon, I used the convention as an example of the amount of effort required. Developing the spacecraft adds up to about 100 Norwescons.

7. How We'll Pay for It

   The money story charts.

   Graphic: First Flight Revenue Sources

8. What You Can Do

   Emphasis:

   • Join the Artemis Society
   • We need artwork to communicate the vision, and for commercial products.
   • We need businessmen who really know what they're doing, in each industry.