The Artemis Project is a privately financed commercial venture to establish a permanent, manned lunar base and to exploit the resources of the moon for future development of space travel.
    The early stages of lunar development, including the first flight, are paid for through associated ventures in traditional industries such as entertainment and merchandising. The revenues expected from those sources are at least three times the cost of the first mission. Because of this funding mechanism, no direct investment in manned space is required, and the Artemis Project will have made a net profit before the first launch.
    For further information on the Artemis Project, explore the web site at http://www.asi.org/ or email artemis@asi.org.

Conferences

Artemis Society International, the world-wide team which is managing the project, communicates primarily via the Internet. As well, there are annual (soon to be semi-annual) working conferences where a part of the Artemis Project is discussed and related issues are resolved.
    Although most work can be done effectively over the Net, some is best done in person at conferences or local chapter meetings. Also, getting to know the other members of the Artemis Society team enhances communications. And finally, we get a whole lot of work done at the conferences.

Artemis '96

Artemis '96 was held on the weekend of June 28-30, and was a business conference. Artemis '95 was a technical conference, and since then most of the major issues have been resolved in that area, so the focus this year was on setting up near-term revenue sources, various legal and economic issues, and the long-term economic model for the lunar community.
    The conference was held in a series of suites in the Houston, Texas Nassau Bay Hilton, overlooking Clear Lake's marina. After burning ourselves out from the near-16 hour working days, the balcony was a popular place to sit out in the 37-degree [Celsius, 100 degrees Fahrenheit -ed.] air and watch the world shimmer in the summer heat.
    The group broke into teams of about five, and attacked the esoteric detail of the business side of the Artemis Project in two-hour sessions. Later, the crowd assembled and results were presented. After the general assembly, people would trickle off to either lunch, dinner, or to bed.
    The conference book had a total of 38 workshops over the long weekend, some of which were combined and moved about as the conference progressed. This was primarily because attendance was less then had been hoped. However, the attendance (about 25) was certainly enough to get the necessary work done.

BBC TV Interview

The Artemis Project is being featured in an eight-part documentary series called "Future Fantastic" being made by the BBC in partnership with an American cable network. This is a prime-time, high-profile series being hosted by Gillian Anderson, the actor who plays Agent Scully on the X-Files. The subject matter is space development and life in the future.
    There were a number of telephone interviews prior to Artemis '96, and two television interviews at the conference. Greg Bennett and Simon Rowland were the two interviewed, in sessions several hours long each. Discussed were a wide range of topics relating to the Artemis Project, lunar and space development, and what can be expected in the future. The Artemis Project was the focus of the interview, however.
    At Artemis '95 a camera crew from the Huntsville TV News was present, and although this time the conference was unannounced to the press, newspaper reporters appeared both times.
    The documentary "Future Fantastic" will air before printing in the UK, but not for a while yet in North America. Check your TV listings for it.

Highlights of Results

The conference was quite successful in resolving issues related to the business side of the Artemis Project. Some highlights of the many workshops:

* Near-term products and revenue sources
    One of the immediate action items for the Artemis Project is setting up more companies producing Artemis Logo products. There is a line of existing products, and Artemis Magazine will have made a stock offering by print time, but there remain many untapped industries and potential revenue sources much more significant then the relatively inconsequential ventures to date. Now that the Artemis Project is actually being implemented, the larger ventures must be set up.
    This workshop examined a wide range of potential commercial products, most of which were rejected as having an insufficient return on investment, difficult market entry, small non-monetary return, or as requiring excessive amounts of internally-supplied capital.
    Products were identified as being likely candidates for existing companies supplying startup capital and having the Artemis trademark and content material licensed to them, as opposed to requiring a capital investment from the Lunar Resources Company (TLRC) with the product being developed as a subsidiary of TLRC.
    The end result was a list of potential products and markets, most of which require no LRC capital to start, and can be exploited immediately. The list is currently being followed up on and many new products are being pursued.

* Artemis Society Team Communications
    To coordinate a large team spread out over the world, effective and efficient communications are very important. The workshop resolved a number of the issues outlined in the Electronic Communications Technical Committee's Task List, such as a dramatic revamping of the Web editing and management system. Significant progress in the ECTC resulted from this (quite long) workshop.

* Presentation on Logo Merchandise
    Michael Jorewicz, a senior marketing specialist, gave a presentation covering some innovative ideas in logo merchandising. The proposals and new products outlined are excellent, and are being examined and presented are being pursued.

* Artemis Society charter
    Until now, the Artemis Society had gone without a satisfactory charter statement. These are some of the key points about ASI's goals were decided upon, after much debate:

• carry out business and technical design work related to the Artemis Project
• act as a scientific and educational institution related to space development
• be a membership organization giving people an opportunity to participate directly in space development
• support local ASI chapters

• handling the assets required to execute the space development
• social causes not absolutely essential to the success of commercial space development
• executing the program
• ownership of the technical and business design work.

* ASI Local Chapters
    Another document which required much thought was the charter and functions for Artemis Society local chapters. In the end, the most significant decisions were that:

• Chapters should be subsidized by the international organization
• There should be no separate memberships for local chapters and ASI
• That a key function of local chapters should be to provide a non-electronic forum for members to contribute, through hosting regular local meetings and workshops, providing paper copies of the Artemis Data Book, and through other means.
  

* Work Breakdown Structure
    This workshop developed a strawman Work Breakdown Structure of the entire Artemis Project. We needed (and now have) a WBS of the entire project, including its administration, so that we can define the work to be done by each participating organization.

* Lunar Entertainment Industry
    Entertainment on the Moon is an important industry: not only does it attract tourists, but it keeps the productivity of the lunar work force high. An exhaustive logic tree was used to look for all possible venues of the lunar entertainment industry. The result of this workshop was a very long list of possibilities to explore in the economic model of lunar development currently under construction.

* Intermediate Revenue Sources
    In the limited time available to develop the Artemis Project's economic feasibility studies, the most carefully modeled areas are from now to the first few launches (which saw most of the work; the resultant documents are rock-solid), and long-term lunar development. However, getting from the early exploration base to the level of infrastructure involved in Lunar Tourism is a part of the time line of lunar development that has not yet been explored adequately. Although the consensus is that there are no insuperable financial hurdles in that time period, we are anxious to model the economic possibilities in greater detail.
    This is what was done, in a very preliminary form, in this workshop. Early lunar passenger transportation, falling into the scientific, corporate, and tourist divisions, was a revenue source examined. Selling scientific data and exploiting the last of the entertainment and sponsorship value were two other possibilities.
    Using the established infrastructure as a revenue source: contractual lunar resource prospecting, as well as renting laboratory space, power, thermal and radiation protection, and man-hours, were cited as possible revenue sources.
    Development of lunar resources, which will have to be done in any event, can be made profitable as well. Successful pilot plants or early production facilities will produce salable products for use in cislunar space. The engineering data would also be of significant economic value to other companies wishing to enter the lunar resource development industry.
    Scientific revenues were also explored, in transporting and deploying experiments, leveraging scientific projects with lunar resources, data from experiments and equipment owned by the Lunar Resources Company, and in sample return. Lunar samples may also be a marketable product.

News

Since progress in the Artemis Project is steady and plodding, in terms of news it's like reporting on the movements of a glacier.
However, there are a number of noteworthy events to keep in mind.
    On the business side of the Artemis Project, there will be several LRC subsidiaries incorporated in the next few months, releasing a products and services looking to generate substantial revenues. There are also many products being seriously examined and content material being prepared for market entry.
    Now that the time has arrived to actually implement the program, dramatic (if hushed) progress in this side of the Artemis Project can be expected.
    The long-term economic model for lunar development under development is another major project, and progress has been made in this important area. The depth to which a period has been modeled is not even along the time line of lunar development, and this work, among others, is being done to eventually model the cash-flow as carefully as that for the first flight has been.
    Technically, progress continues as more and more technical committees are formed and become active in working on the preliminary design.
    If you would like to help make this happen, look on the web site at http://www.asi.org/Things_You_Can_Do.html and email artemis@asi.org. There's lots to be done, regardless of background and training.