From: David.Anderman@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Revised lunar bill, Ver. 1.5
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Nov 17 1992
Date: 16 Dec 92  11:15:28

                 "Back to the Moon" Bill Proposed 
                         December 15, 1992
 
        With most funding for the Space Exploration Initiative
eliminated in recent  budgets, and over twenty years having
passed since the last NASA mission to the Moon,  it is clear
that simply waiting for the government to get around to lunar
exploration is futile. 
        The Lunar Resources Data Purchase Act (the "Back to the 
Moon" bill) would authorize the U.S. government to purchase lunar
science data from private vendors, selected on the basis of
competitive bidding, with a cap on the bids of significantly
less than $100 million. There would be few restrictions on how
this data would be obtained by the bidder, or whether a winning
bidder is a for-profit or non-profit corporation. 
        This mission would accomplish the widely acknowledged first
step in returning to the Moon, a lunar polar probe that would
generate a complete geochemical map of the lunar surface and
possibly determine whether ice exists in deep craters at the
poles of the Moon.        
        During the last several years, there have been several false
starts in mounting a new lunar mission: the Bush Administration
has proposed a series of relatively inexpensive lunar probes
(approximate cost of $125 million per probe), and private
non-profit organizations have attempted to raise funds for their
probes via donations. There has been no success on the part of
these public and private efforts, and little prospect for the
future. Only the Back to the Moon bill has a reasonable
probability of jump starting our lunar program.
        How you can help: In order to make a return to the Moon in 
this decade a reality, we need assistance from the space activist
community with the following:
        
Why return to the Moon now? What is the rationale for the U.S.
Congress to establish a requirement for lunar data now, instead
of the year 2000, 2010 or beyond?
 
Writing the Act. This is pretty well taken care of , but the
more help, the better. Your ideas on how to make the bill more
passable are welcome.
 
Getting congresspersons to co-sponsor the bill.  We believe that
congresspersons will be happy to co-sponsor the Act, but they
won't know about the bill unless their constituents bring it to
their attention.
 
        Although it is expected that private companies will bid, it 
is also possible that non-profit corporations such as Lunar
Exploration, Inc.,  AMSAT,  Space Studies Institute,  or
universities may participate.  The final bill may allow for many
winning bids, on an ongoing basis.
        One key point is that  winning bidders will be  required to
supply NASA with only the specified data; any other data
generated by the spacecraft instrumentation will be the property
of the bidders, and may be sold to third parties. 
        The most exciting aspect of this effort is that it does 
not require the majority of American citizens to get behind the
space program; it does not require a mass movement of space
activists to galvanize NASA; the people reading this are all
that are needed to get America back to the Moon.
        Once this effort succeeds, future efforts are contemplated: 
the Lunar Soil Purchase Act, the Mercury Resources Data Purchase
Act, etc. All will entail a relatively tiny Federal expenditure
to provide key knowledge about the Solar System that could
provoke the politicians to actually create a space program that
gets beyond low earth orbit.
        Can space activists actually get a bill passed through 
Congress? The best evidence is the Launch Services Purchase Act, 
written by space activists, introduced in Congress through the 
efforts of space activists, and passed by Congress and signed by 
the President, largely through the efforts of space activists. 
This far-reaching bill has had a dramatic impact on the nation's 
space program (it prohibits NASA from launching satellites into 
space, with few exceptions; Mars Observer was launched to Mars 
under the auspices of the LSPA).We have done it before, and we 
can do it again.
       For more information on this project, please call David
Anderman at 714/524-1674, or contact: San Diego L5, P.O. Box
4636, San Diego, CA 92164, 619/295-3690.
 

--- Maximus 2.00