From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: funding for Lunar Prospector urgently needed
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 02:21:46 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

The following is an appeal for money.  Don't read it if you are easily
offended by such things. :-)  I have no connection with the organization
involved except that I strongly support what they're doing; I will not
benefit in any way from money sent to them, except insofar as all mankind
will benefit.

Twenty years ago today, Apollo 17 splashed down, ending US lunar exploration.
The US has sent *nothing* to the Moon since.  When NASA or politicians talk
about "reviving unmanned planetary exploration", they may be talking about
Mars, or Saturn, or Pluto... but not the Moon.

A small group of folks in Houston -- Lunar Exploration, Inc -- has been
working for several years on a privately-funded lunar polar orbiter
mission, dubbed Lunar Prospector.  The objective is a geochemical survey
of the Moon, with some emphasis on resolving the question of whether
there is ice in permanently-shadowed areas at the lunar poles.  A mission
along these lines has been the top priority of lunar scientists for nearly
twenty years, but all attempts to get it funded as a NASA project have
failed.  The Lunar Prospector mission resembles the small orbiters that
Griffin was trying (unsuccessfully) to do as the initial precursor missions
for SEI.

Prospects of getting such a mission flown as a government project seem
slim:  Congress does not like SEI and has consistently refused funding
for unmanned precursor missions, and the official Clinton/Gore space
position says "no serious money for SEI".  It looks like it's private
funding or nothing.

The plan is to fly a small spin-stabilized spacecraft in low lunar
orbit for a nominal one-year mission.  Experiments are a gamma-ray
spectrometer (geochemical mapping), a neutron spectrometer (hydrogen
mapping, including mapping of possible ice deposits and solar-wind
gases), an alpha-particle spectrometer (mapping of radon releases,
indicating ongoing geological activity and possible sources of other
volatiles), a magnetometer and electron reflectometer (mapping the
lunar magnetic field, using hardware designed for Mars Observer),
and precision spacecraft tracking (mapping the poorly-known
gravitational field of the Moon).  Essentially all the hardware
involved is available off the shelf; no development is needed (or
wanted!).  Data would be released to interested parties via the
NASA data archives, subject to the usual one-year delay to let the
folks who've invested time and effort publish results first.

This is a reputable, professional effort, despite having been (so far)
primarily a volunteer project with a minimal budget.  The folks
running it are mostly engineers from the JSC contractor community.
Principal investigators for the six experiments include people from
LANL, two universities, and JPL.  It has the approval of NASA
officials, including Goldin.  NPO Energia has offered a low-cost
launch.  The basic spacecraft design has been done by a professional
design firm under contract to Lunar Exploration.

What's needed now is money.  So far, Lunar Exploration has been funded
from small private donations and fundraising methods like T-shirt sales.
This won't suffice any more.  They need $15-25M to build, launch, and
operate Lunar Prospector.  It needn't appear all at once.  They could
get things rolling well with $1-2M as startup funding.  Even $100,000
would be immensely helpful, if it showed up soon -- that would permit
a start on construction of long-lead equipment, firm negotiations with
the Russians for the launch, and organized fundraising for the rest.
Fundraising will get a lot easier after the first little bit, because
many potential corporate donors would see that first bit as a sign of
widespread interest and support.

What they really want are leads to companies/organizations which might
be interested in donating $1000-10,000 (or more!).  However, they'll
take whatever they can get, including individual donations.

This is worth sending in your pennies, folks.  It's a mission that really
needs to be flown, and nobody else is going to do it.


They say:

"Donation checks (at least $10, please) should be sent to the
following address.  Please do not send any correspondence to this
address, since the bank charges for forwarding it.

	LEI
	C/O Bank One Texas
	PO Box 297024
	Houston, TX 77297

"Referrals to possible major donors are best sent to oneil@neosoft.com or
phoned to 713-480-1216.  We are tax-exempt, IRS approved, type
501(C)3.  Please note this caveat: In the event that sufficient funds
are not collected in this round, the money will be expended to develop
further funding resources.

"If you must contact us, please use Internet mail to oneil@neosoft.com
or mail to

	LEI
	PO Box 590722
	Houston, TX 77259

"Please send only researched correspondence to LEI.  We regret our
system is not responsive to mail deluge, so only referrals will be
treated with priority.  We'll make everything we can, including
current news and an FAQ writeup when it's ready, available for FTP at
ames.arc.nasa.gov, in directory pub/lei".
-- 
"God willing... we shall return."       | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
       -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry