Return To The Moon V Trip Report

07/18/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

Overall this Return To The Moon has been the best so far. Attendance was good and varied. There were no really horrible logistical snafus. I personally provided the wireless access point but that's something I do regularly anyway. Those little linksys NAT/AP-in-a-box systems are really useful for ad hoc conference setups.

As I mentioned earlier, I think the lunar community is where the Space Access community was several years ago. There are a few companies working on projects but few have gotten to the point where boring old business issues like insurance and regulatory compliance are the overriding topic. But it is a thousand times better than the 2000 conference which was my first.

We are still in the midst of the great Slideware Wars. The proliferation of 3d modeling software has allowed just about everyone to produce pretty pictures of their particular moon base/lunar transport idea. Its almost as if our manhood is being judged by how photo-realistic our 3d models are. ;-) Don't get me wrong, I like eye candy just as much as the next space nut. But we need to make sure we're moving beyond that.

I also sensed a certain “great divide” going on between what Rick calls the “alt.space” crowd and the traditional NASA oriented view of going back to the moon. Several of the companies that were there are actively involved in drafting responses to the CEV requests while others are barely cognizant of what NASA is planning on doing. At points it was obvious we were talking past each other. I'm sure I was even guilty of it at one point.

One thing I did notice that I'd like to call some rather direct attention to is an idea that the right marketing campaign can “change the minds” of the public about space and the moon specifically. Yes, it is possible to mold public opinion through ad campaigns. But it is extremely difficult and really only works when it comes to simple things such as a broader brand awareness (Nike does sports stuff instead of just shoes). During the Dot Com Bubble (do we capitalize that now?) there were numerous attempts to build products that were predicated on changing the customer's behavior. None of them worked. What does work is creating value for a customer from their point of view and then slowly educating them through direct interaction with the product over time. But it requires the customer to have already made a decision to buy.

I really wish the entire conference had heard the break out session that I was in. Tom Matula's presentation on basic marketing would have helped immensely. My jaw dropped to the floor when he began to discuss Bass diffusion curves. Who knows, maybe someone we will be able to do 5 Forces modeling of lunar startups at the upcoming SFF conference! I would hope that next year everyone's presentation includes at least some discussion of who they think their customer and product are and how you structure your development to achieve some short term cash flow. Even if the answer is just “NASA”. At least we'll know someone thought about the question.

I think as the political environment becomes clearer and we get over the hump of this election that the Centennial Challenges program coupled with other efforts will make next years RTTM an extremely interesting conference to attend. I'll be there!