Twenty people have contributed to our project, and as we are approaching the end of this campaign, I want to take a moment to say ” Thank you! ” to you all for pitching in! I was pretty nervous about putting this Kickstart up — although I’ve had some success with projects and art, money has never been a real comfort area for me. And when we started working on Lunatics, we were pretty much working in a complete vacuum. It’s very hard to have any idea if anyone cares what you’re doing. We knew we really enjoyed what we were coming up with, but we didn’t know if it would be clear to other people.
Drawing of “Anya Titova Farmer” / “Anya” by Daniel Fu (from the concept art sheet), digitally inked and colored by Terry Hancock. “Anya Titova Farmer (M.B.A.) is business manager of the ISF lunar colony. She comes from a long line of Russian entrepreneurs, astronauts, and rocket engineers. Her father Anatoly Titov and her Uncle Konstantin Titov manage the Titov Space Industries, founded by her grandfather Igor Titov. She received a degree in international business from the Russian Academy of Economics (RAE) and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Arizona. She is also founder and part owner of Sputniki Zvezda Serebryaniy (Silver Star Satellites).”
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number nine: Theme #9 Libertarian Visions of Space versus the Statist Reality of the Space Program Most of the serious space fans I know are in one form or another “libertarians”. They may not be actual members of the Libertarian Party, but they certainly do put a high value on individuality and personal freedom. This is not surprising — after all, they want to go live on another planet. It makes some sense that this might arise from some chafing against Earthly authority.
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number eight: Theme #8 Family Life versus Command Hierarchies Here’s the corporate-minded, government-agency vision for starting a space colony: use your rigorous training and selection program to find eight “perfect humans”, four male, four female. Then convince them to mate and produce offspring. Maybe this would work for hamsters. But for humans, it’s going to be the other way around. ISF crews are recruited as teams and thus based on family ties more than some committee’s ideal team selection parameters. Naturally, there will be some friction between this and the military or civilian agency teams on the Moon.
Earlier I posted a tiny picture of Hiromi as part of the preview of the Concept Art poster, but here’s the completed “Hiromi Aoki Lerner” drawing. Of course, like the others, this is drawn by Daniel Fu and digitally inked and painted by Terry Hancock. “Hiromi Aoki Lerner, wife of Dr. Robert Lerner, is the field doctor and nutritionist for the International Space Foundation’s Lunar Colony. Mrs Lerner holds a Masters in Health Science from the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Academy and a Masters in Space Nutrition from the University of Texas Online Branch. Only daughter of David Aoki, founder of Aoki Aerospace, Hiromi has been interested in space travel from her youth. She has a daughter, Georgiana Lerner age seven.”
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number seven: Theme #7 Agrarian Reality versus Technocratic Image I call this the “white plastic walls” fallacy. People have an idea of spaceflight that is derived from the images created in the 1960s Moon program and lots of science fiction shows that try to glamorize it as the ultimate “futuristic” and “urban” experience. Because back then, urban was cool, and rural was always bad.
Some of you may be wondering where this “Phase I” Kickstart (and the work it’s meant to support) falls in our overall plan, and just how far it will take us. I don’t know exactly how fast we can progress — whether we’ll be able to keep getting enough people interested in contributing directly to the project or how many rewards, pre-sale DVDs, or merchandise we’ll be able to sell to keep the project funded. That’s really going to depend on the fans.
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number six: Theme #6 Risk Averse Society versus the Thrill of the Frontier Of course, being too safe is a little scary in itself. Part of the reason people want to go is because it’s exciting. But the mores of Earth-bound society make it a sin to take too large a risk. How will that morality conflict with the ambitions of our settlers? Will they be blocked “for their own good”?
Continuing with themes in the stories for Lunatics… Here’s number five: Theme #5 Failsafes and Adaptation Space is a dangerous place, don’t get me wrong. But then again, so is Siberia or Alaska. Or the Sahara. There are dangers all over the world that are quite sufficient to kill an exposed human without important life-support or supplies. We don’t worry about that most of the time, because we’ve adapted to these dangers. We do that through the equipment we carry (starting with clothes), through the behaviors we learn, and through the environments we create for ourselves.
