I had this crazy idea…
It was June of 2020, and America was a mess. Racial protests spurred by the on-camera killing of George Floyd by police. Trump actively trying to undermine the vote, corrupting the Post Office to slow mail-in ballots in the pandemic and laying out his future plans to reject the election result unless it went his way. And then there was COVID… back in June, the coming Fall surge was just a warning desperately floated by scientists, but the pandemic had already altered daily life for nearly everyone, some tragically so.
Hope wasn’t easy to come by.
So, naturally, I bought a capsule to the Moon.
At the time, it seemed crazy not to. My husband had just joined Astrobotic’s Planetary Mobility Team in April, ironically gaining his dream job right when the pandemic was putting so many out of work. I had an insider view of all the cool things Astrobotic had planned, and when I realized I could actually buy a payload on their very first mission of their very first lander… well, that was too much to pass up.
But what to do with it?
The idea of sending a digital archive of my stories came immediately to mind. So I quickly downloaded Astrobotic’s fit-check guide to make sure a MicroSD card could fit…
But when I realized the capacity of that card far exceeded what I needed for my entire catalog…
that’s when Writers on the Moon was born.
I bought the domain name, dreamed up some grand plans… and then immediately got sidetracked by life in the pandemic. I had three sons returning to college and high school in the middle of the plague. My husband was relocating for that dream job, leaving me to hold down the fort at home with our high schooler. And my brain was seized by a new hopepunk series I wanted to write. So Writers on the Moon momentarily stalled out, a beautiful idea filled with forward-looking promise, but short on time for actual execution.
2020 was like that, shorting out dreams pretty much on the daily.
THEN, ONE CHILLY RATHER HOPELESS DAY IN OCTOBER, THIS ARRIVED…
Is this the most freaking cool thing you have ever seen, or what?
Suddenly… it was real again. I had a reservation… TO GO TO THE MOON.
I was still crazy short on time, but fortunately for me, the payload delivery date had slipped to March. So I put Writers on the Moon on hold one more time… but just until 2020 had been kicked to the curb and 2021 had begun.
A New Year full of New Promise. A vaccine is on the way. A new president is coming, one who would will work with scientists to get that vaccine deployed to those most in need. We’re deep in that fall/winter surge the scientists begged us not to feed with all our holiday travel. Right now, the world is drenched in tears, but that’s precisely the time when we most need something to lift our sights to the horizon. The future. The reality that the world will keep turning, the Moon our constant companion and silent witness.
We’re sending a time capsule to the future with stories written today.
I can’t think of a more beautiful thing to spend time on in this moment. So I finally got the website built, the forms assembled, and created a plan for organizing this whole adventure.
I hope you’ll join me.
We don’t have much time, so don’t delay in applying for a slot! I’ll blog about all of it as we go. You can check back here, join the Facebook Group to meet your fellow Moon Capsule Enthusiasts, or subscribe to the newsletter, which will also chronicle the adventure. All of this is designed to be a lasting snapshot of this tumultuous time: more on the details of that to come.
For now, sign up and join me in spreading a little hope in these, the darkest days of a very dark winter.
Wishing you peace and hope,
Sue
Dr. Susan Kaye Quinn, Speculative Fiction Author and Payload Coordinator for Writers on the Moon