Mission briefing

Moon Landing is a mutant vehicle support camp. We exist to put two art cars on the playa every night — Big Brother and The Rainbow Fish — and to run the infrastructure, crew, and home base that makes that possible. In 2026 we’re placed at 7:45 & A for Axis Mundi, August 30 through September 7.

We are a launchpad for dreamers, builders, and cosmic wanderers — a place where art, technology, and human connection intersect in gravity-defying ways. Inspired by the pioneering spirit of lunar exploration, we build immersive experiences that carry the playa beyond the ordinary: interactive machines, late-night moonwalks, and two art cars under the neon glow.

We’re roughly thirty people. Camp runs on shared responsibility. Everyone builds, everyone strikes, everyone takes shifts. In exchange you get shade, power, water, showers, a kitchen, ice runs, a crew that has your back, and a seat on a moving piece of art most people only get to wave at.

Big Brother & The Rainbow Fish

The two vehicles are the reason this camp exists, and they come before everything else in our priority stack.

Big Brother

Our flagship mutant vehicle. Runs a 48-volt lithium iron phosphate battery system, addressable LED lighting, and a full sound rig. Night operations are crewed: every roll-out has a licensed driver, a spotter, and a lighting/power lead.

The Rainbow Fish (Moby)

Our second vehicle. Same crewing rules, its own maintenance schedule, its own charging rotation on the camp grid.

Driving on playa? Both of our vehicles are licensed Mutant Vehicles — every art car in Black Rock City has to pass the DMV (the playa one) before it can move. If you are crewing as a driver, read Burning Man’s Bring Your Mutant Vehicle criteria so you know what the license requires and how the vehicle has to be operated.

What support means

• Daily checks. Battery state of charge, tire pressure, lighting, DMV compliance items — logged before any night run.
• Charging discipline. The cars charge on a schedule tied to generator run hours. Don’t unplug a car to charge your stuff. Ever.
• Ride culture. Camp members ride first, guests when there’s room, and the crew chief’s word is final on capacity and route.

Who keeps them running

• Big BrotherJames — pre-event prep at Empire and the tool and supply list. On playa: daily fluids, tires, and lights, with staged spares for field repairs.
• The Rainbow Fish (Moby)Cass — keeps the Fish roadworthy: daily walk-around for loose scales and panels, brakes and lights confirmed before every night drive.
• Co-pilots — one per carneeds owners — the pre-flight crew for every evening roll-out: ice down and fill the coolers, help clean the car, fill the generators, confirm the stereo is working, and double-check lights and battery charge before departure.

Heart of Intentions

Our placed art installation for 2026, created by Cassandra Caron, James Trebesch, and Ocean Fabrication (Alameda and Emeryville, California). The Heart of Intentions is a large timber heart out on the open playa — a place to gather, reflect, and connect, built from hinged, segmented 4×6 timber with a walk-through opening at its center.

How it works

Visitors are invited to consider a hope or intention they want to bring into the world, write it on a provided charm, and place it on the heart — joining a growing constellation of shared wishes. In exchange, they choose a charm left by someone else, finish it with the materials provided, and wear it as a small piece of jewelry, carrying a stranger’s hope back out into the world. Over the week the heart fills with these offerings.

How camp supports the art project

• Build and strike. The piece goes up during build week and comes down clean during strike — it is on the shift schedule like everything else.
• Charm and materials restock. Daily shifts keep the charm supply, writing materials, and jewelry findings topped up.
• Lighting and power checks. The installation is lit every night; the vehicle crew’s daily-check discipline applies here too.
• Fabrication support runs out of the tool container — repairs happen same-day so the piece never sits dark or broken.

Support the build: the Heart of Intentions is fundraising at crowdfundr.com/HeartOfIntentions. Contributions go through Crowns For Causes, a verified 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law — share the link far and wide.

The week before the week

Build week is when the camp goes from empty dust to a functioning outpost: shade, kitchen, power grid, fuel depot, signage, and both vehicles staged and tested. Early arrival passes are limited and earned — they go to people with committed build roles.

• Advance crew arrives with the trucks: layout, perimeter, generator placement, first shade.
• Build crew arrives across the following days: kitchen, camp grid wiring, vehicle prep, entrance sign.
• Gate-open arrivals land into a working camp and pick up finish work and first shifts.

If you take an early arrival pass, you are on shift from the moment you park. Build days start early to beat the heat and stop when the crew lead calls it. Bring work gloves, closed-toe boots, and eye protection — this is a construction site until it isn’t.

Build week, day by day

• Monday, August 24 — first crew lands; tent-camper shade goes up first so early arrivals have cover.
• Tuesday, August 25 — community shade structure begins; shower assembly starts.
• Wednesday, August 26 — community shade continues; sign build and raising.
• Thursday, August 27 — community shade decorated and dialed in.
• Friday, August 28 — run the power grid; pick up the generator.
• Saturday, August 29 — punch list and buffer day; the city opens at midnight.

Build crew eats well — breakfast and lunch are provided every build day.

Setup passes and arrivals

A Setup Access Pass (SAP) gets you through the gate before the event opens at midnight going into Sunday, August 30. Anyone arriving during build week needs one — camp arranges SAPs for the build crew, so confirm your arrival date with a lead. Regular tickets work from gate opening onward.

Ride shares: a camp lead is reaching out to everyone to confirm ride-share options — watch for the message and answer quickly so seats and gear space land where they are needed.

The full arrival roster — who lands when — lives on the members page. If your plans change, tell a lead.

Dates come from your camp survey responses. If yours is wrong, missing, or has changed, tell a lead and we will update the plan.

Everything comes home

Strike is build in reverse, hotter, and with less sleep — and it’s the truest test of a camp. Everything we own gets cleaned, inventoried, packed, and loaded so next year’s build starts from a known state instead of a mystery pile.

• Strike begins at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, the morning after the Man burns, and runs until the trucks are loaded and the ground is clean.
• Every member owes strike hours, and the expectation is that everyone stays until everything is packed — we all leave together. If you truly must leave early, clear an approved plan with a lead before the burn — no strike deposit this year, so this runs on your word.
• Line-sweep the entire footprint. We leave our block cleaner than we found it — our placement next year depends on it.

Meet the leads

After you apply, a camp lead will set up a short call. It isn’t a job interview — it’s a fit check in both directions. We’ll ask about your burn history, what you want out of the week, and where your skills land in our roles. You should ask us anything: dues, shifts, sleep noise, how decisions get made.

Returning members vouching for you speeds things up, but plenty of our best people arrived as strangers who read the guide and showed up ready to work.

Work is part of the fun

Every member carries shifts during the event week, plus build and strike. Roles are matched to skills and interest during onboarding:

• Vehicle crew — drivers (licensed with the DMV — the playa one), spotters, lighting and sound operators.
• Power & fuel — generator checks, charging rotation, fuel depot custody. Trained members only.
• Kitchen — keep the communal kitchen clean, stocked, and running — there is no meal plan, everyone feeds themselves.
• Camp watch — a body in camp during roll-outs, greeting visitors, watching the perimeter.
• Ice & runs — daily Arctica runs and supply trips.
• Fabrication & repair — if you can weld, wrench, or wire, you’ll never be bored.

Shift counts are published before the burn so you can plan your week around them. Do your shifts and the rest of your time is entirely yours.

Build workstreams and owners

Every piece of camp infrastructure is a workstream with pre-event prep and on-playa care. Owned streams are listed with their lead; needs owner streams are up for grabs — claim one with a lead and it is yours. Art car duties live in the Art Cars section.

• Moon Landing signDan — rewire complete: strain-relieved, weatherproofed, fused. On playa: secure mounting, power-on test at setup, daily connection checks with spares on hand.
• Heart of Intentions frameCass — finish the steel frame design, order the plasma-cut parts, weld the frame. On playa: anchor against wind and inspect welds and fasteners through the week.
• Shipping containersJames — schedule pickup, drop-off, and the return trip. On playa: organized, sealed against dust, and loaded out on schedule.
• Rental truckJames — reserve by July 1, size it for the load, manage load-in and the return.
• Powerneeds owner — inventory and photograph every cord, plug, and adapter, and tell RVs and campers exactly what camp supplies versus what they bring. On playa: protect the runs, balance loads, inspect daily.
• Shadeneeds owner — inventory poles, straps, and hardware, order new materials by July 7, and plan the raise crew. On playa: daily strap and tarp checks; teardown done by Sunday noon.
• Showersneeds owner — test for leaks and heater function, finish welding the trough, place the grey water order by July 1. On playa: get United Site Services pumping the tank and keep silicone caulk on hand.
• Fuel depotneeds owner — build the depot — trays, T-posts, fencing, signs, extinguishers. On playa: 20-foot no-camping radius, 110-gallon storage cap, daily compliance checks.
• Kitchen containerneeds owner — order and test the fridge ice-maker water pump before departure. On playa: watch power, water, and leaks.
• Lightsneeds owner — define the lighting scope and inventory, plan layout and wiring. On playa: install and test at setup, then nightly checks with spares.

What membership costs

Dues cover the shared infrastructure that makes camp work: generator and fuel, shade structures, kitchen and food stock, water, ice account, truck rental, tools, and consumables. Nobody profits — the books are open to any member who asks.

• Dues: $500 per person for the week — members who paid before July 1 locked the early rate of $400.
• Strike: everyone stays until everything is packed — we all leave together.
• Deadline: dues at the early $400 rate were due July 1, 2026. Joining or paying after the deadline? The rate is $500, payable on acceptance.

Money should never be the reason a solid contributor can’t camp with us. If dues are a stretch, say so in your application — work-trade arrangements exist.

Engineered cover

Camp provides engineered communal shade — a 30-by-40-foot canopy between the containers — over the kitchen and common areas, built to hold in 70+ mph gusts — anchored, guyed, and inspected after every blow.

Personal shelter is your responsibility. Shiftpods and quality tents do fine under our shade plan; if you’re bringing a structure of your own, it must be anchored to our standard (lag-style ground anchors or deadman anchors — no bare rebar hooks). Tell us your shelter footprint in the application so it makes it onto the layout map. Space at 7:45 & A is planned to the foot.

A dedicated 50-by-50-foot shaded tent area is marked on the layout map, and camp infrastructure includes communal showers and a potable water supply.

Raising the shade: field instructions

Print these: the full drawing pack — both shade plans, elevation, anchor detail, sign wiring, and fuel depot — is downloadable as one zip of print-resolution PNGs.

The build, run backwards

Read the finished structure first, then walk the steps in reverse — from tarps on, back to parts laid out on the ground. Build day runs this list bottom-up.

• Step 4 — tarps on. One 10 x 10 panel per bay, lashed at every fitting; walls go up per the Shadeville lead.
• Step 3 — frame up. Poles into foot fittings, purlins into the top fittings, then straps tightened leg by leg.
• Step 2 — poles staged. Verticals and purlins counted and laid at their positions. Poles come out of the overhead rack in the tool container — every one goes back there at strike.
  

  

• Step 1 — assemblies on the ground. Every fitting sorted by type and dropped at its pole position before anything goes vertical.

  

  

Per leg you need: one 10-foot vertical pole, one foot fitting, the appropriate top fitting, one lag bolt, one washer, one length of chain, and one ratchet strap.

• Top fittings by position: corners take a 4-way with two 90s, sides take a 4-way with a single 90, and centers take a 5-way.
• Anchoring: drive the lag through the washer and chain within 6 inches of the vertical pole. Lags take a 9/16-inch or 3/4-inch socket — the heavy-duty Milwaukee cordless impact with the 1/2-inch drive in the tool crib handles install and removal.
• Sequence: place every lag-chain-washer assembly first, stand the poles, then tighten the ratchet straps — every leg, no exceptions. Wind events are won or lost right here: be diligent so we take zero material loss or damage.
• Tarps go on before or after the frame is raised depending on weather — the Shadeville build lead makes the call.

Build 1: front shade — 30 by 40, between the containers

Twelve 10-foot bays over the kitchen and common areas — material on hand is sized for 30 by 50, so the build carries a full bay row of spares. 20 legs: 4 corners, 10 sides, 6 centers; 31 purlins. Pull 20 poles, 20 foot fittings, and 20 lag-washer-chain-strap sets.

Build 2: tent shade — 50 by 50

Twenty-five 10-foot bays over the dedicated tent area. 36 legs: 4 corners, 16 sides, 16 centers; 60 purlins. Pull 36 poles, 36 foot fittings, and 36 lag-washer-chain-strap sets.

Both builds together: 56 leg assemblies and 91 purlins — 147 ten-foot poles in the air (material basis: 30 by 50 front plus 50 by 50 tent). Count everything against inventory before the material order closes.

The communal kitchen

There is no meal plan. During the event everyone handles their own food — what camp provides is the communal kitchen to cook it in: prep space, fridge, the new black shelving, and shared staples like coffee. Build week is different: breakfast and lunch service runs for the crew on site early, and the waffle bar is a camp tradition. Scheduled potlucks round out the week — Monday, August 31 and Wednesday, September 2, 8–9 p.m.; bring a dish to share and your own plate.

The kitchen works out of our second shipping container, dedicated to camper and camp gear storage and food prep.

• Dietary restrictions still go in your application — build week meals and shared staples take them into account.
• Kitchen hygiene is non-negotiable: gloves, sanitizer buckets, and no unwashed hands in shared food. Playa gut is real and it will find you.

Camp showers

Camp runs communal showers off the camp water supply: a welded shower trough, a shower heater, and a grey water tank pumped on playa by United Site Services.

• Navy showers. Water is trucked in and grey water is trucked out — wet down, water off, soap up, rinse fast.
• Biodegradable soap only. No glitter, no oils — everything you rinse ends up in the grey water tank.
• Grey water service: the order goes in by July 1; on arrival the shower lead confirms pump-outs with United Site Services.
• Last showers: 10:00 a.m. Sunday. The system drains and packs before strike.

Arctica runs

Camp runs a daily ice shift to Arctica. Communal coolers (food safety, drinking water) are filled first; personal ice rides along on the same run — put your name and count on the board by the kitchen the night before, cash in the envelope.

If you’re on the ice shift: bike or vehicle trailer, insulated bags, go early before the line bakes.

The camp grid

Moon Landing runs a real electrical grid: a towable diesel generator in the 45–70 kVA class feeding 120/208 three-phase distribution, with metered branches for the kitchen, the vehicles’ charging bays, the entrance sign, and member power drops.

• Vehicle charging comes first. The charging rotation for Big Brother and The Rainbow Fish is scheduled against generator run hours and posted daily.
• Member drops are for fans, CPAP machines, fridges, and device charging. No personal air conditioners on the camp grid without a lead’s sign-off — one rogue AC unit can brown out the whole distribution.
• Quiet hours apply to personal generators. If you bring one, it must be inverter-type, fueled at the depot only, and placed where the layout map says.
• Only trained power crew touches the generator, the distribution panels, or the feeder cabling. If something sparks, smokes, or smells hot: kill it, don’t fix it, find power crew.

Spider boxes, cords, and adapters

Member power drops come off twist-lock spider boxes fed from the generator. Each box takes a 50-amp feed and breaks out to six 20-amp GFCI twist-lock outlets (NEMA L5-20R) and one 30-amp outlet (NEMA L6-30R). These are locking connectors, not household outlets — standard plugs do not fit them directly.

• Bring a twist-lock adapter. A NEMA L5-20 plug to standard household adapter is what connects your gear to the grid. They are small and cheap at any electrical supplier — buy one before the burn and label it.
• Camp has 10-gauge and 12-gauge extension cords on hand for runs from the spider boxes to camp infrastructure and member areas.
• Camp has several 50-foot, 50-amp feeder cords (6/3 and 8/1 gauge, twist-lock) for feeding spider boxes from the generator and daisy-chaining boxes across camp. These are backbone infrastructure — power crew runs them, nobody borrows them.
• RVs provide their own wiring from the spider box to their rig — shore power cord, adapters, and any surge protection are the owner’s responsibility. Tell a lead whether you connect at 30 or 50 amps before placement so you land near a box.
• RV and air-conditioner power will carry an updated supplement. Shore power and AC are the biggest loads on the grid — revised pricing is being worked out and will be posted on the members page.

Depot rules

All fuel in camp lives at the fuel depot — a marked, bermed, ventilated area sited on the layout map away from sleeping structures, built to BRC fuel storage standards.

• All containers are approved safety cans, labeled by fuel type, stored closed in secondary containment.
• No fueling of anything anywhere except the depot. No fuel in tents, Shiftpods, or vehicles’ cabins. No exceptions.
• Fire extinguishers are staged at the depot, the generator, the kitchen, and both art cars. Learn where they are on day one — it’s part of your camp orientation.
• Spills get contained and reported immediately. Spill kit lives at the depot. A reported spill is a Tuesday; a hidden spill is a placement problem for the whole camp.
• Depot custody is a trained role. If you’re not on the fuel team, you don’t open the berm.

Building the depot

1. Fence the square: T-posts and orange safety fencing with caution tape at hand height, gate facing the road side.
2. Spill trays under every container — nothing sits on bare playa.
3. Signage and extinguisher: danger / no-smoking signs on the fence, extinguisher mounted at the gate, outside the fence line.
4. Clearances: 20 feet of no-camping radius in every direction; storage capped at 110 gallons, containers closed and labeled.
5. Daily compliance check by the fuel lead — trays, caps, fence, tape, extinguisher.

Entrance sign and flame effects

The illuminated MOON LANDING sign stands over our frontage at 7:45 and A — LED-lit lettering on a scaffold arch, crowned by twin propane flame effects. It is how you find home at 3 a.m., and it is the first thing our neighbors and every passing participant sees of us.

• The full flame effect schematic is public at moon-landing.net/schematic — regulators, accumulator, solenoid valves, emergency shutoff, and part numbers. That address is the sign’s permanent public reference; it stays live so crew, rangers, and inspectors can pull the drawing on playa. Treat the URL as permanent — if the page ever moves, the old address must redirect.
• Only trained leads arm or operate the flame effects. If you have not been walked through the system by a lead, your job is to enjoy it from the ground.
• Flames run only when camp is occupied. People must be in camp any time the sign fire is lit — and if you are the last person leaving camp, you are required to shut off the propane at the sign before you go.
• Fuel handling follows the Fuel section rules — propane cylinders live at the depot, connections get leak-checked at every swap, and the emergency shutoff stays accessible and known to everyone on shift.
• Nightly checks. The sign is part of the lighting-check round: LED channels, pilot, and shutoff verified before dark, every night.

Raising the sign: field instructions

1. Stage the trusses. Set the three trusses on sawhorses with the LED boxes facing upward, then install the eight 3/8-inch-diameter bolts — four across the top at each truss joint.
2. Base plates. Install the two base plates on the bottom of the trusses in tandem — this is a 2-to-4-person job.
3. Ground the base. Remove the bottom two sawhorses and set the base plates on the ground.
4. Walk it up. Tip the sign upright with a team of four — tall, strong people are a plus here.
5. Anchor it. With the sign in place, install eight lag bolts through each base plate, with appropriate washers.
6. Power. The 12-volt supply line runs to the kitchen container battery bank, buried at least 2 inches below the playa surface to prevent abrasion.

Power run: container to sign

1. Measure the run from the kitchen container battery bank to the sign base, with slack for a service loop at each end.
2. Fuse at the source. The fuse lives at the battery bank, not at the sign.
3. Trench at least 2 inches, lay the 12-volt line, and leave the service loops — the depth is what protects the line from abrasion and traffic.
4. Backfill and mark the route so nobody drives a lag or a stake through it during the week.
5. Riser and test: strap the riser up a truss leg with strain relief, land it at the LED bus, and run a power-on test before dark.

The camp tool crib

Camp runs two shipping containers. The first is the tool crib — set up for tools, repairs, the Heart of Intentions, and art car support, and sized to handle any on-playa situation. The crib includes a 110/220-volt wire-feed welder (gas metal arc and flux-cored arc welding), metal cutting, grinding, and drilling tools, 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch impact drivers and cordless tools, socket sets, and soldering and electrical repair tools.

• Check out, check in. Tools live in the crib. Sign them out on the board and return them the same day — the playa eats unattended tools.
• Batteries charge on the designated shelf on the camp grid, never on the vehicle charging circuits.
• Broken or dull is not trash. Tag it and leave it at the fix-it bench so it comes home repairable.
• Bring your own basics: work gloves, a headlamp, and a multitool cover most shifts.
• Specialty gear — welders, compressors, personal generators — gets cleared with a lead first so it lands on the layout map and the power plan.

Shade poles live in the overhead rack in this container. Pull them from here at build, and return every pole to the same rack during strike so the count stays whole for next year.

Bring a car or RV

Every vehicle in camp is on the layout map before it arrives. Include exact dimensions in your application — length, width, height, tongue length for trailers — because the map is drawn to real measurements and includes required fire lanes that stay clear all week.

• RVs park where placed, level once, and don’t move until exodus.
• Cars are stacked along the back of the footprint; once parked they stay parked.
• Generators on RVs follow the same quiet hours and depot fueling rules as everything else.

Good neighbors sleep

The big sound systems live on the art cars, and the art cars take the party away from camp at night — that’s the whole model. Home base stays livable:

• Camp sound stays conversational after midnight. If a neighbor can name the track from their tent, it’s too loud.
• The sleeping zone on the layout map is a quiet zone at all hours.
• Sound complaints from neighbors go to a lead immediately — we fix it in minutes, not mornings.

The camp calendar

Events are part of daily life at Moon Landing. Here is what we have planned for 2026 so far. Calendar invites go out as each date firms up. For everything happening city-wide, browse the full Playa Events listing.

Night runs and Arctica

Beyond the scheduled events, two things run on their own rhythm all week. Night runs – Big Brother and The Rainbow Fish roll most nights; routes and call times land in the group chat that afternoon. Arctica runs – daily ice trips; see the Ice section for the schedule.

Throwing an event?

Want to host something at Moon Landing – a workshop, a social, a shared meal? Tell a camp lead and we will get it on the calendar and into the invites.

Leave no trace

Matter Out Of Place is the one score the whole city sees. Our standard is a green MOOP map rating, every year.

• Everything that comes with you leaves with you — including gray water, cigarette butts, and the feather boa you’ll regret.
• No ground tarps that shed, no glitter, no loose feathers, no bare straw bales.
• Daily sweep of the frontage during the event; full line sweeps during strike until the block is clean.
• Everyone takes trash bags with them on exodus. The camp does not haul your garbage — every member leaves with at least one full bag of camp trash in their vehicle, on top of their own. Plan the trunk space for it.

Playa self-care

The playa is high desert at 4,000 feet: hot days, cold nights, alkaline dust, and dry air that pulls water out of you faster than you notice.

• Water: plan on 1.5 gallons per person per day, minimum. Electrolytes are not optional. Camp maintains a potable water supply for refills.
• Dust: goggles and a real dust mask for whiteouts. Vinegar footbaths keep playa foot away.
• Sleep and food: the people who crash mid-week are the ones who skipped both. Dinner is communal partly so we can see you eat.
• Camp keeps a stocked first-aid station and members with medical training. Rangers and BRC Emergency Services handle anything beyond it — never hesitate to escalate.

Getting in

Tickets and vehicle passes are your responsibility — the camp doesn’t buy or hold them. What we can do:

• Coordinate members with spares to members in need, at face value, always.
• Advise on the sale windows (main sale, OMG sale, STEP) and timing.
• Allocate our limited early arrival passes to committed build roles.

Don’t buy from scalpers, and never wire money to a stranger’s “friend.” Every burn someone learns this the expensive way.

How we got here

Moon Landing grew out of a crew of builders and vehicle people who kept ending up at the same fires — engineers, fabricators, and drivers who wanted a camp organized around making machines move rather than around a bar. Big Brother came first; The Rainbow Fish joined the fleet and doubled the night footprint.

Each year the infrastructure gets more deliberate: a real power grid, an engineered layout map, a fuel depot built to spec, and a strike that ends with labeled crates instead of chaos. 2026 — Axis Mundi, 7:45 & A — is the biggest footprint yet. Come build the next chapter.

Camp from above — 2025

Pulled from the Black Rock City Gigapan — both shade structures, the containers, and the frontage read clearly from the air.