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Content Table

p.1 Space Mining Conference

p.2 Stakeholders’ Meeting

p.2 News

p.2 Membership Renewal

p.3 Events: Past and Future

p.3 Fun Page

It’s on again! The first week of June will see the third joint meeting between the Space Resources Roundtable and the Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium (I know it is a mouthful, so I just call it the Space Mining Conference).

I am privileged to attend again this year, and take it up a notch. This year I have two papers, one co-authored with SASRA Director, JJ Maré. On top of that, I will also be chairing the robotics session of the conference. SASRA and Hatch will get some good exposure this year.

If you’d like to see presentations go visit this page. Bear in mind the presentations are draft, and will only be finalized on the 11th hour before the conference. Feel free to have a look at the conference itinerary, and let me know if there is anything special I can give you guys feedback on.Thanks to everyone who has helped SASRA

Space Mining Conference

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South African Space Resources Association

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achieve its successes of the past year. Seeing that my one paper is on SASRA’s progress, I can truly say I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

Michael NealeSASRA President

Stakeholders’ Meeting

News

On 6 March 2012, SASRA opened for business. We had our quarterly stakeholders meeting (previously General Meeting) in May.

The consequences from the meeting are:SASRA is now a fully functional non-profit • company.Anyone can become a SASRA follower with • no cost (as opposed to becoming a member). Non-renewal of membership fees will result in defaulting to follower status.Membership fee for 2012/2013 is R250, • and will include a members’ gift.Voting members will be established before • 6 June. All fully paid members have the option to become a voting member.Directors for 2012/2013 will be decided • on after voting members have been established.Stakeholders (voting members) will meet • once a year (AGM). There will still be one meeting a month, alternating between Social and Technical.

Read the Meeting Minutes here for more detail.

SpaceXSpaceX, a company founded by South African born Billionaire and Paypal founder, Elon Musk, made history last week. They successfully launched a private rocket, and had the capsule dock with the International Space Station. This docking was a demonstration to show that they are up to the task to fulfil the $1.6Billion contract NASA awarded them to launch 12 cargo capsules to the ISS. Read more...

Planetary ResourcesPlanetary Resources, a company aimed at mining asteroids, was unveiled in April 2012. This company, backed by billionaire investors, has received more than 2 000 job applications in the three weeks after its official unveiling. Read more...

Just a kind reminder, as June is our year end, it is necessary to renew your membership for 2012/2013. If you haven’t filled out the questionnaire, please do so here: feedback questionnaire.

Membership Renewal

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Thanks to all who attended the SASRA Outing to the Johannesburg Planetarium on Friday 13 April 2012. It was great fun learning about our current nightsky stars and planets, their fable-origins and history, as well as about some space projects, like the upcoming Square Kilometer Array project shared between South Africa and Australia.

Please be on the look-out for the upcoming SASRA Events:

22 June 2012 - Prometheus Movie at • Menlyn

SASRA Outing to the Hartebeesthoek • Radio Astronomy Observatory - date to be announced later (after July)

It was decided at the Stakeholders’ Meeting to have a good social event every second or third month, instead of the small official events (which doesn’t attract many people). If you have any ideas or know of any events that would make a nice social for SASRA, please don’t hesitate to mail the Event Manager at events@sasra.co.za.

If you’d like to get these event emails, or would like to opt-out, please send an email to events@sasra.co.za to be added to/removed from the mailing-list.

You can also keep an eye on the SASRA Website Calendar (www.sasra.co.za/events/calendar) for all the upcoming events, as well as when to RSVP for them.

Stay hot, SASRA!SASRA Events Manager,Marinet Vorster

Events: Past and Future Fun Page

Keep warm this winter!

Quote of the Month:“After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say ‘I want to see the manager.’” - William S. Burroughs

http://azraellewormser.deviantart.com/gallery/?sort=popularity&catpath=scraps&q=#/d1z81g2

If you are reading this on hardcopy, you can go to www.sasra.co.za for all the links in this newsletter.