THE SCOOP Note from the President
Content Table
Well done to everyone! It is just over a year since we signed our constitution and things are looking good.
p.1 Note from the President p.2 Non Profit Company p.2 Lunabotics App p.3 Current Members p.3 Membership Renewal p.4 Events: Past and upcoming p.4 Fun Page
Follow SASRA Group on Facebook www.facebook.com/ groups/182024645163246/ Follow SASRA on Twitter www.twitter.com/SA_SRA
SASRA recently got legalized in the form of a Non Profit Company, which means we can now trade, open bank accounts, receive donations etc. The best part is that when people ask what SASRA is, we don’t have to say it is “a bunch of people who are interested in space mining.” We can respond with “It is a Non Profit Company looking at getting South Africa involved in space mining.” It just adds some credibility.
Another major milestone is our Lunabotics Application. NASA accepted the application as a gift and now recognises us as a Bronze Sponsor to their Lunabotics Competition. Thanks to Theo Ireton (a SASRA director and our lead software developer) for putting in all the hours to make it happen. In the last couple of months, we have gained a webmaster, Bernhardt Garlipp (who is also a director), and events and media coordinator, Continued...
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Marinet Vorster, (if you like the look of this newsletter, thank her) and an editor, Desiré Maré. Even though we lost an executive member towards the end of last year, Johan Kruger and JJ Maré have stuck it out as executives and helped ensure our success. Thanks to everyone who helped make SASRA a success. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work, especially since we all operate after hours. SASRA is gaining momentum, and if you’d like to get more involved, come talk to us and we will make good use of you. Michael Neale SASRA President
Non Profit Company
Instead of Executive Members, we now have Directors (the Board). The initial Board consists of: • • • • •
Michael Neale Johan Kruger JJ Maré Bernhardt Garlipp Theo Ireton
The Ordinary Members will be split into voting and non-voting members. The default membership will be non-voting. If someone is interested in having voting rights, and is willing to make the effort to be involved in decision making, (s)he can apply for voting membership. The General Meeting will be called “Stake Holders Meeting”, where voting members will be updated on our status and decide on important issues.
Lunabotics App
On 6 March 2012, SASRA opened for business as a Non Profit Company (NPC number 2012/046684/08). Now that we are a legal entity, we are allowed to register accounts under SASRA’s name. On the cell phone application markets (e.g. Android and Apple) we have a SASRA account, instead of a personal account under one of the Directors’ names. Soon, the same will apply to the bank account. We can now also start looking at receiving donations with tax benefits to the donor. Finally, when we deal with other organizations, like SANSA and NASA, we have a more credibility as a legal entity than what we had as a voluntary association. Our membership structure and some terminology are changing to suit the NPC.
SASRA has started developing software for Space Mining. This directive was initiated by Theo Ireton, who joined SASRA near the end of last year. Theo is a software developer and is passionate about getting South Africa involved in space. Theo not only joined SASRA, but he is one of the five Directors. As his first project he developed a cell phone application for the NASA Lunabotics Competition. SASRA
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gave the application to NASA as a gift, which NASA accepted as an “In-kind” sponsorship to their competition. The work has been valued by NASA as worth $2500+, and SASRA received the status of “Bronze Sponsor” for the NASA Lunabotics. We will have our logo all over the competition media and even on their T-shirts. This is only the first version of the first software application planned for SASRA. If anyone is interested in space mining software/games conceptualisation, design, development, please contact us for further information. You can have a look at the app on a variety of platforms from the following links: • Google Play (Android): https://play.google. com/store/apps/details?id=zaco.sasra. lunabotics • Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/ lunabotics/ • Desktop (Windows): https://s3.amazonaws. com/sasra/NASA/ Lunabotics/desktop/ Lunabotics.exe • Website: http:// www.sasra.co.za/ CustomCode/ lunabotics%28Bl%29. html • Apple: in progress
Current Members Since our founding we have grown to 29 members. The additional members who joined (non-founding members) are: • • • • • • • •
Bernhardt Garlipp Dalisu Nkosi Desi Maré Erhan Uludag Hannes Greyling Marinet Vorster Pity Mafahla Theo Ireton
We started off with 5 extra-ordinary members (experts in the space mining industry who support us). Two more have joined us, namely: • John Hamilton, the director of PISCES, • Rob Mueller, the Lunar Destination Co-Lead at NASA, and head of the NASA Lunabotics competition
Membership Renewal As June is our year end, it is necessary to renew your membership for 2012/2013. This can be done by responding to this short feedback questionnaire and indicating your interest in continued membership.
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Events: Past and Future
Fun Page
Thank you to all the SASRA socialites that attended our first official SASRA NPC Casual Social on Friday 9 March 2012.
Quote of the Month: “Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” - Anais Nin
Unfortunately the weather didn’t want to play along but the Socialites weren’t bothered much by the rain and thunder. While a few brave souls started the braai-fire in the rain the rest had a good talk with some prospective members about our Robot Project and their ideas about it. After some home-built robot demonstrations by Lex, everybody enjoyed a bit of leisurely conversation around the braaifire. We ended off the night with a cupcake and new SASRA friends.
Joke of the Month: What do you call a loony spaceman? An astronut!
Please be on the look-out for the upcoming SASRA Events: • 26 March 2012 - SASRA Tech Talk • 13 April 2012 - SASRA Outing to the Johannesburg Planetarium
You will receive regular event emails from events@sasra.co.za, so make sure you add the address to your contacts list so that it doesn’t end up in you SPAM-box! If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you will notice that there’s a link at the bottom of the emails that says “Unsubscribe”. Just click this and you will be removed from the SASRA Events 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. Until next time! SASRA Events Manager
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Happy Easter!