ASR consists of a repository of info related to Space in Africa, something Jim VOLP started back in 2006. Aim was/is to make available info about key individuals, institutes and industry that are doing space stuff on the African content or those who have an interest in it that reside elsewhere. …cause knowledge is power!
2010 LinkedIn group
Effectively LinkedIn provided a lot of functionality that was desired, so why reinvent the wheel? The Space in Africa group was created (as a sandbox).
2010 ESPI report
In September 2010 ESPI released a very interesting report titled: “European-African Partnership in Satellite Applications for Sustainable Development. A Comprehensive Mapping of European-African Actors and Activities”.
2009 IAC article
Together with a Spanish student an IAC article was written that laid out our vision: “We believe that a free Online Directory Service with comprehensive info about African space organisations in the largest sense of the word including past, present and future space projects is a vital source of information, currently lacking, that can play a role in the development of African space endeavours.
In a subsequent step this Directory service can be transformed into an attractive, Community (social) website where all individuals that have an interest in Space in Africa and related News will be invited to participate, stimulated to share information and experiences and build links for collaboration in Africa and outside.”
2008 ISU internship report
In 2008 Jim hosted and facilitated an internship for an ISU student. Zahrah Musa compiled an inventory on Institutes and Industry. The report is here.
2005 UNESCO road trip to Nigeria
In the preparations for this road trip, Jim noticed a lack of good info concerning African space activities on the Internet. The road trip made a deep impression so Jim wanted to do something: a) to fill the void of info, b) to assist the African space community.
2002 Question to Dan Goldin, ex-NASA Director
Jim asked the following (as announced political) question to Mr. Goldin when he visited Delft University in April: “What can we do to include the intellectual capacity of young minds in non space faring nations, for example Africa?” Initially Mr. Goldin interrupted me stating he would not answer political questions. But in a 2nd attempt I luckily got to the end of my question and Mr. Goldin gave a very passionate answer indicating that he loved the topic! 🙂 Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact details of his answer, but it inspired me to say the least.