The BBQ at Mitre10 last Saturday was indicative of the great flood.
Heather Kilsby is slowly recovering from her operation.
The District Conference is to be held on 16 -19 April.
A book commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rotary in Australia will be on sale shortly.
International Rotary Women's Day breakfast is at the Wine Centre on 3 March, commencing 7.15am.
PETS (Presidential training) will be held 20 February....for Nathan.
Robyn Carnachan and he visited Treasure Boxes which helps hundreds of families and children in need with boxes of the basic necessities. Our club is buying cots.
No plastic straws or cutlery on the BBQs after March.
The Mayor sent a letter of thanks for attendance at the Australia Day citizenship ceremony.
Guest Speaker: Nicola Sasanelli - Smartsat
Chairman David Middleton introduce Nicola who is CEO of the Andy Thomas Space Foundation and a Director of Smartsat. Before coming to Adelaide he was the Scientific Attache with the Italian Embassy. His wife is now teaching here and they have a daughter in Adelaide and one in Melbourne.
The theme of his delivery was - Australia, a passionate participant in the space 2.0 revolution. Space is big bucks with latest estimate being $414 billion per annum churning in the global space economy. The biggest change over the past decade or so has been the switch from government to private which now accounts for $229b, whereas previously government dominated with 80% of space investment. The market will continue to expand, with space related communications likely to triple over the next 20 years with 50% more satellites. Space technology is playing a key role in improving many industries like agriculture and fisheries, crisis response, environment monitoring and improvement, security and health.
We did our bit with the establishment of the Woomera Rocket Range in 1947 and twenty years later with the launch of WRESAT1, the first country after USA and USSR to put a satellite into orbit. The only item of note in the next 30 years was our own Andy Thomas launching in May of 1996 and another 3 times thereafter. In recent years there has been a flurry of activity with the formation of the Australian Space Agency in 2018.
Other items of interest include:
- provision of $4m for space innovation fund in 2017 by the Feds.
- international space conference attracting 4500 participants To Adelaide in 2017
- 6 monthly seminars to keep attuned
- SA being first State with a Space Strategy
- Scholarships worth up to $20k for overseas studies in space technology
SMARTSAT was formed in April 2019 with a budget of $245m to be spent over 7 years. with a focus on communications, satellite systems and next generation earth observation. Industries best served by this focus are likely to be water management, disaster mitigation and the environment.
The Andy Thomas Space Foundation was launched on 20 November 2020 with the aim to inspire and stimulate the support for space as a platform for innovation and economic growth, education and training from primary through to tertiary education and to promote space as a domain for international cooperation. On 31 March the Discovery Centre will be opened by the Prime Minister. In 2017 there were 150 people employed by 40 organisations in space related work......employment is now 10 times higher.
The history of Australia's involvement in space is hardly awe inspiring and perhaps can now be likened to trying to quickly move from nappies to long pants. May these small buds of innovation blossom.
Nicola was thanked for his illuminating contribution.
Behind the Badge: Paul Duke
Paul supplied a slide presentation of photos marking important segments of his life. His personal axiom,..love thy neighbour as thyself. In
1966 he was holding a bird of paradise in PNG while a dental student volunteer from Adelaide Uni. After graduating in dentistry he completed his medical degree at Flinders Uni. He married Di and they undertook post graduate studies in England. A slide showed Paul walking the Kokoda trail in 1974 when he and Di were stationed there. Back to Adelaide to a house they could not afford, work at the RAH and two daughters. Editor is not sure as to which order these came.
Volunteering has played a significant role in his life with 20 years to PNG doing major operations and more recently teaching nurses how to extract teeth. There was a trip to Tanzania and time spent in Cambodia. Most of the clinics had no running water or electricity, which provided significant challenges.
Di and he recently celebrated 50 years in wedlock and she is pleased with him joining Rotary....something about getting him out of the house.....Covid has restricted his overseas endeavours.
Paul was thanked in the usual fashion.
Spots............a worrying outbreak
