The Latin-American Space Association - Involving youth in Space Activities -

On September 12th, 2000 in the City of Graz, Austria, during the Symposium organized by the United Nations and the European Space Agency Enhancing the Participation of Youth in Space Activities, the members of the Space Generation Latin-American Group, along with other delegates, citizens of this region decided to create the Latin-American Space Association (Asociación Latinoamericana del Espacio - ALE). The purposes of our Association are to continue and strengthen the programs initiated during the creation of the Space Generation Forum/Latin-American Group to pursue a better administration of resources in our countries, and to facilitate programs and joint space related projects in Latin America as an international, non-governmental organization. This paper has as goal to inform the international space community about the current activities of ALE. As a first step to approach these challenging purposes the members of our Association are involved in educational outreach projects. In the year 2001, sponsored by the Chilean Space Association and several privates and government organizations, the first Space Seminar was carried out involving high school students interested in Space Science. The success obtained by this first Chilean experience coupled with unanimous opinions of the participating scientists and the enthusiasm of the students convinced the organizers that they were in the right track. And so another successful activity was the organization of the International Space Camp, which took place this year in January, with the participation of students from another Latin-American countries. The organizers of the Seminar and the Space Camp acted on the conviction of the need to form an elite of youth, scientists and professionals, able to face the challenges of this new century, which will surely evolve around Space Science and exploration