Going open source to space

Facts :

- as part of Obama administration’s new $3.8 trillion budget, a radical change in NASA’s mission is proposed. If President Obama has his way, NASA will stop being the operator and builder of our space vehicles and programme. The US space programme will be placed in the hands of private industry. The government will try to steer the private space industry with grants and technology development projects. This could be a great environment and opportunity for an open source space program.

- through community-based programs, India's space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas such as this one, helping to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation's first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore.

- open source hardware is now more than ever evolving and gathering more and more momentum with home fabrications, lots of projects and a growing community.

So in this context there is a lot of space for open innovation, here are some key projects to follow:

The Open Luna Foundation

The Open Luna Foundation aims to return mankind to the moon through private enterprise. Initial goals focus on a stepped program of robotic missions coupled with extensive public relations and outreach. Following these purely robotic missions, a short series of manned missions will construct a small, approximately 6 person settlement based on a location scouted by the robotic missions. This settlement will be open for anyone's use (private individuals to government agencies), provided they respect our ethical conduct and heritage policies. Most of the work on the missions is being done on the wiki.

The Open Luna Foundation takes a unique approach in that:

All aspects of the mission plan and hardware will be open source. This information will be publicly available and community support and involvement will be actively pursued and welcomed. Special efforts will be made to involve students, educational facilities, and amateur space enthusiasts.

A strong media presence will be a priority. The entertainment and educational potential of the mission will be exploited to allow the mission to reach the maximum number of people possible. This furthers the educational potential of the mission, provides publicity for sponsors (which will encourage support for future missions), and demonstrates to people that this is possible in the present and inspires the next generation to continue and exceed these mission goals.

Mission hardware will be light and geared toward continuity from one mission to future missions. This will save costs and simplify the mission and hardware development. Superfluous hardware will be removed from missions and each component will be made in the lightest fashion possible. This may create initial complications, but it will balance out over the span of the program. Risk levels will be assessed and considered to balance risk with the cost of safety to the ability of the mission to continue forward. Much like an Alpine expedition, moderate risks will be acceptable in favor of exploration.

Access to all scientific data and acceptance of outside research proposals will be encouraged.

For more information about The Open Luna Foundation visit their official website.

CosmosCode

NASA's CosmosCode program, launched in 2007, brings open source developers together to create space exploration software. It also opens the door for individual coders to get involved in the space industry and a offers a way for space companies to partner with NASA to develop mutually beneficial software. The CosmoCode project is currently open for internal alpha testing and looking for volunteers.

CosmosCode will be a core offering of free and open source space software through an independent project hosting website, and the development and management of a free software community specific to the challenges and opportunities afforded by space. This community will provide a common access point for individuals, academics, companies, and space agencies around the world using, contributing to, or supporting re-usable, modular, extensible, or standards driven space exploration software.

For more information about CosmosCode visit their official website.

Spark HK1

Our little in house project of developing a space shuttle , still a lot of work, merely an idea by now.

Join us on the official page.

Celestia

The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

For more informations and download visit their official website.

CSTART

The Collaborative Space Travel and Research Team (CSTART) is a non-government space agency whose mission is is to organize and finance the efforts of space enthusiasts around the world who are interested in using collaborative design, volunteer labor, innovative, low-cost technology and open data sharing to further the cause of manned and unmanned space travel and research.

For more informations and download visit their official website.