Introducing the Open Source Spaceflight Revolutionaries

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Image by x-ray delta one via Flickr

At Mach 30, we dream of a world where people live and work on other worlds and in space stations.  When we say people, we don’t mean six at a time, we mean hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands. One of the keys to making this dream a reality is to share the technology of space as widely as possible, and so we are doing all of our engineering work as open source hardware, and we are not alone.  In the last four years nearly one dozen groups have formed with the stated purpose of developing space flight systems in a manner similar to that of open source software projects. These groups intend to develop and then share the designs of a wide variety of space systems including launch vehicles, satellites, and lunar probes.

The path in front of all of us is a steep one.  Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities on our shared path  to a strong open source spaceflight industry.  Today, let’s meet the revolutionaries of open source spaceflight.

Copenhagen Suborbitals

Copenhagen Suborbitals is an all volunteer Danish organization founded by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen. The mission of Copenhagen Suborbitals is to launch a human being into space. They are currently developing a sub-orbital spacecraft composed of a one-person capsule called the Tycho Brahe, and a booster called HEAT.

The Collaborative Space Travel and Research Team

The Collaborative Space Travel and Research Team (CSTART) is an all volunteer organization with members throughout the world. CSTART was founded in 2009 by a group of space enthusiasts who met in an online community site called Reddit. The mission of CSTART is to organize and finance open source spaceflight projects run by space enthusiasts. Current CSTART projects include a cubesat called COSMoS, a high altitude balloon called Cloudlab, and a hybrid rocket called Chimera.

Develop Space

Develop Space is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 2007. Its mission is to enable human exploration and development of space through open collaboration. Develop Space projects include an architecture study for a minimalist human mission to Mars, the development of a space exploration reference library, and research into engineering tools that are licensed as open source software.

Mach 30

Mach 30 is a non-profit organization incorporated in 2009. Our mission is to hasten the advancement of humanity into a spacefaring society. Current projects at Mach 30 focus on developing a strong legal and organizational foundation for running open source spaceflight projects. These projects include the Openeering Wiki, a community portal documenting the existence of and experience using free and open source engineering tools, Open Design Engine, a web based engineering project management portal, and research into licensing and management of open projects within the boundaries of export control laws such as ITAR.

Open Aerospace

Open Aerospace was founded by Ralph Ewig in 2009. The mission of Open Aerospace is to be the organizing framework for space enthusiasts to collaborate on human activities beyond Earth. Open Aerospace’s projects focus on defining an end to end architecture for space exploration.

OpenLuna Foundation

The OpenLuna Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded by Paul Graham and Gary Snyder. The mission of Open Luna is to return humans back to the moon through private enterprise. Early projects at Open Luna are focusing on a series of robotic missions and public outreach. Their eventual goal is to build a small human outpost on the moon.

Open Space Movement

Open Space Movement was founded in 2010. Its mission is to provide a collaborative engineering environment, educational resources, and organizational framework for a public space venture. Open Space Movements current primary focus is the development of their collaborative engineering environment as a web portal similar to those used to host open source software projects.

Portland State Aerospace Society

The Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) is a student organization at Portland State University. PSAS projects center around the development and operation of low cost open source rockets. Their most recent launch, held in October of 2010, was a complete success.

Team FREDNET

Team FREDNET is an official competitor in the Google Lunar X-Prize. Team FREDNET is incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit organization. As a competitor in the Google Lunar X-Prize, Team FREDNETs projects all center around the development of a prize winning lunar rover.

Ultra Light Space Flight

The Ultra Light Space Flight (ULSF) group is a community of individuals who are working on developing open source space probes.  Their core value is to “to the smallest possible craft operating on the smallest possible budgets” and they believe that robotic probes have been and will continue to be the backbone of space exploration.

WikiSat

WikiSat is an international group of volunteers and students. Their mission is to make access to space open to everyone. Their current projects include a high altitude balloon that will act as a proof of concept for their engineering processes, and a ultra-small scale satellite launcher as an entry to the N-Prize.

Want to join Mach 30’s team in the Open Source Spaceflight Revolution?  Learn more here.

Greg’s pictures from the STS-135 Space Shuttle Launch

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Here’s a set of pictures from my trip to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis launch on mission STS-135, the final flight of the NASA shuttle fleet.  We at Mach 30 are working to expedite the return of human space access here in the US.  If you want to make sure that we continue to pursue safe, sustainable, routine and reliable access to space, donate now, like us on Facebook, or sign up for the newsletter…  Then enjoy my photos!

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“Ad astera per civitas – To space through community”

Mach 30, Foundation for Space Development

The Space Program Marks Time with a Career in the Classroom

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A big thanks to Lucie Carruthers for sharing her memories of NASA‘s space program as part of Mach 30’s Open Source Spaceflight Revolution!

This month marks the forty-second anniversary of man stepping onto the moon for the first time and the last time the space shuttle will orbit the Earth. In the span of the fifty-five years that I have spent in the classroom, many space discoveries have been made, many opinions about space have been proven to be false, and many amazing innovations in science have occurred. None of the more recent events in the NASA program have eclipsed the initial euphoria I felt when the United States first launched its space program in the 1950s.

USSR postage stamp depicting the communist sta...

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My first introduction to space exploration came at the hands of the older students in the one room, Nebraska schoolhouse I attended in 1957. I remember I was six years old, and in first grade — an age when anything the seventh and eighth graders told me had to be true. On a fall day, warm enough that only a sweater was needed to run out to the pump where the big kids were passing around a dipper filled with water from the small, corrugated tin shed that sat a few yards away from the building, I joined a group of older students who were standing around during a recess break. Someone noticed a shiny object moving across the brilliant blue sky, pointed at it, and yelled, “Sputnik!” Then I recalled my older sister, who was in the fifth grade, burst into tears. She said, “The Communists are going to get us. They’re going to bomb the United States.” For many years, I lived in the shadow of fear that the Communists from Russia were going to destroy our country. That threat was further reinforced when my dad built a sturdy bomb shelter in the basement of our home. This was also the era when some of our teachers told us that humans would never put a man on the moon, while the more optimistic ones predicted people would drive flying cars by the year 2000. Some of the older folk, those individuals born in the late 1800s, often believed that astronauts never stepped foot on the moon but were part of a huge government conspiracy concocted to make people believe they did.

Armstrong works at the Apollo Lunar Module in ...

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In 1969, the next momentous event in space travel occurred. Contrary to what some of the naysayers from the early 1950s predicted, NASA—using Apollo 11–did put a man on the moon in July of that year, two months after I graduated from high school. The Norfolk Daily News, a local paper, used a fourth of the front page to declare the victorious success of JFK’s New Frontier program. My husband kept a copy of the Omaha World Herald’s special edition commemorating the event and it’s buried somewhere in our house, hidden away like the memory of the near-tragic Apollo 13, an event I journaled about in college.

Space Shuttle Challenger ' s smoke plume after...

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Throughout the next forty years, most of my time was spent in the classroom. It was there that I received the heart-breaking news about Challenger’s fateful flight, carrying a teacher who many of us in the teaching profession had secretly wanted to swap places with, and the repeat shuttle disaster of the Columbia in 2003 that spread a pall over the whole space program. I was still in the classroom and rejoiced when my second cousin, Clayton Anderson, was chosen to man the International Space Station for 152 days in 2007. He instigated a lively interaction with school children while serving at the space station that drew many of them into the fascinating study of space. Afterwards, he visited Minden, Nebraska, the place where I teach, because our town is the home of Royal Composites, a company that makes materials for space launches. The miracle of space travel was never far removed from elements in my teaching career.

I am now approaching my sixtieth year—a year that might possibly be my last in the classroom. Coinciding as it does with the last shuttle mission this summer leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Can travel in space be so easily compacted into the time a life-long teacher scrolls through her career? Wheeled vehicles have existed for over 5500 years. Inventors took another 5400 years to add a motor to them. Today, those vehicles still operate using the principle of friction created by contact with the earth. When will man’s imagination fly high enough to lift the mode of ordinary travel off the ground and into the wild blue yonder? I hope humans say good-bye to elite space exploration and hello to private travel created by the masses through open source technology.

Ready to join the Open Source Space Revolution?  Learn more here.

Join the Open Source Space Revolution!

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Now that the final shuttle mission is in orbit, we at Mach 30 are celebrating the past, present, and most importantly, the future of human space flight.  Please visit each day of the mission to see why we are so passionate about human space exploration and to find out why we believe open source hardware holds the key to humanity’s future in space.

Don’t miss out!  Subscribe to our newsletter to keep track of Mach 30 activity and learn more about how to get involved.

Ready to join the revolution?  You can contribute to the cause here.

Thanks for visiting!

Greg goes to Cape Canaveral for the Space Shuttle Launch

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The excitement is building and the astronauts are loading into the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  I arrived at MCO – Orlando International Airport last night on my way to watch the last NASA Space Shuttle launch.  Shuttle Atlantis, called OV-104 by the nerdiest of the space enthusiasts is sitting on the pad while the army of technicians and controllers go about their business of launching the 135th shuttle flight.  To follow along, NASA has their Public Affairs team narrating the live streaming NASA TV feed also available in HD.  check it out:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Chance of launch today is low (due to the forecast of rain and clouds) but we’re going out there anyway!

Notes from meeting with Neil Milburn

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25 June 2011 – Drove out to Caddo Mills, TX to meet (face-to-face) with Neil Milburn to:

– receive information about the Armadillo Aerospace insurance provider.
– get a tour of their facility.

Details:

  1. Armadillo’s Insurance provider is JLT Aerospace (North America) Inc.out of Houston, TX.  He gave me the info of a Ralph Harp, Senior Vice President.  w: 713.984.7570, c: 713.253.4594, email:  ralph.harp@jltaerospace.com. 
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