The Software of Space Exploration

David Boswell writes "The O'Reilly Network is running an article called The Software of Space Exploration that looks at a number of the software projects that NASA has released as open source under their NOSA license. It explores how they are using other free and open source projects for use in some of their missions. Information about the European Space Agency and other space organizations is also covered." From the article: "A number of tools allow you to track objects in space, from asteroids to shuttle missions. A consortium of scientists working in the field of celestial mechanics has released OrbFit as free software under the GPL. This software can compute the orbits of asteroids and predict an asteroid's future position. You can also track artificial satellites with several free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-freedom options. Amateur radio enthusiasts use Linux and these tools to hear transmissions from the space station or from other satellites in Earth orbit."

Comments

ITAR Restrictions

[Manhigh]

There are many tools that NASA has developed that fall under International Trafficing-in-Arms (ITAR) restrictions, which essentially means theyre restricted to being deployed to US nationals only. Generally, software that is useful for putting spacecraft on target can also be useful for putting missiles on target.

Theres also the issue of civil service vs. contractor development, as was already mentioned. JPL has developed a lot of fine software, but since they are a semi-private organization that needs profits to operate, they charge (sometimes a great deal) for their software to prevent competing entities (such as APL) from grabbing their work for free.