<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Via OpenManufacturing (<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/topics" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: none; ">http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/topics</a>)<div>I found the ARocket list has a discussion going about Open Source Space Hardware, with ITAR subtopic</div><div> <a href="http://exrocketry.net/mailman/listinfo/arocket" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">http://exrocketry.net/mailman/listinfo/arocket</a></div><div><br></div><div>Here's the post that kicked it off (by my friend Michael Clive)<br><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><br>From: Michael Clive <br>Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 4:58 AM<br>Subject: [AR] Open source space hardware.<br> <br>So we had a panel on open source space hardware at SA'12.<br>Had some thoughts on it.<br> <br>First off, who is already doing this or planning to do this?<br>-Spacehack <a href="http://spacehack.org/category/open-source">http://spacehack.org/category/open-source</a><br>-Earthlight, rick announced it at the con<br>-Mach 30 <a href="http://mach30.org/">http://mach30.org/</a><br>-PSAS : <a href="http://opensourcebridge.org/sessions/407">http://opensourcebridge.org/sessions/407</a><br>-Most of the blogging folk, paul, armadillo, masten, etc. They are not<br>quite open source because it is not like Dave is posting drawing packages,<br>but know-how is being transferred. I know I learned tons from the armadillo<br>updates.<br> <br>So a bunch of folks are interested. I probably missed two or three major<br>groups.<br> <br>I will just ramble for a minute here.<br> <br>I am coming up with an potentially effective plan to make this all work.<br>The issue is that tech dev costs money, the problems are hard, and<br>voulenteers work on their schedule.<br> <br>So lets monetize the whole thing. Not through crowdfunding, but through<br>microprizes for manageable tasks.<br> <br> <br>Here is how I imagine the system to work. A supraogranization is created<br>that talks to all of these open source groups. They secure public/private<br>money, and hand out prizes in the kilobuck level for clearly defined tasks.<br>Valves is an obvious one.<br>"Design a LOX-compatible cryovalve that weighs X kg and flows Y<br>Cv. Electric or pneumatic interface. Fits in a box U by V by W"<br>Build one, post the drawing package, mail it to the verification team<br>(which could be another hacker group/student group) If verified, the<br>organization gives the winning group X thousand, between 1~10k. This is<br>small money, but lemme tell you, 5 grand would mean a lot to Mojave Makers<br>or CrashSpace or to a student organization.<br> <br>you could chop up a $1m STEM grant from various partners into hundreds of<br>such prizes. Heck, you could even write a prize for writing the spec for a<br>system.<br>"Define the electrical interface standards for a space vehicle that has to<br>travel between the moon and earth. Include power bus, signal bus, etc.<br>Define connectors and create list of vendors and part numbers". A bunch of<br>specs would be written, and the open source groups would vote for the<br>winner. Bam, $1000 buck prize for some smart kid at University of Nowhere.<br> <br>"Design the VHDL package to load onto a rad-hard FPGA unit capable of the<br>following inputs and outputs"<br>"Build a 6dof robot arm that weighs X, with a materials and manufacturing<br>cost of Y"<br> <br> <br>You could then do things like pledge drives. "HOT PRIZE: Design an ablative<br>thrust chamber manufacturable for under $500. Usually $5k prize. $10K IF<br>COMPLETED BEFORE JUNE!"<br> <br>In the end, all projects are loaded onto the websites of the groups. There<br>are standards in place for how you can contribute. If you want to win a<br>hardware prize, you HAVE to send in solid models, manufacturing drawings,<br>and an actual real physical item. This is just an example.<br> <br>administering such a program would be no joke, but I think it would provide<br>the energy required to take this from "good idea" to "holy crap look at all<br>this stuff on this site!"<br> <br> <br>you need to give money because of a few things:<br> <br>1. Software dev only costs time, and people love to give that away for<br>free. That is why open source software works pretty well. Hardware dev<br>costs. I dropped $15k before I could build something as simple as an<br>igniter.<br> <br>2. No money, no pressure. You need to put a bit of a carrot on this if you<br>want to get stuff done.<br> <br>3. Control. You want a group of smart folks deciding what needs to be<br>designed. Otherwise, everyone will make engines and no one will make<br>chutes. you also want to define interfaces because you want to be able to<br>use these things.<br> <br>I made a point on the panel that hackerspaces/makerspaces are spaces, not<br>teams. That changes when they are chasing money. Five grand can pay a few<br>months rent, can buy a laser cutter, can pay for a new shed. Teams would<br>form to win these prizes. Student teams would form. A smart team of<br>students could pay their whole way through college winning these prizes.<br>And we are talking about not a huge amount of cash here. The NLV is $3<br>million. That is 600 prizes at the $5k level.<br> <br> <br> <br>Anyway, these were just my thoughts on the issue.<br> </ul><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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