Wow, this is pretty nifty: NASA is looking into going open source for a lot of their software. Of particular interest is their World Wind software, which is a "Google Earth"-type app, and is very cool. I love things like this: a highly-skilled and well-funded group can put together an amazing engine for software, and by making it open source they can have legions of people adding their own stuff to it. Google Earth has lots of add-ons (or plugins or whatever you want to call them) which make it an extremely versatile and fun piece of software. I expect NASA can do pretty well here too!
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March 11th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Well, it all goes back to the original NASA servicemark: “For the Benefit of All Mankind” sm
There are programmers all over the globe who can contribute to making the space info mission accessable to everyone who wants to tap in.
Commercial software has way to many legal constraints. Open source is like the public library. Big difference is this: anyone can rewrite and edit the books on the open shelfs to make it more and more popular.
March 11th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
World Wind actually predates Google Earth and in a few ways, is better than GE. Of course, in most ways, GE has gon far beyond what World Wind does. I do like the latest version which includes lunar Clemenine laser ranging data along with Clemeentine images to do the Moon in 3D.
March 11th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
This would be fantastic.
March 11th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Ray,
Simply being able to write in a book in a Public Library does not automatically make you a good author.
To take full advantage of Open Source, which IMHO is simply a licence and not the religion some proponents present it as, you need good programming skills and the ability to ’stay the course’ until your project is complete.
March 11th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
I agree with Wolverine.
That would be a big boost for open source philosophy.
March 12th, 2006 at 3:02 am
One would hope that NASA could give some amount of openness to the SPICE libraries, especially since they barely fund it themselves. SPICE (IMO) is one of the best and most consistently solid products to come out JPL during the last 20 years. –>http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/toolkit.html
March 12th, 2006 at 4:51 am
Graham,
There are countless advantages to using open-source software, even for non-techies. Possibly the best reason to choose OSS is because the people who programmed it put their reputation at risk. They care about the quality of the code, not the money earned from it.
March 12th, 2006 at 7:27 am
Graham,
Open Source is not a license, it’s a model. The models are codified in the various licenses. The model is based (as all models are) on a philosophical framework. You’re right that it’s not a religion, but I don’t see who you’re correcting on this–no one has spouted off in a religious fashion about open source here.
Whether one has the skill and commitment applies equally well to closed source as it does to open source.
There is really no downside for NASA to open source the software it has which is of interest to others. It’s really quite good that NASA is doing this.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:00 am
Another reason for NASA to support open source in the aftermath of the Deutsch affair is that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides $1,000,000 a year to a major creationist lobby.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:07 am
How to discover asteroid impacts
http://www.astroseti.org/impacts.php
March 12th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Sounds like a great idea. As you stated, people can add on to it and build a better mouse trap.
(BTW, hope you’re enjoying this cruddy, cloudy weather in Houston.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:41 am
John W. Kennedy — which one? Do you have documentation on that?
March 12th, 2006 at 9:00 am
It was in the NY Times a month or so ago (in a general story about creationist lobbying), but anything on that site older than a week requires a paid subscription.
It’s a group with the deceptive name “Discovery Institute”. Of course, as soon as the story broke, the B&MG Foundation immediately announced that, of course, the money was earmarked for something completely different, nothing to do with creationism at all, no, not one bit, not at all….
After Microsoft’s categorical denial in early 1991 of a story in the “Wall Street Journal” that they were going to drop support of OS/2 and replace it with a new product to be called “Windows NT”, I think I know how much to trust that.
March 12th, 2006 at 9:14 am
The Gates Foundation comment is a smear. Read the source Inquirer article yourself – http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25572.
Public transportation is a worthy cause IMHO.
March 12th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Free Software is the religion, and Richard Stallman is its patron saint.
March 12th, 2006 at 10:42 am
Graham,
If God were a programmer, would He write OSS? I think not!
March 12th, 2006 at 11:27 am
It is not a “smear” to observe that an established liar and bully is giving lots of money to a creationist lobby, no matter what creative accounting is applied after the fact to make it look innocent.
As to God and open-source, any educated Christian (as opposed to a knuckle-walker like George Deutsch) knows that God has, in fact, left His source open. That’s the whole point of science.
And, in the long run, that’s the whole point of freedom, too.
March 12th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Great link Mary. I hope I use it!
And JWK, I can appreciate your exuberance, but the Gates Foundation does NOT support IDism. Don’t let your rational disgust over abuses of the US system of Capitalism perpetrated by Billy boy obscure the research into humane and efficacious Education for our kids.
The man is certainly a bigger marketing geek than a good programmer or benevolent (Hahaha!) businessman. But everything I’ve ever read strongly suggests that he knows the difference between science and creationism. And funds the former, not the latter.
Anyway, decide for yourself after checkin’ their site. Creationists don’t support more effective AIDS vaccines either.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Thats pretty cool, open source is definatly the way to go. I’ve noticed a lot of BLOG software is open source, like word press etc. My friend runs http://goofyblog.net/ and thats open source I believe.
Its definatly the future. Huzzah to Nasa.
Larry
March 12th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I’m confused. I thought the US government couldn’t copyright anything and that government products were automatically in the public domain…
March 13th, 2006 at 2:12 am
Although it is still very much Windows-only, World Wind has had its source code available for at least a year now.
NASA have a space on Sourceforge for their source files: http://sourceforge.net/projects/nasa-exp
March 13th, 2006 at 3:41 am
Speaking of free, multi-platform, astronomy-related software: I have the feeling some of you (including the BA himself, judging by a posts search) don’t know about Celestia:
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html
Or is it just that my lack of understanding of how things really are in this universe made me overrate that particular piece of software? If you got 30 minutes to spare, please try it and leave a note here.
Small quote from the front page so you get an idea before clicking on…
” Welcome to Celestia… The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. [...] You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.”
March 13th, 2006 at 5:42 am
I second Apu, Celestia is a truly great piece of software. Definitely worth checking out for any astronomy geek!
As for Mr. Gates – since he *is* funding the Discovery Institute, to the tune of almost $10 million, he deserves all the bad press he can get. He’s certainly had enough previous experience with negative publicity to know what funding them entails, no matter what the overt objective may be given as.
March 13th, 2006 at 6:42 am
“If God were a programmer, would He write OSS? I think not!
”
Actually God wrote everything in Lisp, which is evident because we can easily examine the code, data structures and at least the bytecode of the very existence of everything.
(Okay, according to Roman Catholic tradition He wrote in Haskell, and Protestants insist it’s Common Lisp, and some radical offshoots suggest OCaml or even Scheme, but at least no one’s claiming anything else besides functional programming languages.)
March 13th, 2006 at 9:48 am
I thought he programmed in Binary?
March 13th, 2006 at 10:11 am
@WWWWolf: yes, there does seem to be a widespread acceptance regarding this point
http://lispers.org/
“The language God would have used to implement the Universe.†— Svein Ove Aas
“Programming in Lisp is like playing with the primordial forces of the universe. It feels like lightning between your fingertips. No other language even feels close.†— Glenn Ehrlich
http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/eternal-flame.html
“And God wrote in Lisp code
Every creature great and small.
Don’t search the disk drive for man.c,
When the listing’s on the wall.
And when I watch the lightning burn
Unbelievers to a crisp,
I know God had six days to work,
So he wrote it all in Lisp.
Yes, God had a deadline.
So he wrote it all in Lisp.”
March 13th, 2006 at 11:06 am
“God wrote everything in Lisp”
Hahaha. But wouldn’t He have to be a quantum programmer?
March 13th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Mary:
I’m not so interested in craters extant, but rather craters “potentially”…
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/