Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Space

"Space, the final code frontier..." with the General Mission Analysis Tool from open.NASA

Greg Duncan — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Today's Wild Wednesday project is an open source project governed by NASA, via open.NASA. This is a large open source C++ project that lets you run your own space missions, how cool is that? We're talking real space missions, not a game or like, but real, well simulated real, missions.

GMAT - General Mission Analysis Tool

What is GMAT?
The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is a space trajectory optimization and mission analysis system developed by NASA and private industry in the spirit of the NASA Vision. GMAT contains new technology and is a testbed for future technology development. To satisfy NASA's mandate and maximize technology transfer, GMAT is an open source software system licensed under the NASA Open Source Agreement.
The GMAT Mission
Put simply, the goal of the GMAT project is to develop new space trajectory optimization and mission design technology by working inclusively with ordinary people, universities, businesses, and other government organizations, and to share that technology in an open and unhindered way. GMAT is a free and open source software system: free for anyone to use in development of new mission concepts or to improve current missions, freely available in source code form for enhancement or further technology development.

General Mission Analysis Tool

Late last month, the Goddard-led GMAT team unveiled the General Mission Analysis Tool R2012a, the latest in a line of beta feature-development releases that we’ve been putting out for the past five years. This is an important milestone for the project: earlier this year our team switched almost entirely to validation, documentation, and QA in preparation for our first production-quality release, currently scheduled for early next year. R2012a represents a feature-complete preview of that release.
The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is a space trajectory simulation, analysis, and optimization system developed by a team made up of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and private industry partners. It is developed as open source under the NASA Open Source Agreement: not only is the source code for each release available for download, but the primary development repository is hosted publicly at SourceForge.net. Here at GSFC, it’s been used as a primary or secondary design tool on many of our most exciting missions: LCROSS, ARTEMIS, LRO, MMS, OSIRIS, and others. And externally, it’s been used by entities as varied as the Air Force Research Lab, Iowa State University, and the European Space Agency. Contributors to this release included NASA GSFC civil servants, Thinking Systems Inc., and A.I. Solutions.
The R2012a release offers some exciting improvements from the last year of development:
Ground track plot: GMAT can now show a two-dimensional ground track of your spacecraft on any planet or celestial body you choose.
Orbit Designer: Now you can design an (Earth-centered) orbit as easily as choosing a type and a small set of defining parameters. For example, a geostationary orbit can now be created with just one click.
Preview features: We’ve included previews of an eclipse locator feature, which can detect when a spacecraft will enter and exit shadow regions, and of a C-language interface to GMAT’s modeling features.
Many others: This version of GMAT includes many smaller improvements to its modeling capabilities, performance, and usability.

Here's links to more information and details

Wiki: live documentation
Forum: community and developer support
SourceForge project page: downloads and source code
Blog: project news and updates
Plugins Repository: externally-developed plugins repository
Plugins and Extensions Blog: tips and updates about GMAT plugin development

Let's look at some screenshots;

And as I mentioned it's open source (and includes a VS2010 Solution and such)...

What's a nice touch is that there's a pretty darn complete PDF on getting this source to compile for you with VS2010, from the Compiling GMAT wiki page;

Compiling GMAT using Visual Studio 2010

This document describes the steps needed to build GMAT using Visual Studio 2010 (VS2010). The instructions start with a fresh installation of VS2010, provide directions for installing wxWidgets, and finally for building GMAT.
1 Introduction
The General Mission Analysis Tool, GMAT, is a space trajectory optimization and mission analysis system developed by NASA and private industry in the spirit of the NASA Vision. GMAT contains new technology and is a testbed for future technology development. To satisfy NASA’s mandate and maximize technology transfer, GMAT is an open source software system licensed under the NASA Open Source Agreement. Interested parties are encouraged to use GMAT to plan spacecraft missions, to build the system when they have requirements for features not yet included in GMAT, and to contribute new capabilities to the system either through direct contributions to the code base or through plugin libraries.
This document describes the steps a new developer takes to set up a build environment for GMAT using Microsoft’s Visual Studio development system. The instructions were written using Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition, and validated using both the Express Edition and the Professional Edition. The following instructions assume that the developer is running a Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 based computer. Separate instructions are available for users building GMAT with the Gnu Compiler Collection (gcc) on Windows, Mac, or Linux based computers.
The following sections describe installation of the compiler, folder arrangements and code used in the GMAT build files, preliminary steps necessary to collect and build the libraries GMAT needs, and the build steps for GMAT itself. The document concludes with instructions for plugin libraries that GMAT uses to interface with MATLAB and the MATLAB Optimization toolbox, to perform estimation (the estimation plugin is a preview of capabilities still in development), and the VF13ad optimizer (core code available separately).

Now this project is not for the faint of heart, and the source really is meant for rocket scientists, but if you're looking for a project that's probably outside your comfort zone, this one might just be it...

To Space[Apps] and beyond!

Greg Duncan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Today's Mobile Monday post is by far the most "mobile" we've ever been. Hard to get more mobile than space apps. The cool thing about these projects (I mean besides their being space apps, hard to get cooler than that!) is that many of these projects are open source/source available.

There should be a project here for just about space-dev-geek...

100+ Reasons #SpaceApps Made a Difference

The International Space Apps Challenge, held on 21-22 April 2012, was a very productive event. 100+ solutions were developed in less than 48 hours, and although a few teams are still submitting their solutions to the website, we wanted to provide a summary of the 100+ reasons what you did at the event made a difference! We have listed out all unique solutions submitted below, in alphabetical order, and included a one or two sentence elevator-pitch description of each. We have also included a link to the solution page if you are interested in finding out more information about the solution, want to view or download the code, share a comment, contact the team, or in some cases view a demo or prototype of the solution itself. If you are one of the participants and would like to improve the description we have for your project, please email us your updates at coreteam@spaceappschallenge.org.
Each location had the opportunity to nominate up to two winning solutions for consideration in the Global Judging process. The solutions there were nominated are identified as well. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to one of the solutions below – the results truly speak for themselves.

Here's just a few of the 101 that stood out for me;

7. Beam Be Up To A Satellite! – Space Checkin (Virtual)

A spaceobject checkin game that visualizes the nearest satellites overhead and provides points and badges for each check-in.

22. Electronic Foosball Solution (Nairobi, Kenya)

A solution to display the results of a Foosball game digitally using a web client, motion sensors and an arduino board. The display can also be used as a countdown display for anything (such as a rocket launch).

26. Exoapi.com (New York City, USA) (Nominated for Global Judging)

ExoAPI is an ongoing project that extends the accessibility of exoplanetary data by providing an easy to use RESTful API.

58. NASA-Ex (Virtual)

An 3d solar system exploration tool that uses C# ASP.NET MVC3 for a backend to interface with HORIZON data over telnet, Three.js to do the WebGL rendering, HTML5 and CSS3.

101. Ze-Api (French For “The API”) (Nairobi, Kenya)

An API that converts inaccessible NASA data into popular formats used by developers, by converting Json data XML, YAML and a better structured JSON data.

Fly Me To the Moon

Larry Larsen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:11:00 GMT

40 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. set down on the surface of the moon (with Michael Collins waiting up top) achieving the dream of billions of humans who came before them. Neil was the shutterbug of the mission and took a number great pictures despite the brutal conditions (moon dust is like talcum powder, try getting that off your lens with your thickest gloves on.)

What happens when you take some of the best images from the Apollo program and feed them into Photosynth? That's what I wanted to find out. Here is a Photosynth from images taken off from the Apollo 17 Command Module's 28th Revolution around the moon. After it loads, hold the 'CTRL' key to see the point cloud, Photosynth has created a 3D model from the images. If you press the 'a' key you can see the arc of the orbit from the side. These images are very high res so use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

Now for Apollo 11. Before looking at these synths increase the Photosynth interface size ('f' key), you might want to put on some Major Tom or Dark Side of the Moon too. I spent hours looking at this synth after making it. It's an amazing way to explore man's greatest destination. I created some highlights to help you navigate around the really cool stuff. The first is a particularly synthy set of images. Next is the iconic footprint image, you can click on it to toggle to the before picture. Until I synthed these photos I didn't even know there was a picture of the surface where the first footprint would be. The next highlight is a view looking out of Eagle at the flag, and then Eagle from the outside. I highlighted an image that didn't map to any others that when zoomed in looks like a folded pair of sequined socks, no doubt part of the Moonwalker conspiracy theory.

I also made an Apollo 11 synth that is just 3D anaglyph images, you'll need some Red/Blue glasses. It's best viewed with grid view. Here are the 3D images from Apollo 12.

Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, has the best pictures. By 17, mission planners have image stitching on the mind, there are hundreds of overlapping photos. For this synth I used 1022 images, a mixture of black and white and color. My machine crunched this synth all night long and by morning gave me this amazing collection.

Scroll down for a list of Photosynth keyboard shortcuts.

Apollo 11 Campsite

Apollo 12 Campsite

Apollo 17 Campsite

Apollo 11 3D Images

Apollo 12 3D Images

Apollo 17 - 28th Revolution

Photosynth Viewer Keyboard Shortcuts

Zooming and Neighbors

Scroll wheel	Scrolling the mouse wheel zooms you in or out. The zooming is centered around your current mouse position.
+ or -	Zoom in or out around the center of the window.
← or →	Move left or right to a neighboring photo, when one is available.
↑ or ↓	Move inwards or outwards to a neighboring photo, when one is available.
u or j	Move up or down to a neighboring photo, when one is available.
Tours and History

Spacebar	Go to next photo in the spatial tour.
Shift-spacebar	Go to next photo in alphabetical order by filename. (Depending on your camera, this is usually shooting order.)
. (period)	Go to next photo in alphabetical order by filename. (Depending on your camera, this is usually shooting order.)
, (comma)	Go to previous photo in alphabetical order by filename.
Z	Go to the last image you were on. (Like Back in a Web browser.)
Z	Undo z. (Like Forward in a Web browser.)
Fun with the Point Cloud

Ctrl	Holding the control key down temporarily hides all photos allowing you to see the point cloud in all its glory. Dragging a halo with the control button down lets you spin around the entire point cloud. Try it!
P	Switches among three modes: points, images, both.
Useful Shortcuts

Enter	Center the current image
F	Toggle full-screen
~	Toggle between 2D and 3D
M	Go to the next 3D group in the synth
Y	Toggles world-up verses image-up. This is useful when Photosynth has trouble working out which way is up.
Free Navigation (Only in 3D view)

A	Strafe left
D	Strafe right
W	Move forward
S	Move backward
E	Move up
C	Move down
L	Rotate left
‘	Rotate right
[	Rotate up
;	Rotate down

WorldWide Telescope: Equinox Release

Sarah Perez — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:21:00 GMT

WorldWide Telescope (WWT), the downloadable software from Microsoft Research which lets you explore the universe, has certainly lived up to its pre-launch hype. As of today, the WWT has 1.5 million active users – that’s not downloads, mind you, but people actively using the software on a regular basis. If you’re not one of those users yet, you’re definitely going to want to check out the WWT now. The latest release includes double the amount of data that the former version offered and has added a ton of new features like Universe View, a 3D Solar System, animated tours, and more.

This new version of WWT, dubbed the “Equinox Release,” was unveiled at PDC where it was demonstrated to the crowd. However, you can’t truly grasp the power and marvel of this software until you try it for yourself…especially now that it has gone 3D!

In the Equinox edition of WWT, you can explore our solar system in 3D. That means you can float through the rings of Saturn, spin around the moons of Jupiter, watch the shadows the moon casts on the Earth during an eclipse, and even see just how far we are from the center of the Milky Way.

You can record tours of this 3D Solar System, too, using WWT’s feature which lets you author guided looks at parts of the universe using voiceovers, slides, text, and images. The difference is that now, those tours can be animated. Text and inserted images can spin, expand, contract, fade, move, etc. within a slide. Want to see an example? Try this Apollo tour created by Dinoj Surendran, a Data Curator at WWT.

Also, thanks to the 2008 Phoenix Lander mission, there are more panoramas of Mars now. You’ll find those combined with the Cornell Pancams on the NASA/JPL Spirit and Opportunity Rovers and the Pathfinder missions. Some are also in 3D.

In addition to Mars, there is new data that includes hundreds of new images from the Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer space telescopes, as well as from renowned astrophotographer Jack Newton. There are also new surveys in the ultraviolet (GALEX) and gamma-ray (Fermi) domain, an updated set of sixteen surveys about the Cosmic Microwave Background from the WMAP Science Team, and panoramas stitched at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Ames Center from the original Apollo astronauts’ photographs. And if that’s not enough data for you, you can upload your own using some of the WWT’s provided utilities.

The update also includes some bug fixes and features for power users (like cone searching with NED (NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database) returning results as VOTables, textures on Saturnian and Uranian moons, Earth globes where you can see polar regions, panoramas of telescopes at Mauna Kea). But there are some features for casual users like myself, too. These include a full-screen mode that I can enter and leave using F11 and the ability to save the screen I’m viewing as Desktop Wallpaper (sweet!).

You can download the WWT from here.

See What Brought Scoble to Tears

Larry Larsen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:51:00 GMT

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope project was unveiled yesterday at TED, and you can see the video here (high res download link here.) Tears aside, this is a big undertaking combining terabytes of data from satellites and telescopes that will change the way children, teachers, scientists, astronomers -- and you -- view our universe. Visit the WWT site at www.worldwidetelescope.org.

This was a project very dear to Jim Gray, who set sail on a voyage of his own in January 2007 and was lost at sea.

Welcome to Mars

Laura Foy — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:20:00 GMT

Space exploration is a hot topic (again) that has even seen a large amount of attention in the Presidential campaign. Whether or not you believe there is life on other planets is not the issue. What matters is - can HUMANS be the life on other planets in years to come? One group that is dead certain we will be is The Mars Society. I went to their 10th National Convention to learn more about the exploration and colonization of Mars...and to meet some very interesting characters.

The Shuttle Backflip Photosynth

Larry Larsen — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:06:00 GMT

You may have noticed a few new Photosynth collections going up recently. The latest one was the Shuttle on the way to the launch pad, which was not only one of the most interesting collections yet, but also logistically impressive (apparently the Feds tend not to let choppers fly near billion dollar spacecraft as a rule.)

But here's a Photosynth you might have missed. During the docking process, STS-118 did a backflip so the underside could be extensively photographed by astronauts in the International Space Station. That's when they found the 3" chunk of important tile missing. A Photosynth of this maneuver was constructed and you can check it out here. The imagery is good enough you can almost read the writing on each tile in some pictures.

Layman’s guide to getting Windows Vista

Paul Foster — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:21:00 GMT

The purpose of this video is to explain Windows Vista to my Mum and Dad, and help them (and others like them) upgrade or buy a new PC with confidence.

The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can be found here.

Be warned this is another of my experimental videos

Free T-Mobile HotSpot access for Vista users

JD Lewin — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:57:00 GMT

There are already plenty of reasons to upgrade to Windows Vista, but if you need another, how about free WiFi access? T-Mobile and their pink planet is offering Vista users access to their HotSpot network. The details can be found at Sky Surprise, which features at least 7 minutes of entertainment courtesy of Yuri and Sergey, Soviet Cosmoauts and Vista hucksters. Good luck decoding the mysteries of deep space, and remember that, in space, "No one can resist the smell of toast."