Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released code.nasa.gov into “early alpha.” So if you’re a coder and an open source geek with a yen for the icy cold of outer space… dig.
The site “will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.”
The four active projects, all with GitHub links, are “OpenMDAO,” “World Wind Java,” “Vision Workbench” and “StereoPipeline.” Some of the several dozen other projects yet to go live are “Lunar Mapper v1,” “ROBUS-2: A fault-tolerant broadcast communication system for modular avionics” and “The Core Flight Executive (cFE) Version 6.0.”
The site, run by NASA’s Nick Skytland, currently contains the project list and links, a guide and a forums link (but no forums yet).
I agree with The Atlantic‘s Alexis Madrigal that it’s “a far cry from astronautdom.”
“It beats watching reruns of Star Trek: TNG”? As if. But it is a way to materially contribute to the success of nation’s space program during a time when it seems to need the help. All the watching in the world pales pretty quickly when you’ve had the opportunity to get your hands on something that you really love and help it grow.
