Open Source and Free Software
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Volume 31, Number 3 AIAA Houston Section www.aiaa-houston.org January / February 2006 Open Source and Free Software [Cover Image: Stellarium sky chart software] AIAA Houston Horizons January / February 2006 Page 1 January/February 2006 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S From the Editor 3 HOUSTON Chair’s Corner 4 Horizons is a bi-monthly publication of the Houston section A Survey of Selected Open Source and Freely Available Software for 5 of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Engineering and Science, and for Education, Home, and Work Jon S. Berndt Dinner Lecture Summary Report: ARES Mars Airplane 10 Editor Student Report: Mars Sample Return Mission Design at 12 AIAA Houston Section Texas A&M University Executive Council Mars Society of Houston Hosts 4Frontiers 13 Steven R. King AIA Releases Year-End Aerospace Industry Statistics 14 Chair Staying Informed 14 Dr. Jayant Ramakrishnan Chair-Elect Membership Page 15 T. Sophia Bright Lunch & Learn Summary Report: 16 Past Chair Where Did That Equation Come From? Dr. Syri Koelfgen Lunch & Learn Summary Report: NanoMaterials for Space Exploration 17 Secretary Local Industry News and Announcements 18 Dr. Brad Files Treasurer 2006 Congressional Visits Day 20 John Keener Tim Propp Outreach and Education 21 Vice-Chair, Operations Vice-Chair, Technical Calendar 22 Operations Technical Cranium Cruncher 23 Dr. John Valasek Dr. Al Jackson Odds and Ends 24 Dr. Rakesh Bhargava Dr. Zafar Taqvi Elizabeth Blome William West Upcoming Conference Presentations by Houston Section Members 26 Joy Conrad King Ellen Gillespie Daniel Nobles Dr. Michael Lembeck AIAA Local Section News 27 Nicole Smith Aaron Morris Dr. Douglas Schwaab Dr. Kamlesh Lulla Laura Slovey Padraig Moloney Michael Begley Bill Atwell Jon Berndt, Editor Andy Petro Steve King Gary Brown Gary Cowan Paul Nielsen Amy Efting Councilors Brett Anderson Elizabeth Blome Ellen Gillespie This newsletter is created by members of the Houston section. Opinions expressed herein other than Glenn Jenkinson by elected Houston section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent the Barry Tobias position of AIAA or the Houston section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the comments of Dr. Merri Sanchez individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position of AIAA, Douglas Yazell NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. Please address all newsletter correspondence to Albert Meza the Editor:[email protected] Mike Oelke JR Reyna Cover: Screenshot of the open source Stellarium sky charting software in action. More information at: www.aiaa-houston.org/orgchart AIAA Houston Horizons January / February 2006 Page 2 Page 3 From the Editor Open Source Software JON S. BERNDT Do the phrases “Open Source Soft- quality of a mature, widely-used complies with any of a myriad of ware” (OSS) and “free software” open source project.” Additionally, specifications, processes, and other bring to mind applications that are the support provided by the OSS bureaucratic bottlenecks can make perhaps put together somewhat developers was faster than that pro- OSS more costly to use than com- loosely – maybe applications that vided by the commercial vendors. mercial software. The article reads crash periodically? Or, does it sug- With mature OSS projects, the de- as if a lawyer wrote it. In fact, one of gest that an application is not com- velopers themselves are normally the three authors is the Associate mercially viable, so that it is merely available via email and supports lists, General Counsel for Intellectual given away? The views presented in and are typically very responsive. Property for a major aerospace cor- the previous two sentences (though poration. not so prevalent, anymore) are giv- NASA is not alone in government ing way to the reality of a growing awareness and acceptance of OSS. During the development of the number of OSS applications that are The U.S. DoD requires that OSS MER SAP, OSS was evaluated very good and widely used. complies with the same DoD poli- based on several criteria: cies that COTS software does. A NASA is one of the biggest users of MITRE Corporation study, “Use of - Maturity (How long has the OSS and has even written its own Free and Open-Source Software software been in development, OSS license (NOSA, the NASA (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of and how many releases have Open Source Agreement), while Defense”, concluded in 2003 that: there been?) open-sourcing a growing amount of - Longevity - How much longer software. According to the state- “… FOSS software plays a more will it last (How many developers ment at the Ames Open Source web critical role in the DoD than has are working on it, and when was page (see the Staying Informed col- generally been recognized. FOSS the last release?) umn for specific links) the motiva- applications are most important in - Flexibility (Use it the way it is tions for doing so are listed as: four broad areas: Infrastructure meant to be used. Is the develop- Support, Software Development, ment team open to suggestions?) · to increase NASA software qual- Security, and Research. One unex- ity via community peer review pected result was the degree to One does need to be careful in · to accelerate software develop- which Security depends on FOSS. evaluating the fitness of a particular ment via community contribu- Banning FOSS would remove cer- OSS project in addressing a need. tions tain types of infrastructure compo- As Jeff Norris wrote of their · to maximize the awareness and nents (e.g., OpenBSD) that currently “lessons learned”, “ … open source impact of NASA research help support network security. It components can accelerate develop- · to increase dissemination of would also limit DoD access to—and ment and cut costs, but the conse- NASA software in support of overall expertise in—the use of pow- quences of selecting the wrong com- NASA's education mission erful FOSS analysis and detection ponent can erase these benefits.” applications that hostile groups According to an article by Ann Bar- could use to help stage cyberattacks. The world of online cooperation is comb at O’Reilly’s ONLamp.com Finally, it would remove the demon- making a mark on the world in web site, OSS provided leverage to strated ability of FOSS applications many ways. In the current issue of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) to be updated rapidly in response to Time magazine, the collaborative program through the use of several new types of cyberattack. Taken to- online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is OSS products, conserving team gether, these factors imply that ban- hailed as an innovative example of resources. Despite initial concerns ning FOSS would have immediate, what a collection of individual con- by managers, it was decided that in broad, and strongly negative impacts tributions can accomplish when their case the risks were no more on the ability of many sensitive and coupled with the distribution stream hazardous than those posed by com- security-focused DoD groups to de- provided by the Internet. While mercial applications and, in fact, the fend against cyberattacks.” probably not changing the world, availability of the source code pro- OSS will continue to change the vided additional benefits. Jeff Norris Yet, one cannot be careless about software industry. With the appear- (NASA JPL) wrote on the extensive incorporating OSS in a mission criti- ance of new and innovative entre- use of OSS in the MER Science cal application. An AIAA paper preneurs in the commercial space Activity Planner software (SAP) in (“Open Source Software: Free Isn’t industry, one might even ask the the January/February 2004 issue of Exactly Cheap”) presented at the question: Hey, could something IEEE Software, (“Mission Critical Infotech@Aerospace Conference similar to the OSS paradigm be Development with Open Source last September cautioned that the applied to, say … a space program? Software: Lessons Learned”). He restrictions of the GPL, the cost of stated, “An in-house system devel- investigating the pedigree of the - JSB oped hastily will rarely approach the code, and verifying that the code AIAA Houston Horizons January / February 2006 Page 3 Page 4 Chair’s Corner STEVE KING, AIAA HOUSTON CHAIR In what almost seems as a term, which starts July 1st. doing right. flash, the first eight months These are positions were - Teamwork: There is no of my term as Chair has one can learn new and hone “I” in TEAM. flown by. The Houston Sec- their leadership skills. But - Selfless Service: Give tion has accomplished much more importantly they pro- back. since last summer ranging vide the lifeblood for the - Planning: Fail to plan, from thought provoking din- long-term success of our plan to fail. ner programs, well attended organization. We have made - Loyalty: Up, down, and lunch n’ learns, a Glider some strides in getting more across your organization. Workshop to assembling of the Section’s 1250 mem- - Perseverance: It’s not the bikes for needy children bers involved in our activi- size of the dog in the during the holidays. We ties; however, more should fight; it’s the size of the have a lot more in store for become active members, the fight in the dog. you in the coming months. kind that would be missed - Flexibility: The person Final plans are in place for and are not content with just with the most varied re- our Region IV Student Pa- having their name on a list. sponses wins. per Conference, which will We all have various de- be held at Texas A&M Uni- mands in our lives and it versity in April. Three din- can be quite a balancing act ner programs are on the at times.