I’m a big fan of the acronyms NASA and SL and was really interested to read the article on NASA’s SecondLife Presentation of their work on Synthetic Worlds. (via Slashdot)

The details are fairly light, but it seems as though NASA is building a VR game on space exploration (remember Microsoft’s Space Simulator, or the free and open-source Orbiter?). I wonder why NASA is rebuilding their own engine rather then picking up and using existing simulators (like Open-SESSAME) on top of the Unreal graphics/physics engine.

I also wonder if, given their presentation venue in SL, if they are considering integration of their space simulator with SecondLife itself. Apparently right now it is possible in SL to have some sort of orbital platform. But imagine if they actually opened up Space Stations, or other planets/moons for exploration/colonization.

I have a poster at the Space Mission Challenges in IT conference hosted by NASA JPL. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the 4-day conference, despite it being an incredibly large number of amazing projects.

In my place, Katie Betchold has done a great job getting my rather large 3′x4′ poster out there, hung up, and my in fact be presenting it today for the 2-minute poster precis. She is totally awesome!

If you don’t, in fact, find yourself in Pasadena, California at the conference, then you can virtually check out my poster (1.8 MB pdf). The accompyaning paper should be in a future IEEE publication available at local newstands everywhere.

The title of the paper is: “The Development and Use of Open-source Spacecraft Simulation and Control Software for Education and Research”, and primarily covers the experiences of developing Open-SESSAME spacecraft modeling and simulation framework, its use at the Space Systems Simulation Laboratory at Virginia Tech, and by various researchers around the world.

My paper, titled “The Development and Use of Open Source Spacecraft Simulation and Control Software for Education and Research” has been accepted to the Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology to be presented in at NASA JPL in Pasedena, California this coming July.

It primarily will present the original development as well as current users & users of the Open-SESSAME Framework (Open-Source Spacecraft Simulation And Modeling Environment).

I know there are some space-geeks that check out the blog, I’d like to ask for any comments or feedback you have on the use of open-source software in spacecraft research, simulation, education, operations, and/or analysis. Software packages, experiences, desired features/functionality in software and even open-source hardware.

You can either leave a comment on the site, or email me at simulation@highearthorbit.com.

If anyone has wondered why the site is called HighEarthOrbit, it is because of my long-years in training, and fascination with, all things space-related. In the past couple of years, I’ve found myself deeply entrenched in very computer-related things, stemming from my deep immersion in building a large, open-source spacecraft simulation framework for my master’s thesis, as well as working at another space simulation company for a short time. The result being I do dynamics and engineering at my day job, but a lot of computer programming, web stuff in my spare time.

Well, I’ve been feeling the pull to go back to spacecraft simulation for my “fun time” activity (yes, I am a geek), so I’ve been reacquainting myself with the current state of space simulation software and toolkits.

• NASA’s current open-source projects

NASA apparently has large support now for open-source software, which makes great sense considering they are a government entity. World Wind has gotten a lot of publicity as it is like an open-source, and very pretty, version of GoogleEarth.

Check out WW2D for a truly cross-platform version of World Wind for those of you running a nice OS (such as Linux, Mac OS X)

• Mission Simulation Facility

MSF is a large scale simulation framework utilitizing HLA and various other packages run by NASA Ame’s. The dynamics engine employs ODE - the open-source dynamics engine as well as ROAMS.

• Open-source linux operating system for onboard spacecraft use

A set of tools, software, and resources for designed, scrapped, and flying spacecraft missions using Linux as their onboard operating system. LinuxJournal has an article, Linux on a Small Satellite by Christoper Huffine that gives a very good and in-depth description of experiences using Linux onboard.

• Hobby Space’s long list of simulator hardware & software

This set of pages has a huge list of software, hardware, resources, and more you may need if you want to build your own shuttle simulator or more. It includes links to most of the major games that have been space simulation and still ongoing ones.

Blogs

What would a modern set of references be without the requisite blogs:

• Music of the Spheres
• Fly me to the Moon

… or, “Why it’s odd when people do for free what you do for a job.”

I just read about Real Virtual Car, a group of guys took a wrecked (correct spelling, unlike the original Make posting) car and turned it into a driving simulator. They’re using NASCAR racer, the Phidget interfaces, and some racing wheels. Very nice job.

However, we do the same thing, except probably for a *little* more money.

It’s amazing how much video games fudge reality to make a game more ‘fun’ than ‘real’. Of course, I myself wouldn’t necessarily plop down $60 on a game to replay reality. Dammit, I want cool jumps, fast take off, and flipping collisions!

They also included a link to a free racing simulator, Racer. I’ll have to compile this up and see how it runs.