Lunar Numbat: Space Exploration with Open Software and Hardware

Presenter(s): Luke Weston
URL: http://2011.linux.conf.au/programme/s...

Lunar Numbat is an open-source space technology collaboration which was formed by a group of people from across Australia and New Zealand in 2009, with the intention of developing innovative, low-cost, open-source hardware and software solutions for space technology. Lunar Numbat hopes to encourage Australian and international innovation in space science and increase the accessibility of space development.

The project was initiated in 2009 by Marco Ostini, and a review of Lunar Numbat work was presented at linux.conf.au by Jon Oxer in 2010. Since then, however, some significant milestones have been accomplished.

The focus of our research and development at present is in three main areas: rocket engine throttle control avionics, radar altimeters, and compression techniques for the transmission of high-definition video and still images from spacecraft.

Lunar Numbat is collaborating with the Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI), and with White Label Space, a team competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize.

We are providing ASRI with innovative, low-cost open source solutions to meet the needs of Australiaâ s own in-house space launch vehicle research and development. In the process, weâ re making a positive contribution back to Australian space research, which is greatly in need of Australiaâ s support.

Weâ re now completing the development and testing of the CAN-interfaced propellant valve throttle controllers we have developed for AUSROC 2.5, a powerful liquid-fuelled sounding rocket developed as part of ASRIâ s AUSROC program. These throttle controllers embody a combination of open electronic hardware, open-source embedded software, and some open mechanical design.

This hardware and software which we have already developed and are developing will, in the not-too-distant future, be firing this rocket to an altitude of 20 kilometers.

Weâ re also in the early stages of developing a radar altimeter for White Label Space (WLS), which may incorporate software-defined-radio technology.

Inspired by the design information we have access to for the radar altimeter on the Chandryaan-1 Moon Impact Probe, weâ re working to develop a simple, low-cost C-band radar altimeter with the altitude range and precision required for WLSâ s plans of a lunar landing.

Also for WLS, weâ re developing technologies for rapid, on-the-fly video and image compression, suitable for the transmission of high-quality images from spacecraft where limited amounts of communications bandwidth are available. In particular, weâ re investigating JPEG2000 and MJPEG2000 (Motion JPEG)-based systems.

Linux, open hardware, open software development, open documentation, open standards, and community-driven collaboration all have an important role in meeting Lunar Numbatâ s challenging goal of delivering flexible, useful space technologies at a relatively low cost.

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