NASA Announces Space Apps Challenge

coondoggie writes with an article in Network World about a development challenge put forth by NASA. From the article: "NASA said it would host an open source-based application competition that it hopes will deliver a new generation of software that can address space, weather, and economic issues. NASA said it will coordinate with other interested space agencies around the world on an International Space Apps Challenge that will encourage scientists and concerned citizens from all seven continents — and in space — to create, build, and invent new applications that can address world-class issues."

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[tehcyder]

Your proof of concept doesn't really work.

So, farmville?

[loftwyr]

I can see it now, a Moon Farmville that can address issues in growing things on social networks outside of earth's atmosphere! I'll be rich!

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[rgbatduke]

Um, I think that they are more interested in software to help predict the weather in Farmville. So you'd better start working on a virtual Earth simulator that can be virtually photographed by a virtual satellite to make virtual predictions about the virtual weather. And don't forget to include the effects of global warming and the inevitable flooding of Farmville. And make sure that you make the virtual sun go nova sometime in 2012 so that the weather report is "Hot, very hot" as Farmville is turned int

SBD without the D

[Kamiza Ikioi]

Nobody wants to fart in space in a closed capsule, it taxes the air scrubbers too much. So, best give them beano and give them a fart app to enjoy the "comforts of home."

Penguins...In...Space...!

[mrflash818]

;D

NASA

[slapout]

R ember back in the good ole days, when NASA was actually about sending people into space?

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[Microlith]

Indeed, we should never ever venture anywhere that isn't perfectly hospitable to us. It's just too dangerous and too scary.

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[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It isn't about being dangerous and scary(history suggests that there's always somebody, usually many somebodies, expendable if you care about a project enough...), it's about not engaging in largely pointless white-elephant projects at the expense of actual science and engineering. Because robots are better at space than humans, they tend to allow much more of the mission to be about space, rather than about coddling them until they can land again.

The only thing you'd really need humans in space for is d

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[BJ_Covert_Action]

You know what doesn't mix well? People and trans-oceanic travel. We are not sea-water consumption tolerant, solar radiation tolerant, or even high-moisture air tolerant (you wouldn't believe how many cases of hypothermia can be brought on by a cool breeze and a high humidity level!). In fact, all that extra stuff you have to take with a person just so they don't starve or dehydrate is a lot of dead weight (and if your boat is loaded up with too much dead weight, it will definitely sink!). On top of all that

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[jank1887]

Sailing West to get to the East: a risky proposition, but with a potentially huge and practically realizable commercial payoff. The discovery of a New World was the result of a lack of knowledge about what was really out that way.

Putting humans into space: a risky proposition, with no current model for commercial payoff. Sufficient knowledge of what's out there, and our ability to get further knowledge sans manned spaceflight, reduce or even eliminate the need to get people out there until some aspect of th

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[GameboyRMH]

If they had robots that could be sent out for a fraction of the cost to scout for new worlds before sending people, I'm sure they would have preferred that option.

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[rgbatduke]

Well, yes, but the point of the previous document is that we aren't even thinking of sending humans into space to actually live, to colonize. At least not yet.

Much as I adore the idea of colonizing the entire Universe, putting humans on each and every planet and surrounding stars with Dyson spheres and filling them and eventually using advanced nuclear technology to transform nearly all of the mass that isn't actually in stars into human flesh in the form of exponentially more babies, it really isn't fa

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[tehcyder]

Your analogy fails because there is no conceivable pay off for the cost involved. We're not going to find Martians willing to trade exotic metals for the equivalent of glass beads.

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[chemicaldave]

NASA cannot send people in space when there are major issues on Earth.

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[tehcyder]

Reliable, improved and more-efficient space tech and the technology created to solve those problems could go a long way in helping with our more earthly problems.

That's why I've entered my "cold fusion" app. As long as you keep your phone plugged in you get a flashlight that never runs out.

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[swanzilla]

Right. Because Earth has been free of major issues from 1961 until now...

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[Taty'sEyes]

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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[itchythebear]

No, NASA has never been about just "sending people to space". They accomplished their original goal of winning the space race and now their official mision statement is "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research".

I'd say that this is exactly the kind of stuff NASA should be doing, they are saving time and money by not doing all this research themselves and at the same time (hopefully) promoting collaboration between scientists and space enthusiasts all over the w

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Mission-creep

[Caerdwyn]

Economics? So now an agency that can't manage its budget is getting into the economics modeling biz? This is like the CDC deciding that they are authoritative and credible to make social policy on the Second Amendment.

License

[MonsterTrimble]

They say open source, but do they mean BSD, GPLv2, GPLv3, Apache or something else entirely. Not trying to be an ass, just want to know.

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[Bill_the_Engineer]

NASA Open Source Licensing [opensource.org]

Details?

[razvan784]

I'm sorry, but the link to NASA's page currently points to just a generic text, sprinkled with big words and phrases, that really doesn't say anything. Details please?

I've Got a Couple of App Ideas

[LifesABeach]

1. Going and getting a bucket of Helium3 from the surface of the Moon

2. Retrieve a Comet, and place it on the Moon.

3. (Optional) Rewrite Angry Birds, use likenesses of @$$hole$ that get in the way of man going into space; it's for the children.

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[GameboyRMH]

This costs almost nothing. I'd guess they're doing a super-low-cost project *because* they're underfunded.

Lost in Space

[PopeRatzo]

I think it needs to be said that any "space app" should not be based on a microtransaction model.

And for god's sake, it had better be open source.

I'm confused...

[tekrat]

What does NASA have to do with space?

I thought they officially gave up in that area, and now it's just a jobs program for contractors.