Tag: update

Libre Space Foundation joins RISC-V International as a Community Member.

At Libre Space Foundation, we are always thrilled when we join forces with organizations and initiatives promoting the open-source development methodologies.
For this, we could not be more excited to announce our membership to RISC-V International.

A few words about RISC-V

What RISC-V is

RISC-V is an open-standard, instruction set architecture (ISA).

For those not very familiar with the term, an instruction set is the set of basic instructions a processor understands. The instruction set is part of the processor’s architecture. ISAs fall under two categories: the Reduced (RISC) and the Complex (CISC).

The RISC-V instruction set is designed to facilitate a wide range of uses and, it comes under an open-source licensing scheme making it available for everyone to use.

How it started

For a CPU design to be created, many experts from different specialities are required to contribute, making the cost of such a creative high. Some commercial vendors of ISAs charge royalties. But RISC-V follows an entirely different approach.

The project was initially begun at the University of California, Berkley in 2010 and it was the result of the collaborative work and effort of many non-affiliate-with-the-University volunteers. They contributed their time, effort and know-how in creating an open-source instruction set that would be useable for practical computers.

The mindset

The aim was to come up with a non-proprietary, academically useable ISA whose usage would not require any fees and it would be versatile enough as to be integrated with any hardware or software. Instead of focusing on creating complex microarchitecture, the contributors of RISC-V focused on its usability and its successful design. The more functionality it acquired, the more popular it became. Over the years, the number of contributing entities which have been creating and releasing RISC-V hardware or operating systems supporting RISC-V has increased tremendously.

RISC-V supports small, fast and low-power implementations responding to the real needs of the users. This way, an array of designs has been built to fit as many uses as possible. By working with a good, open-source instruction set, you can focus less on software support and more on design; less on worrying about software, more on focusing on implementation. Its open intellectual property enables the modification, improvement, reusability and publication of updated, adjusted and robust designs.

Libre Space Foundation

At Libre Space Foundation, we believe that the future of humanity is Space but only experienced and explored following open-source approaches; in development, data distribution and governance too. These are principles which we apply to all our projects, both hardware and software. Though this might seem hard to implement, the truth is that it is not. Because if you take a closer look at all of our projects, you will see that they are guided by the same principles of openness and accessibility. All the tools and solutions we build are modular and reusable so as to serve as level-field, highly-reliable solutions. The hardware design, schematic design, Printed Circuit Board (PCB), firmware we create, everything is non-proprietary. Because what we aim for is creating tools which are:

  • versatile enough to respond to the users’ needs
  • powerful enough to fuel versatility
  • reliable enough to function well in extreme conditions and
  • reproducible to such an extent that gives the user the opportunity and the freedom to build what

they have in mind regardless of the types of tools they decide to use. Thus, they might as well use the tools we provide them, but they can just as easily opt for any other set of tools available. It does not matter, and their choice does not affect their creation because, from our part, the solutions provided are easily integrated. This way, functionality, modification and reusability are not obstructed nor affected in any way, as they do not rely on any proprietary solutions.

RISC-V International and Libre Space Foundation: where the two converge

For us at Libre Space Foundation, becoming a Member of RISC-V International is a great honor as we see eye-to-eye with it. This is a partnership towards making open-source even more powerful and enhancing the efforts to familiarize wider audiences with it.

Libre Space Foundation functions and operates within a niche industry, and this is particularly challenging at times. We do believe that the challenges arising can be dealt with effectively when open-sourced methodologies are applied. These should be implemented widely not only when it comes to creating Space Technologies but also on ISA too. End-to-end, open-source methods to enable modifications enhancing functionality, to bring in new users and expand the pool of active contributors.

What is more, we believe that the significant challenges that we face within the space industry can be managed successfully through the pursuit of strategic partnerships with space agencies, academic institutions and other organizations that believe in the power of openness and collaboration.

All these are part of how we see innovation, development and progress should unfold, and for this, we have joined forces with RISC-V International.

The QUBIK Project: The progress so far

Libre Space Foundation is devoted to the vision of open-source technologies in space, and for this, we often join forces with researchers, individuals, and teams who share this vision with us. One exciting project we have taken up is the QUBIK Project.

QUBIK-1 Flight-ready
QUBIK-1 flight-ready

A few words about the Project

Our love for space has brought us in collaboration with Firefly Aerospace and the DREAM payloads program. This is a global competition to host academic and educational payloads as rideshare participants on the inaugural flight of the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle. For this project, we have been working together with FOSSA Systems and AMSAT EA. We have developed two PocketQube satellites, QUBIK-1 and QUBIK-2, and PICOBUS, a PocketQube deployer.

GENESIS N, FOSSASAT-1B, GENESIS L, PICOBUS-2, PICOBUS-1, FOSSASAT-2
From top left clock-wise: GENESIS N, FOSSASAT-1B, GENESIS L, QUBIK-2, QUBIK-1, FOSSASAT-2
PICOBUS deployer with satellites integrated
PICOBUS deployer with satellites integrated

The satellites are expected to have a short lifespan of up to 3 weeks of orbit. Regardless of how short-lived they will be, though, they are built to perform Amateur radio experimentation. While those amateur radio experimentations will be taking place, the SatNOGS network of ground stations will be receiving signals from these satellites. By exploiting Doppler Variations, the network of ground stations will perform orbit determination and satellite identification as early as possible. This will utilize the benefits and the capabilities of the SatNOGS network to the fullest and demonstrate the Space Situational Awareness aspect of it.

How the Project has been progressing for the last few months

On the 12th of December 2019, the thermal vacuum test for the PICOBUS took place at Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, and on the 16th of the same month, the vibration test was conducted at the NanoSat Lab of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya. A few months later, on the 8th of February 2020, our team working at Hackerspace.gr completed the assembly of the PICOBUS and QUBIK-1 and QUBIK-2. The next day marked the bake out day for the project at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser. Lastly, on the 12th of February 2020, at the NanoSat Lab, the vibration acceptance campaign took place for PICOBUS, and so did the Protoflight campaign for QUBIK-1 and QUBIK-2. At this point in the process, the software is being developed so that the project will be able to facilitate all the amateur radio experiments that need to be carried out.

Qualification model of PICOBUS deployer getting ready for Thermal-Vacuum testing
Qualification model of PICOBUS deployer getting ready for Thermal-Vacuum testing
Qualification model of PICOBUS deployer just out of the Thermal-Vacuum chamber
Qualification model of PICOBUS deployer just out of the Thermal-Vacuum chamber
Flight model of PICOBUS deployer during vibration testing
Flight model of PICOBUS deployer during vibration testing
Deployment test of dummy mass satellites from PICOBUS deployer

QUBIK-1, QUBIK-2, and the PICOBUS deployer form an exciting project for which we have worked hard, and we have collaborated with inspiring teams. As the development draws to completion we are excited to see what this project will achieve.

If you find this project exciting too and you wish to find out more about Qubik you can follow the open-source repositories of the project.

Libre Space Activity Update 2018-12-21

Welcome New Team Members

This week Libre Space formally welcomed four new contributors to the LSF team, these are;

  • Jo Hinchliffe
  • Fabian Schmidt
  • Patrick Dohmen
  • Cees Bassa

All four of them have been contributing tirelessly to our projects, in
meaningful ways, therefore it was only right to welcome them and include them as team contributors.

Busy times in the SatNOGs community

It’s been a big week behind the scenes at SatNOGS with a migration of the database performed and a change to enable a single sign on across all SatNOGS sites. These changes went extremely well and we thank the team who worked hard to make it happen. Also this week the community have been hunting for satellites launched on the Rocketlab ELaNA launch, capturing an ARISS scheduled contact and much more! Info on these and other SatNOGS activities can be seen here on the SatNOGS page.

SDR Makerspace and Fosdem

The SDR makerspace are pleased to announce that Alexander Csete is confirmed to speak about the project at next years FOSDEM. Its great to see our SDR makerspace project develop and gain some momentum.