Collaborative Space Travel and Research Team (CSTART)

"Looks like the concept of Open Source space programs is starting to snowball." — Eric Hunting

Space exploration, by anyone, for everyone

We are a non-government, non-profit, collaborative space agency engaged in research and exploration of the solar system. We are based on an open model, and depend on the collaboration of volunteers located around the world. You can read more about us or just get involved in the project and help us reach the moon!

This looks like the sort of group that we should keep our eyes on. We share common goals and interests. We could also assist in their work and they may me interested in assisting us in ours. So hear is a link to their RSS feed if anyone is interested in tracking their progress: CSTART feed.

Open Source hardware - Sustainable development

Something which is often discussed on the LUF Blog is new and interesting uses of the open source way of collaborating with each other. For the last year I have been working on an open source project which brings together hardware designs, software and knowledge, all under an open source umbrella. The project is called Akvo and is about bringing knowledge about sustainable water and sanitation solutions to people who are trying to realize water and sanitation for those that have none.

Why is this important? About 1 billion people do not have access to safe water to drink and more than 2.5 billion people do not have adequate sanitation facilities. This causes huge problems and massive suffering. Millions of children die every year to curable diseases like diarrhea, which happen because of poor access to water and sanitation.