Applicability of the Open Source Software Methodology to Space Thermal Engineering
ESA Contract 17162/03/NL/CP
Contacts
Scope
The objective of this study was to investigate the state of the art in Open Source Software development, and how it could be applied to the development of a European Space Thermal Analysis tool. The main activities of the study were:
- to review suitable OSS packages, determine whether there were particular licence requirements or restrictions, establish whether they were still under active development, and estimate the size of the user base.
- to develop a prototype tool using open source components.
- to establish a project web site where members of the community would be able to download the source code for the prototype tool, and interact to contribute to further development of the web site and tool.
Material available for download
The source code for the prototype tool is not available for download for two reasons:
- The internal data structures of the tool were based on a preliminary snapshot of the STEP-TAS protocol and supporting software libraries. Since that snapshot was taken, the protocol has undergone significant revision, and extensive changes have been made to the libraries. Other software initiatives are now in progress which use the latest versions, so distributing the outdated protocol and source code would only lead to confusion, and the effort to upgrade the prototype tool would take resources away from those other initiatives.
- As mentioned in the final report, one outcome of the study was the identification of a lack of a suitable licence agreement for the distribution of the software. There was a conflict between the existing open source licences used by external packages that required “free” distribution, and the terms and conditions associated with the funding of the contract. So although a ThermOSS web site was established during the execution of the contract, access was restricted to the developers within the project. The web site has closed since the end of the contract.
The following documents are available for download from this web site:
| Document Id | Title |
|---|---|
| ThermOss_Final_Report | Executive Summary and Final Report |
| Therm-OSS-001 | Software Development Guidelines |
| Therm-OSS-002 | Review of existing OSS for orbit propagation and raytracing/radiosity |
| Therm-OSS-003 | Survey of suitable OSS † |
| Therm-OSS-004 | Definition of Target Application, Intrastructure and Product |
| Therm-OSS-005 | User Requirements Document / Software User Manual |
| Therm-OSS-006 | Software Specification Manual |
| Therm-OSS-007 | Detailed Design Document |
| Therm-OSS-008 | ThermOSS Web Application – User Manual |
| Therm-OSS-009 | ThermOSS Web Application – Administrator Manual |
| Therm-OSS-010 | ThermOSS Web Application – Installation Manual |
| Therm-OSS-011 | ThermOSS Web Application – User Requirements Document |
| Therm-OSS-012 | ThermOSS Web Application – Configuration Manual |
| Therm-OSS-013 | Configuration list of deliverable codes and software transfer document |
† Please note that an updated survey will be provided as one of the deliverables of another project, expected at the end of 2006
The downloads require a valid username and password, subject to the terms and conditions outlined below. To obtain a username and password, please register here with your name, occupation, organisation and the area: Thermoss. You should receive an answer within 7 working days.
- ThermOSS-docs.zip (Everything in one 8.7 Mb file)
- Browse the contents
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