Open Source Software

There is a saying that for every proprietary software, there are five open source alternatives out there (*). …Ok, maybe there is not such a saying, but nowadays you really do not need to rely on closed source tools for your developments anymore. And you should not! Because only by using FOSS tools we can ensure that really everyone can reproduce your open source designs.

Here is a list in a wiki we maintain at LibreCube: https://wiki.librecube.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Software_Baseline

Be invited to post you suggestions here in this forum. Are there any FOSS tools you highly recommend for specific tasks? Are there areas where FOSS tools are missing (yet)?

(*) https://opensource.com/alternatives , https://osalt.com , https://alternativeto.net

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Here’s a list of generic software we’re using in our project:

Office and Tools

  • LaTeX
  • Overleaf — An online LaTeX editor

Project Management and Collaboration

  • OpenProject — Project management software with issue tracking, kanban-style boards and various other project management utilities
  • Mattermost— Open source Slack clone

System Engineering

  • CDP4 — Engineering data management. Unfortunately currently available for Windows only.

(Forum doesn’t allow me to add links to all entries :confused:)

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We use GMAT (General Mission Analysis Tool) in order to complete the mission analysis.

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For ADCS simulation:

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Just a quick note: The “NASA Open Source Agreement” is one of the few (only?) licenses that is OSI approved, but not FSF approved.

Another astrodynamics software Basilisk but i’m not sure about the license which is ISC Open Source License. This license is it approved from FSF?

Yeap. It is approved by the Free Software Foundation and by the Open Source Initiative. But with several notes. It is similar to the OpenBSD license. Keep in mind that several projects that used to use the ISC Open Source License have migrated to other licenses. The Publication Office of the EU suggests to use MIT-like licenses instead of the ISC.

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