In 2007, a small group of people began an intentional, collaborative experiment in open, transparent, and direct communication about your space program. Our goal was to enable your direct participation in exploring and contributing to NASA’s mission.

Many of us have since begun new adventures. This site will remain as an archive of the accomplishments of the openNASA experiment.

Introducing the International Space Apps Challenge

By Nick Skytland, 09 March 2012
 Nick Skytland

Today we are proud to announce the latest developments for the upcoming International Space Apps Challenge! Last September, we announced that we would be hosting the two-day event as part of the United States’ domestic commitments to the Open Government Partnership. Since then, we have been hard at work planning the collaborative technology development event during which citizens from around the world will work together to solve current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need.

The International Space Apps Challenge will be held on all seven continents on April 21-22, 2012. Locations in which events are currently planned to be held include San Francisco, US; Tokyo, Japan; Melbourne and Canberra, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Exeter and Oxford, UK; Nairobi, Kenya; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

The challenges for the event address both 1) strategic exploration needs and 2) strategic social need, and are organized into four categories including: 1) open source software, 2) open hardware, 3) data visualization, and 4) citizen science platforms. We’ll be adding 2-5 new challenges per week to the site between now and the event, so check back often to join the project teams and related discussion.

We’ve been very fortunate to work with a number of government entities and other organizations around the world in preparation of today’s announcement. We are truly thankful for their support.

We anticipate a lot of interest in the event, so makes sure to register as soon as possible!  If your organization is interested in planning an event in your city or offering a challenge to be worked on, please contact us as soon as possible.