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.

Kristen Painting

The International Space Apps Challenge is a unique event unlike anything we’ve done before.  Teams of passionate people from around the world will be working together on April 21st and 22nd to create solutions to challenges for which they would have previously had no connection.  How do you prepare for an event like that?  How do you take challenges that deal with space, technology and society and prepare them to be worked by people who are simply passionate to volunteer their talents to see what they can accomplish on the challenges placed before them?

We decided this was a rather large task, and so we enlisted the help of some very dedicated Yahoos.  (Yes, Yahoos.)  On April 10, 2012, the Yahoo! Developer Network in the California Bay Area will be hosting an International Space Apps Challenge “prelaunch” event.  This will be the kickoff for the creating, building and inventing that will happen during the Apps Challenge itself.  The team of Yahoo Developers and other volunteers will take time to go through the challenges and then work in teams to develop them into strong problem statements to be worked on the weekend of the event itself.  Ultimately we hope to identify data and information that may not be supplied but can be collected prior to the Challenge, and have input for possible solution starting points.  In space terms, it’s our “flight readiness review” of the challenges.

The International Space Apps Challenge will be a collaborative event involving individuals from around the world.  We are excited that we have some of those incredibly talented individuals so close-by and excited to support the mission of the Challenge.  If you are interested in joining the Yahoo Developer Network pre-event you can visit the registration page at http://nasaeventatyahoo.eventbrite.com/