space Archives - Deploy Software Solutions

COVID-19 Special Edition Hackathon, and Impact on Space Apps Ottawa 2020

2020-05-24

Space Apps Challenge – COVID-19 Special Edition

NASA will hold a virtual Covid-19 Special Edition of the Space Apps Challenge on the weekend of May 30-31. This is in addition to the annual event which will still be held in October. You will find more information about the special edition event here.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will take this opportunity to release data from MOPITT and Radarsat 2 satellites in the hope that participants across Canada and elsewhere will use them to tackle one of the Covid-19 challenges.

Space Apps Ottawa 2020: Online Only?

Our first concern is to hold our annual event in a way that is not only fun, inspiring, and educational, but safe and secure for all participants.

COVID-19 pandemic will require us to comply with new public safety regulations and bylaws and there is an enormous amount of uncertainty about what October might look like. We may not be able to physically hold this event.

Having said that – our hackathon is still a go!

The organizing committee has begun to plan for a version of this event that will be primarily virtual / online. We will provide updates when we know more.

Register now to help us plan your hackathon experience

Although event details are uncertain, it will be held October 2 to 4 as originally planned.

Please register online in order to ensure your space and allow us to provide you with the best possible experience. In addition, if you would like to assist with sponsorship, volunteering, organizing, or mentoring; or have feedback or suggestions on what a great online hackathon experience could look like, please email us at info@spaceappsottawa.com or contact me directly on LinkedIn.

We hope you will join us for another great year solving “out of this world” challenges in a fun (and now virtual) environment!

Cloud 2 LEO Deployment

2020-01-27

Project Overview

Given the dramatic rise in satellite and spacecraft launches, we foresee a need to do 'continuous' deployments while satellite and other spacecraft are in orbit.

When the code is uploaded to the satellite it must be verified and tested before and after updating. If errors occur the code must either cancel deployment or rollback to the previous version of the code.

In the space industry, code deployment is generally done via proprietary and closed-source methods, which prevents standardization, and is likely to increase development and operational cost and risk versus an open source standard.

This proprietary approach to code deployment contrasts with the software industry which has numerous standardized and open toolsets to perform these tasks (the practice of which is called “continuous integration” and “continuous delivery”).

We are therefore working with New Space partners (and others) to apply software industry practices, technologies, and processes to the space industry (particularly “continuous integration/continuous delivery”).

Project Goals & Objectives

Broadly, our intent is to build a CI/CD pipeline that will assist and be adopted by the space industry upstream segment, particularly New Space start ups or companies managing LEO satellites / constellations that are looking to standardize their code deployment practices.

Goal #1: Develop an open and standardized CI/CD process to deploy software code and data to a satellite via a (software simulated) ground station.

Objective 1 – Create a CI/CD Solution Architecture and Design

Specific: Create a CI/CD architecture and design document that describes the necessary system hardware and software components, configurations, processes, technologies and tools that will be required to deploy software code and data to a satellite in LEO in a CI/CD pipeline.
Measurable: The objective is met once a solution architecture and design document is drafted that SMEs feel is likely to lead to a successful demonstration of the CI/CD pipeline in the simulated environment (once the proposed design is implemented).
Achievable: This is a “paper-based design” exercise, based on modifying standard CI/CD processes to meet the space industry foreseeable needs.
Rewarding: The exercise will force us to think through the foreseeable issues and requirements before embarking on development and configuration work. It will likely decrease the costs and effort of the subsequent implementation. The document will also provide opportunities to develop SME and partner relationships and solicit their feedback to improve the resulting design.
Timebound: We have set a due date of Jan 31, 2020 for the first major release of the Solution Architecture and Design. We will subsequently update it on a regular basis (at least quarterly) as we begin to engage project partners (Objective 2).

Objective 2 – Engage Project Partners and Update CI/CD Solution Architecture and Design

Specific: Perform market research and outreach to enlist interested parties in providing feedback on the proposed design. Update the CI/CD design and get approval from project partners.
Measurable: The objective is met once at least one new partner agrees to participate in the project, provides feedback on the initial draft design, and all partners approve the updated design.
Achievable: The participation “cost” to a prospective partner is negligible (limited to feedback workshops, document review and feedback), and the benefits are expected to be high. Therefore, we are likely to obtain at least one new project partner.
Rewarding: The goal is to achieve an open and standardized CI/CD pipeline – therefore by meeting this objective we demonstrate there is a wider appetite for that. The objective will help us articulate the values and benefits of this project. It will help us improve our design with external feedback and increase the “use cases” / requirements we have available to us.
Timebound: We will set a due date of April 30, 2020 for adding a new partner to the project and soliciting feedback. This will give us a 3-month period after the initial design document is drafted to find, enlist, and gather feedback from the new partner, as well as update and get approval from all project partners.

Objective 3 – Implement CI/CD pipeline for a “standard” simulated satellite

Specific: Using the approved CI/CD design, implement the CI/CD pipeline for a simulated satellite.
Measurable: The objective is met once the CI/CD pipeline is built according to the approved CI/CD design and can take a code commit from local development all the way to deployment on a simulated satellite (on Earth).
Achievable: With partner assistance we will be able to simulate a satellite and ground station and perform tests. This should be readily achievable.
Rewarding: By meeting this objective we demonstrate that the paper-based design works (at least in a simulated process for a “standard” satellite). The objective will help us further articulate the values and benefits of this project. It may help us improve our design by identifying and overcoming unforeseen development and architectural issues.
Timebound: We will set a due date of July 31, 2020 for this work. This will give us a 3-month period after the updated design is approved to setup a simulated satellite /ground station environment and implement a basic CI/CD process for it.

Goal #2: Customize the CI/CD process and demonstrate with a satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Objective 1 - Customize the CI/CD Solution Architecture and Design to perform a real deployment on a partner satellite

Specific: Customize the existing CI/CD architecture and design document to deploy code to a real satellite
Measurable: The objective is met once a solution architecture and design document is drafted that the chosen partner(s) feel is likely to lead to a successful deployment of their code to a satellite in LEO (once the proposed design is implemented).
Achievable: This is a “paper-based design” exercise, based on modifying the standard CI/CD process (from Goal 1) to meet the specific code deployment needs of partner(s).
Rewarding: The exercise will force us to think through the foreseeable issues and requirements before customizing the standardized pipeline. It will likely decrease the costs and effort of the subsequent customization.
Timebound: We have set a due date of September 30, 2020 for the customized Solution Architecture and Design. That is approximately two months after the standardized CI/CD process is completed (target date end of July 2020)

Objective 2 – Implement customized CI/CD pipeline for partner deployment

Specific: Using the approved customized CI/CD design, update the CI/CD pipeline to support the partner code deployment
Measurable: The objective is met once the CI/CD pipeline is built according to the approved customized CI/CD design and can take a code commit from local development all the way to deployment on a simulated satellite (on Earth).
Achievable: With partner assistance we will be able to simulate their precise satellite and ground station configuration and perform tests of the code base they wish to deploy. This should be readily achievable.
Rewarding: By meeting this objective we demonstrate that the paper-based design works (at least in a simulated process for a “standard” satellite). The objective will help us further articulate the values and benefits of this project. It may help us improve our design by identifying and overcoming unforeseen development and architectural issues.
Timebound: We will set a due date of November 31, 2020 for this work. This will give us a 2-month period after the updated design is approved to setup a simulated satellite /ground station environment and implement a basic CI/CD process for it

Objective 3 – Deploy code to Satellite in LEO

Specific: Deploy partner code a satellite in LEO
Measurable: The objective is met a code commit is successfully deployed from local development all the way to a satellite in Low Earth Orbit. Success is determined by passing 100% of test cases to pass a series of quality gates.
Achievable: With partner assistance we will be able to simulate their precise satellite and ground station configuration and perform tests of the code base they wish to deploy. This should be readily achievable.
Rewarding: By meeting this objective we demonstrate that the paper-based design works (at least in a simulated process for a “standard” satellite). The objective will help us further articulate the values and benefits of this project. It may help us improve our design by identifying and overcoming unforeseen development and architectural issues.
Timebound: We will set a due date of November 31, 2020 for this work. This will give us a 2-month period after the updated design is approved to setup a simulated satellite /ground station environment and implement a basic CI/CD process for it.

Project Results

This project is currently in progress. Preliminary work has begun on user stories and draft solution architecture and design. More concrete results (and code!) will be posted as project milestones are reached.

COVID-19 Special Edition Hackathon, and Impact on Space Apps Ottawa 2020

2020-05-24

Space Apps Challenge – COVID-19 Special Edition NASA will hold a virtual Covid-19 Special Edition of the Space Apps Challenge on the weekend of May 30-31. This is in addition to the annual event which will still be held in October. You will find more information about the special edition event here. The Canadian Space […]

2020-01-26

Space Apps hackathons are a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. Solve challenges designed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

2019-12-24

Prototype website to connect with Government of Canada EODMS system and position RADARSAT-1 image locations and metadata on a world map, to allow users to easily view and filter against the whole Earth Observation data set.

2019-11-29

What business and technical problems can Space Apps hackathons solve, and how can the Canadian space industry leverage them ?

2018-07-03

Space Apps 2018 is a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. Solve challenges designed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

Space Apps Hackathons

2020-01-26

Project Overview

NASA has been organizing the International Space Apps hackathon since 2012. It is now considered the world's largest hackathon. In 2019, there were nearly 30,000 participants in 230 locations in 80 countries.

Canada's space hackathon history is quite hard to pin down. Initially the events here were simply the local versions of the NASA events.

The first Ottawa hackathon began in 2017. That year, the Canadian federal government began to support our local events (led by the Canadian Space Agency).

Deploy Software Solutions is an inaugural founder and proud co-organizer of Space Apps Ottawa.

Project Goals & Objectives

NASA has stated its hackathon goals are to:

Exemplify principles of transparency, participation and collaboration
Utilize openly available data, supplied through NASA and CSA missions and technology
Utilize the talent and skill of passionate volunteers from around the planet
Advance space exploration and improve the quality of life on Earth

The Canadian Space Agency is the primary federal organization supporting Space Apps in Canada, assisted by others such as Natural Resources Canada.

Their 2019 data strategy includes community engagements, such as hackathons, to facilitate the use of data and access to science. One major goal is to raise awareness of their mandate and missions, while another is to support Canada's Open Government Initiative.

Project Results

Over a 48-hour period, participants form teams to pick and solve a posted challenge. Although this isn't enough time to produce a production-ready system, it is plenty to come up with creative solutions that explore and de-risk future development.

Businesses are frequently unaware of availability of space-based data sets, unsure how to leverage them, or it is prohibitive to proceed.

Major software failure factors are:

unclear business requirements
lengthy development or planning times
lack of agile process
Deferring risks
Lack of end user engagement and change management

These all appear to be major risk factors currently for downstream software development. Therefore, any activity that can help reduce these failure factors is worthwhile.

Kevin Jones from PCI Geomatics wrote a great blog about a software prototype created at last year's event, "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data". It provides insight into how hackathons work and why they are a beneficial way to reduce software development risk, cost, and duration.

We believe space apps hackathons have positive benefits to society as well:

Space investment is generally a GDP multiplier. Space Apps is a low-cost and low-risk way of getting outreach for space.
They raise awareness with businesses that are not (currently) space-enabled
They increase STEM and design skills (including in youth and under-represented groups)
They promote job creation and growth
They promote science and open data
They tap into a wealth of design, development, AI, big data experience in other industries

View New Horizon Presentation (PDF)
History of Space Apps hackathon internationally and in Canada.
Visit NASA Space Apps Challenge Website
Visit the international website for the event.
Visit Space Apps Ottawa website
Visit the website to learn more and register for our Ottawa events.
Read "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data"
Blog post on Go Geomatics Canada: "How four individuals came together at the recent Ottawa Space Apps Challenge to create intuitive access to the RADARSAT-1 Catalog"

COVID-19 Special Edition Hackathon, and Impact on Space Apps Ottawa 2020

2020-05-24

2020-01-27

A free and open source project to build a continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) pipeline to deploy code and data from a local developer's machine to a satellite in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

2019-12-24

2019-11-29

What business and technical problems can Space Apps hackathons solve, and how can the Canadian space industry leverage them ?

2018-07-03

Space Apps 2018 is a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. Solve challenges designed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

RADARSAT-1 Liberators

2019-12-24

Project Overview

For 17 years, Canada's RADARSAT-1 earth observation satellite obtained radar images of the Earth's surface. Many of these images remain unprocessed and there is no easy way for interested users to examine the location and availability of currently unprocessed images.

During the Space Apps Ottawa 2019 hackathon, a team of four volunteers tackled a Canadian Space Agency/Natural Resource Canada challenge. The goal was to automate and improve searches on the Government of Canada EODMS system and then position RADARSAT-1 image locations and metadata on a world map, to allow users to easily view and filter against the whole Earth Observation data set.

Project Goals & Objectives

The goal of CSA and NRCan (Natural Resources Canada) is to make more RADARSAT-1 data available. Currently only 2% is processed and open to the public. To reduce high processing costs, the CSA would like to identify and prioritize datasets that could be useful for research purposes.

Because this project was a direct response to a hackathon challenge they posed, it has a single SMART objective: solve the challenge.

The objective is to solve CSA/NRCan's RADARSAT Challenge.

Specific: "Realtor.ca, for RADARSAT-1". Create a script to automate searches in the EODMS database and display the results on a map.
Measurable: A website must allow users to perform EODMS searches with filters, and display real data results and EO imagery metadata on a world map.
Achievable: Work is limited to proof of concept including some hard-coded and manual steps to demonstrate "art of the possible".
Rewarding: Project will demonstrate significantly improved and intuitive EODMS search experience and solve a real challenge posed by CSA and NRCan.
Time-bound: POC must be completed within 48-hours of project start.

Project Results

Team members (from a variety of organizations). L to R: Kevin Jones, Nick Kellett, Adam Simonini, Alan Higginson

Over a 48-hour period, our volunteer team (from several different companies, including Deploy) created a working website composed of:

Front end search website using Vue.js and MapBox, served by node.js
GeoJSON REST API middleware using C#
Geospatial Metadata database using Postgres and PostGIS.
GeoJSON extract and intake process from the EODMS system to our metadata database

The resulting proof of concept was well received by CSA and NRCan, subsequently winning the challenge category in Ottawa and then nationally.

We can provide a demo of the working system, upon request. The code is open source under Apache 2 and also available upon request.

One of our team-members Kevin Jones wrote a great blog about the development effort, "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data". It also provides good insight into how hackathons work and why they are a beneficial way to reduce software development risk, cost, and duration.

View Hackathon Presentation (PDF)
Detailed overview of the solution, as presented during the Space Apps Ottawa 2019 hackathon.
Clone front-end code from GitHub
Download or clone the web front-end portion of the solution, from GitHub.
Clone back-end code from GitHub
Download or clone the admin/back-end portion of the solution, from GitHub.
Read "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data"
Blog post on Go Geomatics Canada: "How four individuals came together at the recent Ottawa Space Apps Challenge to create intuitive access to the RADARSAT-1 Catalog"

COVID-19 Special Edition Hackathon, and Impact on Space Apps Ottawa 2020

2020-05-24

2020-01-27

A free and open source project to build a continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) pipeline to deploy code and data from a local developer's machine to a satellite in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

2020-01-26

Space Apps hackathons are a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. Solve challenges designed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

2019-11-29

What business and technical problems can Space Apps hackathons solve, and how can the Canadian space industry leverage them ?

2018-07-03

Space Apps 2018 is a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. Solve challenges designed by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

A New Horizon – Space Apps in Canada

2019-11-29

In October Deploy Software Solutions was an organizing sponsor of the third annual Space Apps Ottawa hackathon, which is the local branch of the global (and highly popular) NASA International Space Apps Challenge. The event is

…an intense 48-hour global weekend hackathon for developers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, astronomers and enthusiasts. Along with nearly 200 cities around the world, Ottawa teams will form and build products and prototypes against NASA-designed challenges that leverage spacecraft, celestial and science data.

This is a fun introduction to the world of open source projects and the space industry. The challenges are designed by both NASA and our own Canadian Space Agency. Solutions to the challenges rely on NASA’s publicly available open sourced data and require teamwork and creativity!

At this year’s Canadian Space Society annual summit, CEO Nicholas Kellett had a chance to speak about the opportunity Space Apps hackathons can play in Canada’s space industry. The presentation, called “A New Horizon: Space Apps in Canada” provided a

…satellite-eye view of hackathons and space apps globally and in Canada. What are they, what business problems and technical challenges can they solve, what is their history and how can the Canadian space industry leverage them to achieve downstream software excellence?

View the full presentation on SlideShare.

Space Apps Ottawa is back, October 19-21

2018-07-03

Deploy Software Solutions is once again proud to be a host sponsor of the annual Space Apps Ottawa hackathon, which is the local branch of the global (and highly popular) NASA International Space Apps Challenge. The event is

…an intense 48-hour global weekend hackathon for developers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, astronomers and enthusiasts. Along with nearly 200 cities around the world, Ottawa teams will form and build products and prototypes against NASA-designed challenges that leverage spacecraft, celestial and science data. This FREE event will run from Friday evening, October 19 to Sunday, October 21.

: Hackathoners

: Some of the volunteers and organizers of Space Apps Ottawa 2017

Last year’s teams used artificial intelligence, GIS and mapping technologies, industrial design techniques, and many other cool ideas and technologies to meet their chosen challenges. Find out more, including how to register, at http://www.spaceappsottawa.com

We hope to see you there!

Space Apps Challenge – COVID-19 Special Edition

Space Apps Ottawa 2020: Online Only?

Register now to help us plan your hackathon experience

Project Overview

Project Goals & Objectives

Goal #1: Develop an open and standardized CI/CD process to deploy software code and data to a satellite via a (software simulated) ground station.

Goal #2: Customize the CI/CD process and demonstrate with a satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Project Results

At a Glance

Related

2020-05-24

2020-01-26

2019-12-24

2019-11-29

2018-07-03

Project Overview

Project Goals & Objectives

Project Results

At a Glance

View New Horizon Presentation (PDF)

Visit NASA Space Apps Challenge Website

Visit Space Apps Ottawa website

Read "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data"

Related

2020-05-24

2020-01-27

2019-12-24

2019-11-29

2018-07-03

Project Overview

Project Goals & Objectives

The objective is to solve CSA/NRCan's RADARSAT Challenge.

Project Results

At a Glance

View Hackathon Presentation (PDF)

Clone front-end code from GitHub

Clone back-end code from GitHub

Read "Hacking to Liberate RADARSAT-1 Data"

Related

2020-05-24

2020-01-27

2020-01-26

2019-11-29

2018-07-03