News

Office of Technology Transfer News

Carbon Plume Mapper

The new Tanager satellite hyperspectral sensor technology, pioneered by JPL, will provide 30-meter resolution and a full spectral range of shortwave infrared and high-precision 5-nanometer wide bands. This hyperspectral offering is designed to help us understand changes on land and at sea, from coastal zones to forests to urban areas and more. NASA and JPL are working with the Carbon Mapper organization and Planet Labs Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) on the Tanager program.

For further information please see:

• https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/nasa-in-your-home-how-space-based-technology-improves-our-daily-lives
• https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-built-greenhouse-gas-detector-moves-closer-to-launch

LEGO® TECHNIC™ NASA MARS ROVER PERSEVERANCE ADVANCED BUILDING KIT

The LEGO Group has licensed the design of the Mars Perseverance rover and the JPL logo to incorporate into their Lego model kits. The kits also allow exploration of simulated Mars landscapes with Perseverance on a smartphone.

PIXLISE

The JPL PIXLISE team was named a runner up in the 2023 NASA Software of the Year Award (SOYA) competition. PIXLISE is a geoscience visualization and analysis tool that performs data quantification and investigative workflow with a comprehensive suite of tools.

For further information please see: https://www.pixlise.org/public/pixlise

Getting Water out of Snow with NASA Technology

Airborne Snow Observatory uses JPL-developed remote-sensing analyses and modeling to provide mountain snowpack data that accurately shows snow depth, snow-water equivalent, and snow pack melt time.

For further information please see: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Getting-Water-Out-of-Snow-with-NASA-Technology

MONTE Design and Project Editions

The Mission analysis Operations and Navigation Toolkit Environment (MONTE) is JPL’s signature astrodynamics computing platform, supporting all phases of space mission development from early-stage mission design and analysis through flight navigation services.

The product can be used for mission design and analysis and spacecraft maneuver optimization. It can also design optimal trajectories and maneuvers, as well as provide tools for analysis, all in one application. Data and trajectories can be visualized with 2- and 3-dimensional plotting packages, that are included.

MONTE has roots reaching back to the 1960s at JPL, when it was called the Orbit Determination Program.

Currently MONTE has both Design and Project Editions, and these are both available for licensing for commercial, research, and educational uses.

Additional information about MONTE is online here: montepy.jpl.nasa.gov/

The GipsyX System

GipsyX is software recently developed at JPL, that replaces GIPSY-OASIS (Global Navigation and Satellite Systems Inferred Positioning System and Orbit Analysis Simulation Software). It can be used for real-time precision GPS Navigation.

GIPSY / OASIS is a popular GPS software package, developed by JPL. It has been used extensively by researchers for various geodetic studies that require precise positioning knowledge. It has also been licensed commercially to support GPS augmentation applications. GipsyX, the new real-time version of the GIPSY / OASIS system, includes a superset of features and features an advanced new architecture.

The GIPSY / OASIS system is available for licensing to academia and industry.

Additional information is available on-line here: gipsy-oasis.jpl.nasa.gov

JPL Welcomes Open Source Software Development Paradigm

The Open Source paradigm for developing and disseminating software continues to be a growing trend in industry and increasingly, in government. JPL is continuing to develop a clearly articulated and thoughtful policy and set of best practices relating to the Open Source paradigm.

Open Source Software Policy at JPL

The current JPL policy is to embrace the open source paradigm for developing and disseminating software in cases where it makes sense to do so. To date JPL endorses open source software releases that are vetted and approved by the Software Release Authority (SRA) using pre-approved licenses such as: Apache 2.0, Eclipse Public License (EPL) and BSD etc.

The benefits of open source policy include:

• Facilitates exchange of ideas in a research setting, fostering exploration and experimentation

• Facilitates productivity and efficiency in a collaborative development setting, based on ease of sharing status and progress

• Facilitates ease of interaction and timeliness of support relative to traditional vendors

• Positions the institution to recruit fresh-outs who are aware of Open Source as a useful, modern practice

• Increases institutional productivity when consuming Open Source software for appropriate uses and applications

For more information on Open Sourcing your software, please contact Brian Morrison, JPL’s Software Release Authority at (818) 354-2458.