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PROXIMA MISSION

Note: the Github repo is not the primary repo; it's here for visibility.

Quick links

Background

For a long time, I've had an idea for a project: to simulate a mission to Proxima Centauri on a computer in real time. There's a couple reasons I want to do this: I think it's an interesting exercise in keeping a computer running for a long time (just over 1900 days, if my math is right), and because I'm a space nerd. It just seems like a cool idea. I sketched out the idea in Mathematica, then wrote some Go code.

What exactly is this? I wrote some code that is a very basic simulation of a flight to the star Proxima Centauri. In the real world, I plan to run a single process for nearly five and a quarter years. If it fails or stops, the mission is lost, simulating the requirement for a stable control system for the ship. This means that if I move, I can't just turn the system off. I've set a "launch" date for my 35th birthday, which is when the system is finalized and the simulation can't be touched. That means I'll be just over 40 years old when it finishes, which is a little sobering.

Components

  • cmd/flightconn: the flight control software
  • cmd/flightconnui: Python code that drives the eInk display
  • cmd/flightsim: speedrun the flight to verify the calculations
  • cmd/flightsim_test: the flight simulator as a Go test
  • cmd/missionctl: the web frontend
  • cmd/relay: fetch updates from the flight control software and post to mission control
  • comms/: ZeroMQ connectivity; the UI receives updates from the flight control software over ZeroMQ.
  • database/: database configuration to talk to mission control
  • handler/: HTTP handlers
  • milestones/: calculate the various milestones as described in the notebook
  • mission/: the flight simulator core software
  • ops/: various operations bits, such as the SQL schema and systemd service files
  • physics/: the physics calculations behind the software
  • rat/: convenience functions for dealing with math/big.Rat

System overview

Raspberry Pi / flight hardware

The flight control software runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B.

  • flightconn runs the flight. flightconn sets up an HTTP endpoint that dumps the current flight information as JSON, and a ZeroMQ publisher that broadcasts updates regularly.
  • flightconnui receives updates from flightconn over a ZeroMQ subscriber socket.
  • relay runs as a cronjob to regularly sync flight updates to mission control. It posts updates to missionctl as HTTP push requests.

Mission control

missionctl currently runs in a Heroku instance. It receives updates via an HTTP post.

Setup

Install the eInk drivers for the 2.7" PaPiRus hat

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip
curl -sSL https://pisupp.ly/papiruscode | sudo bash
sudo papirus-setup

NB: this also installs git.

Add i2c-rtc,mcp7940x=1 to the dtcoverlay to enable the RTC.

Install the zeroMQ drivers.

sudo apt install libczmq-dev python3-zmq

Install Go and build tools

I install Go using this method.

License

This software is released under the Blue Oak Model License v1.0.0.

Blue Oak Model License

Version 1.0.0

Purpose

This license gives everyone as much permission to work with this software as possible, while protecting contributors from liability.

Acceptance

In order to receive this license, you must agree to its rules. The rules of this license are both obligations under that agreement and conditions to your license. You must not do anything with this software that triggers a rule that you cannot or will not follow.

Copyright

Each contributor licenses you to do everything with this software that would otherwise infringe that contributor's copyright in it.

Notices

You must ensure that everyone who gets a copy of any part of this software from you, with or without changes, also gets the text of this license or a link to https://blueoakcouncil.org/license/1.0.0.

Excuse

If anyone notifies you in writing that you have not complied with Notices, you can keep your license by taking all practical steps to comply within 30 days after the notice. If you do not do so, your license ends immediately.

Patent

Each contributor licenses you to do everything with this software that would otherwise infringe any patent claims they can license or become able to license.

Reliability

No contributor can revoke this license.

No Liability

As far as the law allows, this software comes as is, without any warranty or condition, and no contributor will be liable to anyone for any damages related to this software or this license, under any kind of legal claim.