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linux.conf.au (LCA) is one of the premier Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conferences anywhere in the world, and this year build team member Jon Oxer will be presenting a talk on Lunar Numbat.

Jon's talk will follow the arc described in the recently released GLXP Mission Concept Summary by White Label Space, and how Lunar Numbat's efforts as a partner, and Open Source technology will help make it happen.

The talk will be streamed live at 14:30 UTC+13 (01:30 UTC) tomorrow, the 21st of January 2010, so you can watch without even attending the conference!

As always we're certain Jon's talk will be great! We should be able to provide the talk notes and video after the event.

Andrew Barton of White Label Space was a great host in receiving me today, and we spent the whole day exchanging views and knowledge on issues related to Lunar Numbat, White Label Space, and the GLXP mission.

After collecting us at Leiden train station, Andrew didn't delay in taking us on a tour of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). Here are many of the facilities that WLS will likely be using in preparation of the GLXP mission. ESTEC includes facilities such as the Large Space Simulator (LSS), acoustic and electromagnetic testing bays, multi-axis vibration tables and the ESA Propulsion Laboratory (EPL).

Following the tour we moved on to the White Label Space headquarters at AOES and settled down to some detailed discussions.

Later in the evening, I attended a WLS team meeting where the throttle control avionics, radar altimeter and HD Video and Stills compression and transmission that Lunar Numbat are developing for the WLS GLXP mission were poured over and examined.

It was really valuable to finally meet Andrew and many of the WLS team members face to face, and Lunar Numbat's commitment to exploit the goodness of Open Source technologies to assist WLS in our GLXP mission was well assisted by the get together.

Jon Oxer has been very busy as a recent post on his blog attests. The fruit of his work? An Arduino-based rocket flight recorder no less!

The image and quote are from Jon's post:

The bottom board is an Arduino Pro Mini 5V/16MHz from Sparkfun. Sitting on top of it is a 433MHz transmitter module from Jaycar, and the circular PCB to the right is a Lilypad 3-axis accelerometer breakout board. To give some sense of scale the entire assembly is about the same dimensions as a 9V battery, so it's very small and light. You're looking at it lying on its "back": the plan is that it will mount vertically in the nosecone of the class-C rocket that Marco provided so that we can log accelerometer data from a launch. When fitted into the rocket the round accelerometer board sits flat in the bottom of the nosecone so the Z-axis reading will align perfectly with the direction of flight.

According to Twitter posts Jon's also taken delivery of a 5Hz GPS module, and after experiencing some difficulties with the Locosys GPS module, it seems to be behaving.

With the two joined together hopes are to get the system transmitting x/y/z force plus lat/lon/altitude every 200ms. If everything works out well we may even get a nice flight track from the location points. Sweet!

Recently a fellow from ASRI, the Australian Space Research Institute and the Lunar Numbat build team enjoyed a productive conference call discussing the Ausroc 2.5 launch vehicle, and how we might assist.

Ausroc 2.5 is an Australian designed and built liquid fuelled rocket, propelling a 10kg payload to an altitude of 20km on a ballistic trajectory, to be recovered intact after flight. Lunar Numbat agreed to collaborate with valve control avionics, and are delighted to be working with ASRI.

This is an exciting step along the road of providing our partner, White Label Space, with the technologies they need to get to the moon, while helping the already fine work of ASRI.

Thanks to the fine work of Artist Gavin Jacobi, Lunar Numbat now has an official patch to represent us.

While the arrangement and execution of this patch pays honour to a previous historic lunar mission, it's unmistakeably fresh with New Zealand and Australia faithful represented.

Prominent in the centre is our intrepid Numbat mascot, poised both as having just arrived, and ready to boldly explore.

Faithful to the values of the Lunar Numbat endeavour, Gavin Jacobi has released the image under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike.

The master image in SVG format is available on the mail list.

Andy Gelme and Jon Oxer of the Lunar Numbat build team have been preparing a modest avionics package to go into a class G hobby rocket for some high velocity fun and testing.

The rocket to be used for the launches has already made a name for itself due to some stunning video taken with it's onboard inflight video camera, linked via a 2.4GHz Microwave signal.

The Lunar Numbat Build team are keen to get our avionics under development into launch vehicles, so as to test our work and improve on it.

We're looking forward to the test results and video footage of course!

All work done for Lunar Numbat is on a volunteer basis, including assembling our online infrastructure, which a step at a time is coming together.

One quite important piece is the Lunar Numbat Wiki, now available and ready to use thanks to Jon, who broke the ice with his page on Reference Material. Thanks Jon!

The Reference Material page was gathered from posts to the Lunar Numbat Mail List, which already has some interesting posts in it.

My thanks to all those helping bring this necessary collection of resources together. From here on we power ahead

So what is Lunar Numbat all about you're wondering? I'm glad you asked!

Lunar Numbat is a team of Australians and New Zealanders who use their skills and Open Source technologies to partner with the Google Lunar X-Prize team "White Label Space". Why? So as to put a Linux powered robotic Australian Marsupial on the moon. Simple really.

The Google Lunar X-Prize awards US$20 million to the first team to safely land a rover on the moon which successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video, with bonuses for extra achievements.

"White Label Space" is a Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) team we like the look of, which is why we're partnering with them.

The Numbat is a small smart and very cute endangered Australian Marsupial. It's efficiencies and intelligence represent the attributes we aspire to in our rover.

While our primary goal is to assist "White Label Space" to succeed in the GLXP, our reasons for doing so also include bringing about innovations in Space Science using Open Source technologies, to collaborate with other Space Science entities, to educate as to the grand benefits that Space Science provides all people and advocate the formation of an Australian Space Agency.

As for the moon, it's our companion world, our off shore island. Invariably when you learn about the moon, you learn about the Earth. In more ways than may seem self evident, they're linked.

In this International year of Astronomy, we'd like to start making Space Science better understood, less expensive and more accessible to everyone.

Sound like fun to you? Then come join us!