NASA Space ROS Sim Summer Sprint Challenge

Help make the Space Robot Operating System (ROS) more robust and assist NASA’s plan for future missions by adding to the repository.

Solvers need to fill out the Challenge Registration Form

before submitting the solution. Please refer to the Guidelines tab for more information.

We are hosting a webinar on August 7 @ 2:00 PM ET. Make sure to register here to hear directly from NASA, Space ROS, and Freelancer team! 

More details about the webinar is provided in the Updates tab.

Space ROS

is an open-source software framework, derived from ROS 2

, which was created to be compatible with the demands of safety-critical space robotics applications. NASA is looking to expand the Space ROS repository with new higher fidelity demonstration environments and additional capabilities.

If you can provide a useful addition to Space ROS, you could be eligible for a share of the $30,000 US prize purse.

The Space ROS project started with a joint agreement between the private space industry and NASA (see: https://space-ros.github.io/docs/rolling/Introduction.html

). Space ROS is intended to be an open, community-driven effort. Through this Challenge, NASA hopes to grow the community of contributors and increase the functionality and usability of Space ROS.

Using the ROS 2 Humble distribution as a foundation, Space ROS is designed to be platform independent, portable, and project independent. Space ROS is becoming a robust framework for space robotics applications where ROS 2 applications can be reused with little to no modification, enabling the space community to take advantage of the innovation of the ROS community.

Building out Space ROS capabilities can shorten the time for development of novel space robotics capabilities, enable reuse of capabilities between missions, and lower the life-cycle cost of new space robotics missions. While Space ROS can be used by anyone working within the space community, NASA is particularly interested in additions to Space ROS that might impact future missions. For example, improvements to Space ROS will help speed testing and development of the new robotic technologies needed for NASA’s future Lunar missions as part of its Artemis program.

Space ROS currently has two existing demos, a Curiosity Mars Rover demo and an ISS Robot Arm (SSRMS) demo. However, the Gazebo

simulator environments in which they are placed are very basic and the capabilities these demos show are minimal. Expanding these demos to include higher fidelity environments would better show the concepts and benefits of using the Space ROS.Some examples of how the Space ROS could be improved include:Making existing demo or environments more accurate (examples: incorporating public source data)Making demos look more realistic (examples: adding better lighting or model fidelity)Helping robots perform tasks better (examples: conducting scientific experiments or resource allocation)Adding new, relevant demos or environmentsAdding new features, capabilities, integrations, or interfaces

Must be at least 18 years old.   May compete as an Individual, Team, or Entity; however, the prize will be awarded in whole to the submitter (Team Lead).   The Team Lead must be eligible to receive payment under the laws of the United States; U.S. federal sanctions prohibit participation from certain countries. (see: https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information).Solutions must originate from either the U.S. or a designated country (see definition of designated country at https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-25#FAR_25_003).

See the full rules, including Eligibility Requirements under the Guidelines Tab

Solvers may submit more than one solution however the solutions must be substantively different.Only complete submissions will be eligible for judging and prizes. Submissions must include complete: Registration Form, Submission Form, Visuals (screenshots or video), and code submission to the Space ROS Repository.All solutions must conform to the Space ROS contribution rules.All solutions must conform to the ROS style guide/community standards. Each solution should include an explanation or demonstration of how the solution might apply to future NASA missions. 

Space ROS Contribution Rules 

https://github.com/space-ros/space-ros/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

The following subsections address how to contribute to the Space ROS project.

All Solvers should follow these rules when submitting contributions to the Space ROS. These rules have been designed to simplify the process of establishing compliance with requirements of space software.

Commits

All commits must reference the issue they address. A consequence of this is that no commits can be made unless there is a corresponding issue for them.Note: for this competition, reference “NASA Space ROS Sim Summer Sprint Challenge” as the issue. 

Pull Requests

All changes are incorporated via pull requests (even changes by the core team).

All PR merges introduce a separate merge commit (i.e., git merge –no-ff), that closes the issue that the PR addresses, as well as any other issues that are fixed as a side effect, or that can no longer be reproduced after the change. The commit uses the syntax “Closes#”, “Fix#” or a command supported by github to automatically close the issue.

There’ll be a preference for PRs to address only one issue at a time, but we’ll be flexible especially for cases in which a fix addresses multiple related issues at the same time (see point above).

All PRs must be approved by a maintainer. When the author of the PR is one of the maintainers, a different maintainer must approve the PR.

All PRs must pass the tests for the repository they are being committed to.

The commit history must be clean. Contributors and maintainers are recommended to rebase and squash as needed prior to accepting a PR and merging the changes, so that the commits present how to introduce the change onto the HEAD in an understandable way (rather than describing all the intermediate steps taken until the final solution was discovered).

ROS 2 Contributing Guidelines

To contribute to the Space ROS and ROS 2 projects please refer to the ROS 2 contributing guidelines (see: https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/The-ROS2-Project/Contributing.html

)Developer Guidehttps://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/The-ROS2-Project/Contributing/Developer-Guide.html

Space ROS Website: https://space.ros.org/ROS Website: https://www.ros.org/Space ROS documentation. Includes information about Space ROS including tutorials, how-to guides, and demos: https://space-ros.github.io/docs/rolling/index.htmlSpace ROS contribution guidelines. All submissions must follow the contribution rules: https://github.com/space-ros/space-ros/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.mdROS 2 Project Documentation. This includes style guide, community standards, and technical information about ROS 2: https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/The-ROS2-Project/Contributing/Code-Style-Language-Versions.htmlSpace ROS Demos: https://github.com/space-ros/docker/tree/main/space_robotsNASA Moon to Mars Architecture Definition Document: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rev-a-acr23-esdmd-001-m2madd.pdfNASA Artemis Missions: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/

Q&A Tracker

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