The University of Patras Satellite (UPSat) is a 2U Cubesat satellite constructed and delivered by Libre Space Foundation, begun by the University of Patras as part of the QB50 mission.

The UPSat mission aspires to be the first completely open source satellite ever launched. Manufactured in Greece, it keeps the use of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components to an absolute minimum. All subsystems of the satellite were designed, constructed, assembled and tested from scratch in an open source software and hardware manner, under the provisions of the CERN-OHLv2 and GNU-GPLv3 licenses respectively.

Hackerspace.gr has provided lots of its infrastructure, manpower, and know-how to enable to enable to local design, manufacturing, coding, integration, and preliminary testing of UPSat.

The satellite is scheduled for launch on March 28 from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas-V rocket, and will be transferred to the International Space Station by a Cygnus orbital transport spacecraft.

UPSat is a nano-satellite with dimensions of 20cm x 10cm x 10cm. The aim of the QB50 mission in which UPSat participates, is to create a network of fifty cubesat satellites made by universities worldwide to study the lower layers of the thermosphere, which are the least explored parts of our planet’s atmosphere. Combined with other missions and laboratory data, the collected data of QB50 will significantly improve the models that describe the atmosphere of our planet. The mission is designed and coordinated by the von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics.

University of Patras and Libre Space Foundation aspire to create an open source ecosystem around satellite and space technologies. The return on investment towards an open source development method is expected to be significant, kickstarting a new knowledge and building ecosystem around space engineering and technologies.

The latest project updates can be found on the UPSat website and the progress can be followed through the public GitHub repository.

Portions of text used in this post was drawn from the following sources, where you will find more information:

• https://upsat.gr/
• https://librespacefoundation.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPSat
• http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/upsat.htm
• http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/UPSat_an_open_source_Greek_satellite_999.html

Main image: UPSat vacuum testing

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Greek edition of “Think Like a Commoner”

After the governing coalition Syriza capitulated to creditors’ draconian demands in 2016, its credibility as a force for political change declined. Despite its best intentions, it could not deliver. The Greek people might understandably ask:  Have we reached the limits of what the conventional Left can achieve within “representative democracies” whose sovereignty is so compromised by global capital?  Beyond such political questions, citizens might also wonder whether centralized bureaucratic programs in this age of digital networks can ever act swiftly and responsively.  Self-organized, bottom-up federations of commoning often produce much better results.

Pummeled by some harsh realities and sobered by the limits of Left politics, many Greeks are now giving the commons a serious look as a political option. This was my impression after a recent visit to Athens where I tried to give some visibility to the recently published Greek translation of my book Think Like a Commoner.  In Greek, the book is entitled Κοινά: Μία σύντομη εισαγωγή).  Besides a public talk at a bookstore (video here), I spoke at the respected left Nicos Poulantzas Institute (video with Greek translation & English version), which was eager to host a discussion about commons and commoning.

Re-inventing law for the Commons, David Bollier from Institouto Nicos Poulantzas on Vimeo.

In my talk, I suggested that the Greek state might wish to re-imagine “the economy,” politics and law by considering what commons could accomplish (and are accomplishing), and how state policies might support commoning. Since the left cannot necessarily advance its larger agenda of social justice, fairness and human rights through the state – subservient as it is to neoliberal circuits of global power – it should entertain how the commons might open up some new solution-sets.

To that end, I discussed the promise of relocalized food and agriculture systems; the potential of re-imagining city policies and programs as a commons; the advantages of academic commons to more efficiently generate and share scholarship and scientific knowledge; the power of open source software and open design and manufacturing; the ecological wisdom of traditional agricultural, forestry and fishery commons; and the ways in which law could decriminalize and support commoning, moving beyond many pathologies of bureaucracy.

At the macro-scale, a commons-based economy could also help a country escape the massive inefficiencies, ecological costs, predatory behaviors and corruption associated with the conventional economy — while generating new forms nonmarket provisioning and socially legitimate political power.

I was told about medical care commons that have sprung up in Athens in recent years.  Staffed by volunteers and donated/low-cost supplies, the system is a desperate social improvisation to help people meet basic medical needs at a time when public hospitals turn people away.  The system has become a respected alternative system for medical care, engaging people as real human beings and not as mere “clients” or numbers. When patients don’t use all the pills they are given, for example, they return them, so someone else can use them. A kind of social solidarity has emerged. Supplies and personnel are obviously limited, but some aspects of healthcare have been reinvented as flexible modes of human caring, escaping the economic and social logic of conventional healthcare.

Of necessity, Greeks have established other commons as well – for food, housing and fuel.  There are active efforts to make Greek academic research and data more available as a commons, going beyond the logic of open platforms.  A Greek hacker community, the Libre Space Foundation, has even built the first open source satellite and ground station network – UPSat and SatNOGS — from readily available and affordable tools.

These are the sorts of initiatives that the traditional left may regard as interesting, but not politically significant. I think that is a huge mistake. In that gap of understanding lies the potential for inventing a new type of climate-friendly, socially just economy and political culture.

At this moment of transition, therefore, when the commons seems to be acquiring new traction and visibility in Greece, I am thrilled that my book Think Like a Commoner is now available there.

I wish to thank George Papanikolaou and Andreas Karitzis for their role in organizing the translation of my book, and Efstathiou Anastasio of Angelus Novus Editions for publishing and promoting the Greek edition.  My thanks also to two commons scholars, Antonis Broumas and Stavros Stravrides, for graciously sharing their thoughts on the commons at the bookstore event.  A salute, too, to the Nicos Poulantzas Institute for hosting my talk.

For any readers of Greek, here are a few press interviews with me and reviews of my book – in Epohi; in Avgi, a collective blog (and here); in efsyn; and in Left.

Even though it was cold and blustery — Athens in February! — I had a great time, including a visit to the Acropolis and Agora. Next time: longer discussions, a day at the National Museum, and a visit to Greek islands.

Cross-posted from Bollier.org

Photo by stevegarfield

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