Nasa Open Source Goes to Mars | GitHub and the Ingenuity Helicopter
Tags: github, nasa, mars, opensource
Published: 2021-04-22 23:14:10

Just less than 4 days ago __Nasa has made history__ once again, flying a helicopter on Mars for the first time in human history. And that has been possible thanks to many __brilliant researchers, scientists, and engineers__... but also __thanks to Open Source Software and GitHub__.

### Intro

Today's post is a special one, it is a celebration of an __incredible achievement__ for the teams at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). 

Less than 4 days before the publishing of this post, in fact, we all watched in awe as the first Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, took flight in the thin Martian atmosphere.

![Ingenuity flight](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/29cwziaicsuyp5ygssd3.jpg)

But this is not only an achievement for Nasa and JPL. It's __a big day for Open Source, and for GitHub__. 

### A Win for Open Source

In fact, __nearly 12,000 developers on GitHub__ contributed to Ingenuity’s software via open source.

Moreover, Nasa's JPL itself has used GitHub for managing this project.

![GitHub](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/h9088sco3j65uam2ekdt.png)

As you can see above, someone in the control room is tracking the __progress on a GitHub Issue__ mere minutes before the take off.

![GitHub on a big screen](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5xqfqaapcgu24quhwg5i.png)

and later on they have the GitHub screen open on the big screen that everyone in the control room can see, once again to manage the progress of the pre-flight moments.

### GitHub Achievements Badges

GitHub is also using this opportunity to __introduce a new Achievements section to the GitHub profile__.

![GitHub Achievements](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/80ghuv7seum5ra14iazx.gif)

Right now, Achievements include the _Mars 2020 Helicopter Mission_ badge, the _Arctic Code Vault_ badge, and a badge for sponsoring open source work via _GitHub Sponsors_.

![Achievements Badges](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/s7zvhd6amks7dlfrwy7u.png)

but watch out this space because __new badges will be added overtime__ to celebrate and award developers in regard of special project, or incredible successes like the first helicopter flight in space.

### Video

Wanna watch the celebration video? Here it is:

{% youtube bEJSwQ6yc3w %}

[Link to the video: https://youtu.be/bEJSwQ6yc3w](https://youtu.be/bEJSwQ6yc3w)

### Conclusions

Let me know in the comment section below if you have received one or more of these badges and post your GitHub handle.

Once again, __congratulations to the teams at NASA and JPL, and to the thousands of developers__ who made today’s first Martian flight possible. We’re all still here on Earth, but our code is now on Mars!

__Like, share and follow me__ 🚀 for more content:

📽 [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/CoderDave)
☕ [Buy me a coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/CoderDave)
💖 [Patreon](https://patreon.com/CoderDave)
👕 [Merch](https://geni.us/cdmerch)
👦🏻 [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/CoderDaveYT)
🐱‍💻 [GitHub](https://github.com/n3wt0n)
👲🏻 [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/davide.benvegnu)
👴🏻 [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidebenvegnu/)
🔉 [Podcast](https://geni.us/cdpodcast)

{% youtube bEJSwQ6yc3w %}