To start things off, I'd like to give a little background about myself.
Beginnings
When I was in fifth grade, I went on a field trip to the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center that literally changed my life. I had already been a Star Trek and sci-fi nut, but this experience changed me.
I really don't remember much about that visit, but I know that in the following years, I returned several times for overnight and summer camps. I was a member of the crew of a starship! It was like living a dream.
My love for the Space Center (or CMSEC as we like to call it) never waned even after I was getting "too old" for the programs. One of my friends worked there as a volunteer, and he enlisted me to help out in small ways. Eventually my zeal led me to work a full summer with the Odyssey staff.
From that point on, I did everything I could to become an integral part of the Space Center. I helped run simulators and later became a Flight Director. I designed and ran missions. And I did a lot of programming.
Programming Starships
I loved computers from a young age. My father got me hooked on a Mac Classic which I would play with for hours on end. In grade school, I was fortunate to have an excellent computer lab teacher who taught us simple animations with HyperCard.
As it turns out, HyperCard was used at the Space Center. After my first visit, I made tons of animations and LCARS-inspired pictures in HyperCard. Along the way I started learning how to add scripting.
Once I had made myself a permanent volunteer of the CMSEC, I started developing HyperCard stacks for use in missions. A good friend and mentor taught me how to add networking to the applications. Eventually I developed the controls for the Voyager simulator and several iterations of controls for the Odyssey.
In school I took programming classes in Basic, Pascal, and C. I always enjoyed my classes and in retrospect I see the aptitude I had for programming. But it was my Space Center work that taught me that I really wanted to be a programmer. It inspired me in my college studies and career.
Founding OpenStardrive
The Space Center made a lasting impression on me, but as I grew up I had to leave it. Long hours of volunteering didn't mesh well with university classes and a part-time job.
Over the last ten years I've had a desire to continue working with CMSEC-style simulators and software. I want to be able to still help the Space Center and also expand these types of programs to others.
Open-source software has been something I've been interested in for a long time, and eventually I realized that it would be a perfect way to continue to participate in these simulators. So with the help of Mr. Wall, we founded OpenStardrive.
We've seen a lot of simulator projects come and go over the years. Most of them have been unsuccessful — usually because the people in charge don't have the requisite experience. There is a strong tendency to miss the forest for the trees when writing this type of software, and the result is something that isn't useful.
In directing the OpenStardrive development, my plan is to combine my previous CMSEC experience and successes with my CS degree and career experience. The goal is to provide good, free software.
My hope is that the OpenStardrive project will allow others to be inspired as I was.
