We would like to share an update on Space Station OS v0.8.7, an open-source ROS 2–based effort exploring simulation and operation of space station–scale systems.
Space Station OS is still very much an evolving project, and the community around it is small. However, v0.8.7 marks a point where several pieces finally came together in a way that felt worth sharing.
What v0.8.7 is (and is not)
This release represents the first time multiple subsystems can be initialized, observed, and operated together through a single ground-side dashboard.
It is not a final mission control system, nor a polished operational UI. Instead, v0.8.7 is an early integration milestone that allowed us to start discussing system-level operation in concrete terms.
One of the main challenges was not visualization itself, but the initialization and coordination of a large number of interdependent parameters across subsystems. The current dashboard reflects a set of explicit design decisions and trade-offs made to keep the system understandable and debuggable, rather than complete or optimized.
What is included in v0.8.7
- Initial integration of subsystem interfaces across EPS, ECLSS, ATCS, and related components
- A first, integrated station-level dashboard for end-to-end simulation and observation
- Improved build reliability and CI stability on ROS 2 Humble
- Incremental fixes and refactoring accumulated since v0.8.6
Demo video
A short demo video showing the current state of the v0.8.7 dashboard and simulation flow is available here:
Resources
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Repository:
Space Station OS · GitHub -
Release notes (v0.8.7):
Release Space Station OS v0.8.7: Interface Unification and Dashboard Initialization Consolidation · space-station-os/space_station_os · GitHub -
Documentation & use cases (Wiki):
Home · space-station-os/space_station_os Wiki · GitHub
Development is continuing on the v0.8.8-dev branch.
Feedback is welcome, but please note that this is still an exploratory project and not yet intended as a general-purpose framework.