SpaceOWL Project — Executive Overview
SpaceOWL Project
21 April 2013
Abstract
The SpaceOWL project proposes to develop a range of ontological knowledge resources, describing the semantics of present and historic features in subject areas of near-space and deep-space astronomy, crewed and crewless space vehicles, space and aerospace business, and formal, institutional programs in space science and space exploration. This document summarizes the goals of the SpaceOWL Project and the project's development model, including project planning and scheduling models, project roadmap, and project availability.
In this draft edition of the SpaceOWL Project Executive Overview, tentative items will be denoted with highlighted text.
SpaceOWL Project Primary Goal: To develop a modular ontology describing an open semantics of features in planetary geosciences, planetary meteorology, astronomy, human spaceflight and robotic exploration of near and distant astronomical entities.
SpaceOWL Project Secondary Goals:
Develop guidelines for accessibility in project web resources
Develop features for integration of OWL 2 ontologies within workflows in Java portal frameworks
Needed: Java portal framework, for demonstration applications
Develop a Drupal instance for early demonstration of project deliverables
Notes for devdocs:
Science Collaboration Framework (SCF)
Uses RDF-enabled Drupal
See also: Produce and consume Linked Data with Drupal! (ACA Wiki)
The SpaceOWL project is developed as an informal, voluntary contribution. Project planning and development workflows are completed on a time-available basis. This generic model affords a limited opportunity for scheduling of development tasks. Consequently, the planning model for this project, in the informality of the project's operations, may at best allow for only a sequential scheduling model— namely, as that a Task A must precede a Task B, though affording no formal timeline for tasks A or B.
SpaceOWL project development will be organized with a set of project milestones, representing distinct development goals, within an overall project roadmap. In the interest of adaptability, individual project milestones may be referred to by symbolic name, rather than by ordinal position within any single edition of the project roadmap.
In Version 1 of the SpaceOWL Project Roadmap, the primary goals of the project will be addressed in the following sequence:
“Dobelle” — Develop NewSpace/Commercial Aerospace Ontology
“Sentinel” — Develop Space Institutions Ontology
This project milestone may entail the development of an additional ontology for describing availability and features of educational outreach programs managed by formal space institutions, namely for the purpose of assisting educators in locating knowledge resources and instructional materials suited to educational programs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the liberal arts.
“Elephant” — Develop Space Science Vehicles Ontology
This project milestone may entail collaboration with Project Ivo, in focusing on the development and study of crewless space exploration vehicles as, commensurately, robotic vehicles.
“Opal” — Develop Ontology for Natural Objects in the Solar System
“Cecropia” — Develop Ontology for Near Galactic and Deep Space Objects
The SpaceOWL Project proposes to develop an ad-hoc Agile development model, in a manner reminiscent of Extreme Programming development methodology — emphasizing iterative design and quick prototyping. Project deliverables will be developed on a time-available basis.