[Spice_announce] SPICE ITAR News

Charles H. Acton Charles.H.Acton at jpl.nasa.gov
Fri Oct 20 19:09:18 PDT 2006


Folks-

I'm pleased to be able to pass on some very good news. NASA's chief 
export compliance officer, John Hall (Director, Export Control and 
Interagency Liaison Division), has confirmed that none of the extent 
SPICE products or services are restricted under ITAR export 
regulations. This includes:

   - generic kernels
   - flight project kernels (U.S and foreign projects)
   - all SPICE Toolkit software (including source code)
   - all SPICE documents, tutorials and lessons
   - all generic training
   - all mission-specific consultation (U.S. and foreign projects)

This finding includes the so-called "Designated Countries" such as 
India, China and Israel.

JPL's export control officer is in full agreement with this NASA finding.

There are no residual issues/concerns about export restrictions on 
any NAIF/SPICE products or services.

Thus, from an export control point of view, any/all U.S. nationals 
are free to export ANY SPICE data to any "foreign person," 
independent of any NASA flight project ITAR restrictions. And any 
foreign person may re-distribute those SPICE data at will.

Further, NAIF staff are not restricted under ITAR regulations from 
providing consultation to any foreign national. Of course that does 
not mean NAIF staff are funded to provide unlimited consultation to 
anyone and everyone; we must operate within our sponsor's 
programmatic rules the same as anyone else.  :)

Soon the NAIF web pages will be updated to reflect this hot-off-the-press news.

While not a legal requirement, it is NAIF's suggestion that Toolkit 
software not be distributed other than by NAIF or NAIF's partners, 
such as the Research and Scientific Support Department at ESA/ESTEC, 
to help ensure that SPICE users get a software package appropriate 
for their computing environment and needs.


By the way, distribution and use of NAIF software is not restricted 
or even licensed by Caltech. SPICE software is no longer copyrighted 
by Caltech. Anyone and any entity, public or private, U.S. or 
foreign, is free to use SPICE software and data. Use of SPICE 
software in commercial products that are to be sold is encouraged. 
That said, use of SPICE software by any person is subject to the 
disclaimer spelled out on the RULES page at the NAIF website: 
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/rules.html. (The "rules" have NOT yet 
been updated to reflect the latest NASA findings... but will be soon.)

Needless to say, NAIF staff are very pleased to be able to continue 
sharing the benefits of many years of generous NASA funding to help 
advance the cause of space science. With the previously nagging 
export issues fully behind us we look forward to continuing to work 
with interested parties in providing the science and engineering 
communities with tools and products that will help make space 
exploration "cheaper, faster and better." We hope to participate with 
interested colleagues around the globe to find ways that can make the 
best use of all agencies' expertise, tools and data products. It 
seems there is much that could still be done to make the acquisition, 
sharing, and use of "space geometry" easier... and who knows, maybe 
even exciting!

Please feel free to pass on this note to any other interested teams/persons.

Best regards on behalf of the NAIF team (all four of us!),

--Chuck Acton
   NAIF Manager/JPL

P.S.  The next NAIF Toolkit release, N0061, is expected by 
approximately the end of November. Among the additions you will find 
several new supported computing environments and substantial 
hyperlinking of much of the documentation and source code headers.
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