[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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