From the user terminal, to the spacecraft, to the ground station, FemtoStar is powered by free and open-source hardware and software, and we don't just mean the high-level stuff. Notably, in what we believe to be a world first for wide-area communications networks, even the FemtoStar air interface and the low-level radio firmware implementing it will be free and open-source software.

This isn't just a technical decision. FOSS is common in the software world, but in the telecommunications and aerospace industries, this approach is highly unusual. However, for FemtoStar to succeed, we believe it to be critical.

Releasing our designs as free and open-source allows for FemtoStar to be effective as a piece of open infrastructure - you can build on top of it, or integrate it into your own products and services. It's what gives FemtoStar the flexibility to work just as well as an internal backup network for a business or a low-data-rate M2M service as it does as a mobile internet hotspot service.

It also allows our users to verify our claims about privacy and security. We do not believe that simply promising the user that their privacy will be preserved is adequate. Free and open-source software allows users to inspect and verify that features such as end-to-end encryption and low-level geolocation mitigations are operating as intended, allowing users to be sure that FemtoStar meets its privacy claims without the need to simply trust its developers.

FemtoStar is developed and maintained by a global community of developers collaborating online. If you're interested in helping out, don't hesitate to contact us →.