2026-02-02 –, Atlantis
Linux is already in space. It powers the James Webb Telescope, Starlink satellites, the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, and free-flying robots on the ISS. But here's the problem: almost every deployment is a one-off design with zero portability between missions and no cross-vendor knowledge transfer.
Space Grade Linux (SGL) is an effort under the ELISA Project to fix this. We're building a Yocto-based distribution specifically for space deployments, following the Automotive Grade Linux model. The goal: stop reinventing the wheel, reduce time to launch, and create a trusted ecosystem that can eventually serve as a baseline for certification.
This talk covers what SGL is, why it matters, and where we need help. We have a skeleton layer, CI/CD pipeline, and early hardware support (BeagleV-Fire, Raspberry Pi CM4). What we don't have is enough developers.
If you've ever wanted to contribute to something that might actually leave the planet, this is your chance. I'll walk through the architecture decisions, the unique constraints of spacecraft environments (radiation-induced resets, unreliable comms, no sysadmin access), and the roadmap for user space layers supporting NASA cFS, F Prime, and Space ROS.
Takeaways:
- Understanding of SGL's Yocto-based architecture and design rationale
- Overview of space-specific Linux challenges (radiation, comms, deterministic boot)
- Clear paths to contribute to an open source project with NASA, Boeing, and 20+ organizations involved
Ramón Roche is the General Manager of the Dronecode Foundation at the Linux Foundation, where he leads the global open-source communities behind PX4, Pixhawk, MAVLink, and QGroundControl. With over 13 years in robotics, he remains an active individual contributor while coordinating efforts across industry, academia, and open source. He co-leads the Space Grade Linux SIG under the ELISA Project and the ROS Aerial Robotics Interest Group, working with NASA, Wind River, Boeing, Sony, and others to bring reliable Linux to space systems. When not debugging builds or wrangling CI pipelines, he organizes the PX4 Developer Summit and can be found on GitHub and social media as @mrpollo.