I can't seem to find a cite for this (may have been in a video) but I remember Joe being asked about open source, and he responded that he'd like to but rocket stability and especially guidance software is an absolute legal minefield in the US.
Yes, he mentions frequently that he's concerned about ITAR. Under a strict reading of the Munitions list and ITAR regulations, rocket guidance software is a Category IV Munition and can't be exported. Unfortunately (as we learned from the crypto wars of the 1990s, when strong encryption was also a Munition), the US government takes quite a strict view towards the consideration of online-available source code as "export."
Print it in a book and take the physical copy with you on a plane, iirc that was how they did it with GPG back in the day because 1st amendment protection.
Seems to be a commercial product, given the small market the price seems reasonable since development cost doesn't go down but the number of units it gets spread across does.
Is it a commercial product? I’m under the impression that what this enables (slow thrust vectored ascent of small rockets) is extremely cool from a hobby perspective as it’s more “accurate” to how large rockets work - but from a raw functionality perspective for small rockets you’re probably better off just using faster motors and fins to stabilize.
Commercial meaning it's being sold for profit and manufactured to be sold for profit. The market is die hard hobbyist but the product is a commercial venture selling to those hobbyists.
edit: Versus an open source project or someone's hobby project just being sold at cost.
