# Altus Metrum 

Altus Metrum produces open source hardware and software avionics solutions 
for the hobby rocketry community.

# The Usual Suspects

The people behind Altus Metrum are
[Bdale Garbee](http://gag.com/~bdale) and 
[Keith Packard](http://keithp.com/keithp).  Both of us are well-known in the
Free Software community, and we share a passion for hobby rocketry.  We 
often describe ourselves as "two grown men with a shared chemical 
dependency .. on ammonium perchlorate!"  That's because AP is the oxidizer
component of APCP, which is the proptellant we most often use in our rockets.

Because all of our designs are open source, we enthusiastically invite 
technical contributions, particular to our software,
from anyone interested in helping make our products better!

# Your Rights

All hardware designs on this site are licensed under the 
[TAPR](http://www.tapr.org/)
[Open Hardware License](http://www.tapr.org/ohl.html), 
and all the software is under the 
[GNU](http://www.gnu.org/)
[General Public License, version 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html)
or compatible licenses.

# Hobby Rocketry #

The motivation for the circuits and software you will find on this site is
our loosely-knit group's shared interest in hobby rocketry.  This very brief
[Ted presentation by Steve Jurvetson](http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jurvetson_on_model_rocketry.html)
quickly conveys at least part of why we do this.  John Coker 
has published an excellent 
[overview of hobby rocketry](http://www.jcrocket.com/welcome.shtml) 
on his web site.  Keith has also put together some useful notes about the 
process of [certification](http://keithp.com/rockets/certification/) to
fly high power rockets.
<p>
To find more information about the rockets Bdale and his son have built, see
[Garbee Rockets](http://www.gag.com/rockets).
<p>
As Bdale and Robert became more experienced in the hobby and started to build
and fly more sophisticated projects, we started to feel limited by the 
existing electronics products available.  OpenAlt was Bdale's first 
attempt to address this situation with a completely open hardware and software
design... other project have since followed, and it's cool to have help from
Keith and other friends!