Welcome to the LibreCube Documentation!

At LibreCube we want to make space accessible to everyone! We believe that space exploration is relevant to all humankind and everyone with interest in space should be given the means to learn and contribute to it.

We start small. That is, small in size, but not in vision. Our systems are inspired from the modular CubeSat standard, which sparked a revolution in making space more accessible.

We are creating an ecosystem of modular components (such as electrical power systems, navigation modules, onboard computers) that can be assembled together to form systems for space (and Earth!) exploration, such as satellites, drones, rovers, and more!

Everything we do is based on these three principles:

  • Open Source: Not only do we publish everything as open source, we also strictly only use open source tools to get our projects done – so that you can modify everything to your needs, at no costs.

  • Free and Open Standards: We rely on proven and tested standards for our system designs, mostly using standards from the space domain.

  • Reference Architecture: We create an ecosystem of reusable elements, based on a generic architecture of systems and modules that have standardized interfaces. This makes it possible to combine and tailor elements for various mission applications.

What's in for you?

Do you want to be part of a community that develops open source hardware and software for exploration of space? Do you want to democratize science and technology? Or maybe just want to tinker on interesting robotic projects in your free time?

We look for people that are interested in electronics, mechanics, programming, documentation, outreach, art, ..., everything!

As a contributor to LibreCube, you will learn the power (and frustration) of open source projects. Moreover, you will learn quite a lot about space technology and space standards - the same stuff that is used for building the big missions!

Of course, you are also free to just use the building blocks of our reference architecture to build something on your own (for example, a spacetech-powered pumpkin farming machine) without actively contributing back. But if you do so, please let us know and share your story.

How to get involved?

No matter if you are absolute beginner or seasoned expert, everyone is welcome. We want to foster an encouraging environment where people can openly share ideas, advice, and lessons learned. Please read our Code of Conduct.

The best way to start is to join our Chat and add yourself to the Mailing List. You can find this and more also on the Community Page.

Most of our projects start out as Prototype Repository, so have a look if there is one that sparks your interest. Also make sure to consult the Development Section to understand how we do software and hardware development. We are also working on larger scale projects that you may want to join. You can find them here.

How is the community organized?

Generally, people contribute to LibreCube voluntarily without monetary compensation. From time to time there are opportunities, such as Google Summer of Code, that allows us to have contributors (mostly students) get a stipend for a few months while working on specific projects.

In 2024 we formally registered LibreCube as a non-profit organization in Germany, to be able to receive funding and membership fees (due to archaic law however, only EU citizens can apply for membership and can then pay those yearly fees). But don't worry, you do not have to be a formal member of this association to be a contributor!

In fact, we have contributors from various parts of the world. Living in different time zones makes it challenging to do online meetings at a date and time that is convenient for all (but we try from time to time). Therefore, lots of organization is coordinated offline. We have an OpenProject Server to help us with this.

And remember, you can always reach the entire community in the Chat!


If you like to contribute to this documentation, go to the source code.

All documentation is licensed as Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)