How to get started in the project#
Project Elara is not the work of one person, but the work of a team - and we welcome anyone who wants to work with us to join us. If you’re new to the Project, or are interested in participating in the Project, this part of the Handbook is for you!
We want to make sure that joining Project Elara as seamless as possible. And we know it can be super confusing to start work on any research or open-source project, with bewildering documentation and a lack of a clear beginner’s guide to follow. So we’ve included a step-by-step guide to quickly get up to speed and becoming part of the Elara mission!
Step 1: Get in touch#
First, we want to make sure you get in touch with us, so we can help you and explain things and troubleshoot in case you run into any trouble in the onboarding process! If you’re on Discord, you can join our Discord server by copying our server invite link https://discord.gg/Zr37GyxzDd into your web browser. You can also send an email to either one of the addresses below:
elaraproject.sci@gmail.com, which is our official organization email (this is the recommended email for official inquiries)
songy14@rpi.edu, email of Jacky Song, our organization head and chief administrator (this is the recommended email for fast responses)
Step 2: Understand our work & ideals#
Second, we want to make sure you know what we do, and what our mission is! First, make sure you read our mission statement, which we’ve put down below:
Our mission statement
Project Elara is a nonprofit dedicated to being part of creating a future powered by plentiful space-based solar power. We conduct open-source research dedicated to the public domain and not driven by profit, because our singular goal is to help create the hopeful future we envision. We publish our work openly and explain it in detail, so that even if we don’t succeed, others can pick up where we left off, and bring our work to completion.
We believe in open science - science without paywalls, done for the sake of advancing science and the public good. And we believe in the value of open source - releasing our code and hardware into the public domain, making sure that it’s available to everyone, and that no one will be able to establish a monopoly for its use. Last but not least, we believe in working as a team, treating each other with kindness, and making sure everyone feels comfortable and safe within our team. A big part of this is that we carefully track contributions so everyone gets credit where credit is due. Working with us is contingent upon you affirming these ideals. If you choose to espouse, disseminate, or take action based on ideas that are hostile to our mission, you will not be allowed to further participate in our work. We will trust that you will act in good faith - please do not break that trust.
Optional: Gain a basic understanding of our research#
We also want to make sure you have a basic grasp of our research and our design! For this, we highly recommend reading our introductory poster aimed at anyone new to the project. Reading the first chapter of this Handbook is also recommended, but feel free to skip that if you don’t have the time.
Tip
As a supplementary resource, you might also find our introductory presentation worth a read.
Step 3: Pursue your interests#
Having read our mission statement and our introductory poster, it’s time to choose the role(s) you want to take in the Project! We want to make sure everyone has a role that fits them. At the moment, we have four (major) divisions open to new members:
The research division, which focuses on physics and engineering analysis of space-based power systems using analytical and computational methods
The build division, which focuses on construction and testing of power system prototypes, with plenty of hands-on work!
The community & outreach division, which focuses engaging with the community, helping out, and spreading the awareness of Project Elara and encouraging more people to join us. This is especially suited to anyone with experience or interest in the visual arts (in particular digital art, photography, film production, motion graphics, and graphic design), volunteering, fundraising, or public speaking.
The developer division, which focuses on developing and maintaining our open-source software, documentation, and web content (including our website). Experience in physics/engineering is a bonus, but not required. If you’re a developer, this might be the place for you!
Note
In this Handbook, we explain (much of) the physics, engineering, and math involved in our work, and we require no background in any of our areas of work, though experience is of course welcomed. We should note that the research-division is the most physics/math-heavy, the build division is much less so, and the outreach division has minimal scientific/math-based work.
We strongly recommend exploring our roles document, which details a list of roles within the Project. You can choose more than one role, but please don’t take more than you can handle. Please also make sure that you let us know how you’d like to keep in touch with us, so that we can work together more easily - again, our work is highly collaborative in nature. If you try a role and find that you don’t like it, that’s okay! Just let us know, we are happy to help you find something you enjoy doing!
Step 5: Next steps#
Once you’ve done all the previous steps, you’re all set to start working with us! What to do next depends on which division you wish to join. We’ll go through the things to do for each of our divisions, one-by-one.
If you’re planning to join the build division or research division, we post tasks to work on in our official work repository, Elara Labs. Just let us know which task(s) you’d like to work on by adding a comment under the task(s): you can take whichever tasks interest you! In each task, we list out the work description in detail, as well as relevant sections in the Handbook for any background knowledge required.
If you’re planning to join the developer division, we post tasks to work on in our projects tracker. Note that not all of these are programming/code-based, so if you’re planning to work as a developer, just focus on the ones that are.
If you’re planning to join the community & outreach division, please get in touch with us, either on our new members launchpad or our Discord (we already put the invite link above). We’ll guide you through participating in the community and help you find a way to contribute.