Vorpalwolf’s Open Hardware Argument

Field notes

The project is organized around reusable interfaces rather than complete vehicles: mechanical, power, and data boundaries for rovers, and structural, harness, thermal, and communications boundaries for smallsats. Its stated workflow is to publish assumptions, design decisions, mass budgets, trade criteria, and dead ends so others can inspect or challenge them. The author also separates useful AI assistance in requirements tracing from the false confidence it may generate in hardware programs. All work is explicitly marked as concept-stage rather than flight-tested.