About

Project Elara aims to combine the efforts of scientists, engineers, entrepeneurs, developers, and artists to together work towards space-based energy technologies that could one day power the world. Through open science and open knowledge, it aims to freely share its knowledge and spread its spirit of collaboration. We strive to ensure as much of our work as possible is given freely away (or at minimal cost) for everyone's benefit.

The Project name, elara, is a constructed word that means "hope". Specifically, it is hope for something that is not impossible, just very hard. But for something that has at least a possibility of it becoming real one day, with sacrifice, dedication, and continuous work.

Note: Readers well versed in the works of the famed author J. R. R. Tolkien may also recognize that elara is closely related to the Quenya terms ëala ("spirit") and elena ("of the stars"), which is quite fitting.

Please read our Charter for a comprehensive description of the Project.

Note: We are aware that there exists a video game named Project_ELERA, though it is not related to us, and we came up with our name independently. If you are a Project_ELERA developer, please know that we aren't trying to steal your name, and any similarity is purely coincidental!

Licensing information

Project Elara is committed to open-source and open-research. Our work is wholly shared under open-source licenses, such as the public domain Unlicense (which is used for the majority of our work) and the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA (which is used for some of our creative works).

Learn more about our licensing

Contact information

• Contact number: (518) 285-0528
• Email address: elaraproject.sci@gmail.com
• Physical address: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St, Troy, NY 12180

Other information

This site is built on Project Elara's design system, which is described in more detail on our design page.

The source code for the website can be viewed on Codeberg.