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by bronco21016 2069 days ago
Yeah, pesky .gov has a problem with "guided" projectiles. Stabilized systems rather than guided systems keep you out of legal trouble.
1 comments

That seems to be an urban legend. There are regulations on size and power of model rockets, but not on guidance, at least in the US.[1]

[1] https://www.nar.org/find-a-local-club/section-guidebook/laws...

The regulations are not rocketry/FAA/explosives regulations that the NAR deals with, but rather munitions export regulations. Specifically, guidance systems are munitions and therefore are regulated under ITAR Category IV, which means a US resident cannot export the technology by, for example, putting it in a public GitHub repo.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2016-title22-vol1/xm...

Is this missile guidance system a weapon in the eyes of the law?

The feds haven't busted down my friends door for contributing yet.

https://github.com/MuMech/MechJeb2

> Is this missile guidance system a weapon in the eyes of the law?

Yes, it is.

> The feds haven't busted down my friends door for contributing yet.

That's a video game. There are no restrictions on building guided-missile-shaped pixels. If it were shown that the technology could be deployed in a real missile, it'd be ITAR real quick, and the person (like yourself) who were the one to show that it could be deployed in a real missile could be guilty of providing technical assistance to a foreign agent via a github release and public comment.

Not that I think that's the case, but it's really best to tread lightly around these things. You don't want to find out that a bunch of small-time terrorists bought a hobby rocket, and uploaded a kerbal mod, and downed a jet full of tourists or ignited an oil field.