Why can’t we deliver an open source Science and Technology project in Turkey?

I had been crawling and watching many Science and Technology project recently. (I know I have not been blogging for sometime and you criticized me and I am back with stories) You probably know my favorite sites like

www.kickstarter.com

www.indiegogo.com

Depending on your appetite –  there are simple or complex technology and science projects all around. As you surf those sites you would see many successfully funded and deliver projects. By the way I call science and technology (S&T) because I do not believe that we can talk about science without technology and especially Software/Hardware  technologies. Basically I was wondering how Engineers in Turkey were performing. I wonder what we were working on as open source projects on Genome analysis, Space exploration, Avionics, robotics, Oceanography, material science, green technologies, energy you name it.

Unfortunately I could not find meaningful projects. Just let me know if any reader is involved any such projects. Some colleagues said open source S&T project are not in our DNA in Turkey. Second argument is about being hard and unreachable. On the contrary science is everywhere and accessible for everybody. I do believe it is shame not be involved in any scientific open source project as a contributor.

On the other hand it is interesting to note in 1633 Logari Hasan Celebi is the first man to try flying with a rocket. You can read about his story in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag%C3%A2ri_Hasan_%C3%87elebi

“… Evliya Çelebi purported that in 1633 Lagari Hasan Çelebi launched in a 7-winged rocket using 50 okka (140 lbs) of gunpowder from Sarayburnu, the point below Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The flight was said to be undertaken at the time of the birth of Sultan Murad IV’s daughter. As Evliya Celebi wrote, Lagari proclaimed before launch “O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus”; after ascending in the rocket, he landed in the sea, swimming ashore and reporting “O my sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!” he was rewarded by the Sultan with silver and the rank of sipahi in the Ottoman army. Evliya Çelebi also wrote of Lagari’s brother, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, making a flight by glider a year earlier….”

It is interesting to note both brothers contributed to man on moon project !!!!

I wonder why we are not forcing such ingenious projects in our times. Is it that difficult to put a satellite in an orbit. I started googling around this and learned about our ATA-1 project.

In a blog http://blog.hasanhuseyincakir.com.tr/turkiyenin-ilk-uzay-programi/ Hasan Huseyin Cakır wrote about “first space program” in Turkey. www.spaceturk.org (the web site is no more active ) This is the typical end of road.

For those who want to read more detail there is a paper published in Bilim Teknik about technical difficulties of launching a satellite: obviously there must be rules and regulations but I can not understand why we can not launch a balloon and fire a rocket from there and why any crazy amateur would care about such details. But WHY have we lost this flavor in our lives. WHY?