The interactive companion to SMAD,
free for your aerospace program.
If you are teaching capstone design, running a CubeSat project, or supervising a graduate research mission, Extant Lab gives you the full Aerospace Pack — 100+ calculators, SMAD 8-phase workflow, requirements & V&V traceability, SysML modeler, gate review packages — at no cost. We just ask for a photo of the review package hanging on your wall someday.
Who qualifies
Universities & colleges
Senior design, capstone, aerospace engineering courses, CubeSat programs, and graduate research groups at accredited institutions worldwide. Unlimited student seats under one faculty administrator.
- Course-wide deployment (up to 60 students per cohort)
- Faculty admin retains data after students graduate
- Public SMAD chapter-to-tool mapping for syllabi
Student clubs & competitions
Student-led CubeSat teams, AIAA design competitions, NASA USIP, NASA Artemis Student Challenge, ESA Fly Your Satellite teams. 12-month term renewable on re-application.
- Up to 25 active team members
- Full export rights for competition deliverables
- Transfer to commercial pricing if the team spins out
Research labs & non-profits
Academic research missions, planetary defense consortia, open-source space initiatives, and registered 501(c)(3) organizations operating in aerospace.
- Per-project licensing, unlimited projects per institution
- Self-hosted option for data sovereignty
- Priority support for NASA / NSF / ESA funded work
What you get
Full Aerospace Pack
SMAD 8-phase methodology, 104 auto-seeded gate criteria, 100+ calculators, SysML modeler, orbit propagator, link budget, mass budget, AI trajectory optimizer.
SMAD chapter mapping
Every calculator and workflow mapped to SMAD (Wertz, Everett & Puschell, 4th ed.) chapter references. Use it in lectures, problem sets, and lab assignments.
Student collaboration
Real-time multi-user editing on requirements, risks, and designs. Student roles separate from faculty admin. Graduated seniors don't lose their portfolio work.
Review packages
Auto-generated SRR / PDR / CDR / TRR / FRR / ORR review data packages from live mission data. Students see what a real aerospace program review looks like.
AI bundle included
Extant Lab includes the AI Requirements Generator, AI Test Generator, AI Model Assistant, and Document Extractor — no separate subscription.
Institutional branding
Host under your department URL (lab.extant2000.com/stanford-aa, etc.) with your institution's logo and color scheme on public-facing mission pages.
Apply
We review applications within 3 business days. Approved institutions get a sign-up link for a faculty admin account and a shareable cohort-join link for students.
Frequently asked questions
Is this really free, or is it a gated trial?
Really free for qualifying academic and research users, forever. Approved institutions get the full Aerospace Pack plus the AI bundle with no credit card and no auto-conversion to paid. We reserve the right to revoke access only if commercial use is detected.
What if my team spins off and becomes a commercial company?
Keep your data. When you incorporate, flip the same workspace to a commercial plan — all your requirements, risks, SysML models, and review packages migrate as-is. Usually this is the point where a NewSpace startup subscribes to Professional ($129/seat/mo).
We use a non-US institution email. Does it still qualify?
Yes. `.ac.uk`, `.edu.cn`, `.univ-*.fr`, and equivalent country-coded academic domains all qualify. Non-standard institutional domains work too — we just verify the institution via an accreditation lookup.
Can I use this for my personal learning if I'm not enrolled?
Self-taught learners aren't covered by Extant Lab, but the free calculator suite at /tools is unrestricted. If you're working through SMAD on your own and want full mission workflow, we do offer an individual Starter tier at $29/mo.
Will there be advertising or watermarks on review packages?
No ads. Exported PDFs carry a small "Generated with Extant Lab (free academic license)" footer that can be removed on commercial plans.