The Astropy Problem

TL;DR

The Astropy Project is a widely used, volunteer-driven Python library for astronomy that faces sustainability challenges due to lack of funding and formal recognition, prompting discussions on solutions.

Contribution

This paper analyzes the sustainability issues of the Astropy Project and proposes potential solutions to ensure its continued development and recognition.

Findings

The project is widely adopted by the astronomical community.

It operates effectively without formal funding.

Sustainability concerns threaten its future growth.

Abstract

The Astropy Project (http://astropy.org) is, in its own words, "a community effort to develop a single core package for Astronomy in Python and foster interoperability between Python astronomy packages." For five years this project has been managed, written, and operated as a grassroots, self-organized, almost entirely volunteer effort while the software is used by the majority of the astronomical community. Despite this, the project has always been and remains to this day effectively unfunded. Further, contributors receive little or no formal recognition for creating and supporting what is now critical software. This paper explores the problem in detail, outlines possible solutions to correct this, and presents a few suggestions on how to address the sustainability of general purpose astronomical software.