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The MESA Manifesto discusses the motivation for the MESA project, outlines a MESA code of conduct, and describes the establishment of a MESA Council. Before using MESA, you should read the manifesto document. Here's a brief extract of some of the key points
Stellar evolution calculations remain a basic tool of broad impact for astrophysics. New observations constantly test the models, even in 1D. The continued demand requires the construction of a general, modern stellar evolution code that combines the following advantages:
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Openness: anyone can download sources from the website.
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Modularity: independent modules for physics and for numerical algorithms; the parts can be used stand-alone.
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Wide Applicability: capable of calculating the evolution of stars in a wide range of environments.
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Modern Techniques: advanced AMR, fully coupled solution for composition and abundances, mass loss and gain, etc.
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Comprehensive Microphysics: up-to-date, wide-ranging, flexible, and independently useable microphysics modules.
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Performance: runs well on a personal computer and makes effective use of parallelism with multi-core architectures.
Users are encouraged to add to the capabilities of MESA, which will remain a community resource. However, use of MESA requires adherence to the MESA code of conduct:
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That all publications and presentations (research, educational, or outreach) deriving from the use of MESA acknowledge the MESA Instrument papers.
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That user modifications and additions are given back to the community.
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That users alert the MESA Council about their publications, either pre-release or at the time of publication.
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That users make available in a timely fashion (e.g., online at the MESA website) all information needed for others to recreate their MESA results -- "open know how" to match "open source."
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That users agree to help others learn MESA, giving back as the project progresses.
There are a few defined roles in the MESA community.
The 1st author is the primary developer of MESA and the first author on the MESA instrument papers
A MESA area steward has a prime role in the development of an area of MESA and also has responsibility for responding to user bug reports and requests for help related to that area.
The MESA Council consists of those engaged in working towards the shared missions outlined here:
There are many ways this will be done: supporting the contributors, maintaining the web access and web page updates, seeking enabling funding, holding yearly working groups that allow for continued engagement, documenting MESA development in the refereed literature, and sustaining advanced development.
This starts with answering questions from users, developing a way to accept new code in an integrated fashion, maintain a user registry, and identify new MESA Council members from those most active and engaged in the intelligent use of MESA.
Promote MESA and its goals, e.g., through scientific contributions at relevant conferences. Identify science opportunities that match MESA capabilities and facilitate and encourage appropriate collaborative activities. Track the science carried out by the community with MESA.