On April 10 NASA made over 1,000 codes available to the general public in a new online software catalog. Now, programmers can analyze and play with code integral to NASA's space programs.
According to NASA's website, they have organized the codes into 15 broad categories, offering a wide variety of applications for the general public, academia, industry, and government agencies. Some of the technology offered in the catalog include project management systems, design tools, data handling and image processing, aeronautics, and robotic and autonomous systems.
Each code has been evaluated and given access restrictions based on their affiliations. "This is the first time the list of all the agency's software is accessible in one place and sorted into categories," said Danny Garcia, chair, NASA Software Release Authority Working Group. "Our group led the compilation of the software catalog for the agency, editing 1000 code descriptions from 10 ceters written by many seperate authors, so that the catalog will look uniform and be as user-friendly as possible. Future versions of the catalog will be auto-generated by the NASA Technology Transfer System database when someone clicks on the link at the website and will always include the latest codes available."
This seems like a great thing to do on NASA's part. Having their codes readily available to the public shows the agencies belief in an open government. Further, putting out the code encourages innovation and imagination. NASA is bringing the excitement of space back into the community and I am all for it. There is a process to get approved for the code which requires you to request a release form, and your intentions for the software but it seems worth it if you wish to see the kind of code that handles complex missions.
To access the software catalog or for more information visit : http://technology.nasa.gov/
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