Coders everywhere will be thrilled to learn that NASA has made a treasure trove of coding tools available for access.
The plan is for much of the agency's software, which includes 500,000 lines of code that guided the Mars Curiosity Rover to the Red Planet, to eventually be disseminated to other government agencies as well as private organizations.
The space agency's Technology Transfer Program published the catalog online on Thursday, PCMag.com reported. The document includes descriptions of the software tools that NASA uses, contact information for NASA offices and even the names of people who can supply the actual code used.
"This software has always been available, but it hasn't always been accessible," Daniel Lockney, head of the Technology Transfer in NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, told PCMag. "For decades, with anything NASA has invented, we've looked at it and tried to determine if there are any other commercial applications for it. Increasingly we're finding that our inventions are more and more about software.
"And what this catalog points to is not just rocket science, it's relevant to management of complex operations, robotics, design tools, project management tools, scheduling software and more."
The catalog of software tools is a first move toward distributing NASA's innovations for outside parties to implement, and the agency plans to make the actual code available sometime next year.
Through its history, NASA has been generous in sharing its discoveries with the world. One of its unexpected contributions was helping to develop the process where credit cards can be read electronically in sales.
The agency's collection of software code is a "cornucopia" in multiple programming languages that could be applied in many industries, Lockney said. Even though the software has been available for a while, it has been difficult for third parties to access.
But NASA software has still been implemented into many other disciplines.
"Algorithms we developed for tracking, interpreting, and storing deep space imagery have been used for tracking and identification of endangered species," Lockney told PCMag, "and that same image interpretation and storage software is being used to build large databases of ultrasound arterial scans to help diagnose heart health and predict risk for heart attacks."
The agency also hopes to benefit from outside parties building on its software, Lockney said.
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