WNA

NASA writes a lot of software, and now NASA wants to share more than 1,000 applications available for free to the public.

Available on NASA’s Technology Transfer Portal, the software is organized into 15 categories that encompass applications such as project management, design tools, data handling, and image processing.

Software makes up about a third of reported NASA inventions each year, and by publishing a software catalogue the agency hopes to increase the ability of others to make use of its software.

The transfer of technology for commercialization and public use, is part of the agency’s Office of the Chief Technologist.

“Traditionally our [apps] were distributed at different offices and labs around the country. So we needed to gather everything in one place,” said Lockney in an interview with InformationWeek Government.

“We’re more excited about the potential of this catalogue because of how valuable it can be. It’s our best solution to the problems we’ve encountered.”