One small step for NASA, a great gift for the open source community. The National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) plans to release the source code of some 1,000 software projects this week. The U.S. space agency wants to set up a website on which they will publish the data, reports the technology magazine Wired.

The move follows a similar initiative in 2009 to provide free access to the code which ran systems on the Apollo 11 moon landings, and other open-source projects by US government agencies like Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The agency, in line with the White House’s Open Government policy, is also aiming to make the free online catalogue of more than 1,000 projects one of its most easily accessible. According to Dan Lockney, NASA’s Technology Transfer Program executive, the release is not a historical archive, but a collection of recent software solutions developed by the space agency.

William Eshagh, who is spearheading the project, said in open source blog that NASA is first focusing on providing a home for the current state of open source at the Agency. This includes guidance on how to engage the open source process, points of contact, and a directory of existing projects. The second phase will concentrate on providing a robust forum for ongoing discussion of open source concepts, policies, and projects at the Agency.

“In our third phase, we will turn to the tools and mechanisms development projects generally need to be successful, such as distributed version control, issue tracking, continuous integration, documentation, communication, and planning/management. During this phase, we will create and host a tool, service, and process chain to further lower the burden to going open,” he added.

The release will cover 15 broad categories offering a wide variety of applications for use by industry, academia, other government agencies and the general public. The catalog will cover project management systems, design tools, data handling and image processing, as well as solutions for life-support functions, aeronautics, structural analysis, and robotic and autonomous systems.

Encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship

Did you know, for example, that NASA has developed the first CAD software? NASA developers created programs that became important not just to NASA but for the entire world. Even software for controlling missiles and robot control should be among them. And even some of what falls within the area of ​​artificial intelligence.

The U.S. government is the largest producer of public-domain software in the U.S., but until now it also very careless in the utilization of science and the public. The aim of the government to go open source is to have developers and private industry pick up the free resource and run with it, developing new commercial uses and variations.

One of the main goals of the database is to help develop technology that can be transferred to other sectors. They hope it will help hackers and entrepreneurs push their existing ideas in new directions as well as help trigger new concepts.

The catalog of software will be in the PDF format initially. A printed version will be released on 21 May and in the following weeks and months to a searchable database and an archive will be built.

“Software is an increasingly important element of the agency’s intellectual asset portfolio, making up about a third of our reported inventions every year,” says the post. “We are excited to be able to make that software widely available to the public with the release of our new software catalog.”

The catalog will initially be available at technology.nasa.gov. But some government-only code could include some items that are restricted by their nature like guidance and navigation systems.

“NASA is committed to the principles of open government,” the site added. “By making NASA resources more accessible and usable by the public, we are encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Our technology transfer program is an important part of bringing the benefit of space exploration back to Earth for the benefit of all people.”

Back in February, DARPA, the agency for military research projects of the U.S. Department of Defense, opened such a catalog. The research of the DARPA relates not only to the research of new weapons systems and the theory but practice of computer science.