Hold my beer while I’m going to the Moon.
In a move that could greatly benefit the space industry, as well as numerous companies, inventors and research labs, NASA just released 56 formerly patented agency technologies into the public domain, making their technology freely available and available for unrestricted commercial use.
“By releasing this collection into the public domain, we are encouraging entrepreneurs to explore new ways to commercialise Nasa technologies,” Daniel Lockney, Nasa’s technology transfer programme executive, said in a statement.
In order to mark this release, the space agency also created a search engine for the database of free technologies they already have in place, which you can check out here. As for the new technologies, feel free to browse them here. Some of the technologies are:
- Apparatus And Method For Packaging And Integrating Microphotonic Devices
- A Software Platform For Post-Processing Waveform-Based NDE
- System For Controlling A Magnetically Levitated Rotor
- Coil System For Plasmoid Thruster
- High-Temperature Decomposition Of Hydrogen Peroxide
- Solid State Carbon Monoxide Sensor
- Gas-Generator Augmented Expander Cycle Rocket Engine
Most of the technologies were used in space flight, but they can have significant applications outside of space flight. They could be used in advanced manufacturing processes, for example in the production of sensors, propulsion methods, rocket nozzles, thrusters, aircraft wing designs and improved rocket safety and performance concepts.
“By making these technologies available in the public domain, we are helping foster a new era of entrepreneurship that will again place America at the forefront of high-tech manufacturing and economic competitiveness,” Lockney said.
This move follows a long tradition of NASA to harbor and spread valuable research, putting progress ahead of profit. This could also encourage partnerships with the private industry.
