The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning to open source its code by developing a central searchable database incorporating more than 1,000 of its past projects.
Being developed as part of a federal order to boost technology transfer rate, the database would include the code for past NASA projects ranging robots, climate simulators and rocket guidance systems, the Wired reported.
NASA will roll out a catalogue on April 10, which lists the location of the software for the past projects.
In addition, the space agency is also planning to start hosting the software online by 2015, which can be used by anyone only after receiving special approval to access projects such as the rocket guidance system.
NASA technology transfer program executive David Lockney said that the design software has been used to make everything from guitars to roller coasters to Cadillacs.
"Scheduling software that keeps the Hubble Space Telescope operations straight has been used for scheduling MRIs at busy hospitals and as control algorithms for online dating services," Lockney said.
