NASA has made many of the applications it uses to travel to the Moon, or Mars, available for free download. It has just released 150 new programs that you can already use.
Space exploration is intimately linked to software and computing. The Perseverance robot now roaming Mars, and its Ingenuity helicopter, or the International Space Station, could not be where they are today without the software that controls them.
These days NASA has uploaded 150 new applications to its NASA Software website, so it now has 832 free programs to download.
“From operations here on Earth to missions to the Moon and Mars, the software is integral to everything NASA does,” explains NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in the press release.
“The good news is that this technology is available to the public free of charge. Software suitable for satellites, astronauts, engineers, and scientists, as it is applied and adapted across industries and businesses, is a testament to the broad value NASA brings to the United States, and the world.”
This software, unsurprisingly, has a scientific purpose and is, therefore, most useful to scientists, educators, and businesses.
For example one of the most downloaded programs is TetrUSS, which is used in fluid analysis and aerodynamics.
But there is a lot of very useful software for all types of users. For example, there is an application that allows you to visit the planets in virtual reality mode.
Worldwind is a software that extracts all the data captured in real-time by NASA satellites and displays them on a terrestrial globe. Information such as the temperature around the planet, pollution, weather, etc.
There is also software for testing machinery, image editors, photography software, and much more.
The website is organized into categories that allow access to different sections of the catalog: vehicle management, autonomous systems, data analysis, environment, propulsion, tool design, etc.
All the software is free, and companies or educational institutions can integrate it into their applications.
Click here to access NASA Software.
