Yesterday NASA released over 1000 projects as open source in a searchable database.
NASA already released the source code and schematics of the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer, Command Module (codenamed Comanche054) and the Lunar Module (Luminary099) in 2009 at the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. In February of this year, DARPA also published a similar catalog. Both code databases are the result of a 2011 order from President Barack Obama that federal agencies increase the pace of technology transfer.
This NASA software catalog will list more than 1,000 projects, and it will show you how to actually obtain the code you want. The idea to help hackers and entrepreneurs push these ideas in new directions - and help them dream up new ideas. Some code is only available to certain people - the rocket guidance system, for instance - but if you can get it, you can use it without paying royalties or copyright fees.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday April 12 2014, @12:45AM
Sorry, but you're wrong.
If you can't redistribute it, then it's not Free Software.
If you can't see the source, then it's not Open Source.
N.B.: Not all Free Software is Open Source, and also not all Open Source is Free Software. That's why the term "FOSS" is used, meaning Free and Open Source Software. It describes software that is both. (Most Free Software is FOSS, and so is most Open Source Software...but there is a lot of stuff around the edges that falls within the union, but not within the intersection.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.