Volume 10, Number 2 • March/April 2002 • Technology Transfer

Accessing NASA Software Innovations

ACARA II software, developed at NASA Glenn Research Center, is now available on the Open Channel Foundation Web site. Logo courtesy of Open Channel Software.

NASA has a rich tradition of advancing technology to achieve cutting-edge mission objectives. Many of these innovations have been in the form of computer software, developed to support and enable the broad range of functions required by the space agency’s missions and operations.

Over the course of its history, NASA has developed advanced software technology at its centers and in conjunction with industry and universities, resulting in thousands of computer programs with a wide array of applications. Since the mid-1960s, NASA has made many of these programs available to US industry and the public, contributing to the development of new technologies and commercial enterprises. For example, the publicly distributed NASTRAN program helped pioneer the creation of the computer-aided engineering industry.

However, in view of the commercial potential of NASA software technology and its rising importance to agency missions, NASA began working last year with a new partner for software distribution and commercialization: Chicago-based Open Channel Software (OCS) and its nonprofit arm, the Open Channel Foundation. The partnership’s strong emphasis on e-commerce, open-source approaches and market-driven business models reflects key aspects of NASA’s overall initiative to boost software partnering and commercialization.

Vice president of development Douglas Curry, co-founder of the company and a former technology transfer officer at both Purdue University and the University of Chicago, explains that their original vision was “to create a central repository for scientific and technical software and to be able to distribute that software in a manner that emphasizes the positive aspects of what we call Ôcommunity involvement.’”

“Our idea was to create a market Ôpull’ condition rather than attempt to Ôpush’ early-stage, new and/or commercially untried software into a given marketplace, all with an eye toward commercializing those applications that demonstrate market viability,” he notes.

The partnership supports NASA’s efforts to make its software more accessible to US industry and other enterprises, stimulate and enable collaborative development and foster the adaptation of software to meet both commercial markets and NASA mission objectives. The Open Channel Foundation provides an online means for obtaining NASA software code and applying it to business and industry needs in ways that may yield new commercial opportunities. In turn, OCS focuses on creating new ventures that bring NASA and derived software into the marketplace.

“NASA can enjoy the benefits of increased exposure and visibility for their researchers and programs, as well as the type of market distribution and feedback that helps determine a software’s overall value,” Curry states.

To date, OCS has launched several activities with NASA software. Its nonprofit arm is hosting much of the original “COSMIC” collection of software on the Web. The collection, dubbed “NASA Classics,” contains many old programs that are now enjoying a new lease on life on the Open Channel Foundation’s Web site (http://www.openchannelfoundation.org/).

Current software from NASA centers is available on the site as well, including the Knowledge Information Center (KIC) from Headquarters, ACARA II and the Java version of Tempest (1998 NASA Software of the Year) from Glenn Research Center and the Shuttle Systems Department Scheduling Tool from Johnson Space Center. This combination of old and new software has resulted in 131,000 unique requests for information about NASA-developed software. With the assistance of a targeted media campaign recently launched by OCS, it is expected that the growing interest in NASA software will fuel collaboration with NASA researchers and the commercialization of software in partnership with NASA. Q

For more information, contact Doug Curry at Open Channel Software, 773/334-8177, dcurry@openchannelsoftware.com. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits