NASA Made Searchable Patent Database Available for Public

If you’re not too familiar with NASA’s financial status, you probably think that the agency is the place to go for state-of-the-art technology and the latest developments in everything that is new and technical. Sadly, though, NASA is suffering from huge financial issues, as they are rarely afforded even a half of the budget they need.

But that doesn’t mean that the agency doesn’t develop new equipment and tech. No, it just means that they have to do so on a far more restricted budget and that they are very limited when it actually comes to space travel. They still build impressive tech, it’s just that its scope is far less impressive than it could be.

One of the best things about NASA is the agency’s “we’re all on the same boat” mentality. Since we all live on the same planet and we’d all want to see our species populate different planets, there’s no point for NASA to sell off all of its inventions. Instead, they went for a different approach.

This is how  use. Now, anyone can look at patents developed by the space agency over the years, including thousands of expired ones and 56 newly added ones. They come in very different types and can be used for a variety of uses.

Known as the NASA Patent Portfolio, the patent database includes technologies developed for fifteen different fields, with medicine, biotechnology, optics, sensors, electronics, communications, propulsion, robotics, health, automation and control, aeronautics, storage, manufacturing, IT, software, and power generation being only some of them.

It might seem like only major companies would benefit from the agency’s newly released patent list, but that is certainly not the case. In fact, the patents include technologies like artificial limbs, breast biopsy devices, ventricular assist machines, infrared ear thermometers, anti-icing systems, and even improved radial tires; and these are just scratching the surface.

The idea behind the move is to kickstart a new age of entrepreneurship and to place the United States back in the lead in regards to manufacturing highly advanced technologies and to economic competitiveness. If more people have access to the patents, more people will develop an interest in the field.

NASA has been known to collaborate with businesses in the past, and even to give away their patents to start-up companies that could expand on them and then make a collaborative business entry. But while this approach might cost NASA some money, it could actually work wonder for the country’s economic and technological prowess.

Image source: Flickr