1969年7月20日。
Along with 600 million people, nine-year-old Chris Hadfield is glued to his television—watching intently as American astronaut Neil Armstrong glides down the ladder of the Lunar Module, and in one swift pounce, touches the dust of a familiar yet alien world. His words forever immortalized, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“To see that successfully carried out against what seemed like impossible odds for the first time in human history,” Hadfieldrecalledin 2012, “was hugely inspiring.” That moment sparked his lifelong journey to become an astronaut; whichhe did, becoming thefirst Canadian to walk in space在2001年。20世纪90年代，海莉·哈里森(Haley Harrison)第一次在一盘关于太空的教育磁带上听到阿姆斯特朗的话。“那时我很小，大概四五岁，”她回忆说，“我只是一遍又一遍地听磁带。我会想象自己在航天飞机上，我会假装我要去太空。”Harrison is now aPh.D. candidate studying nanoscienceat The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with goals of working in the space industry.
NASA is not only required by law (e.g. the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976) to give the public access to many of its materials, the Agencyreallywants people to use them.
Footage and audio of theApollo 11Commander Neil Armstrong andlunar module pilotBuzz Aldrin hopping on the Moon’s surface in 1969 have been remixed, remastered, and reshared countless times—inspiring generations of everyday citizens, like Hadfield and Harrison, to engage with space science and exploration. In fact, the use of materials created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create new works for the public doesn’t end with Armstrong’s history-making first steps. For example, Alex G. Orphanos, a science communicator, engineer, and host of theToday in Spacepodcast, has put NASA’s materials to use for over six years. In particular, he has used images from theHubble Space Telescopeand information fromNASA Procurementto better explain space-related issues to his audience. Rachael Eidson, abusiness development specialist for Trenton Systems andsocial media influenceralso routinely uses NASA’s images in her collaborations with eco-fashion and accessory companies. In fact, it’s hard to miss theresurgence of space-themed items, including t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc. featuring NASA’s “meatball” logo. As the L.A. Timesreportedin 2019, “The NASA logo is having a moment.”
From documentaries to basketball shoes, works utilizing NASA’s materials are everywhere; and at some point, while browsing NASA-themed goods online or watching clips of launches on Youtube, you may have wondered why and how these materials are used so widely and freely.Isn’t there some sort of intellectual property (IP) infringement going on?简单的回答是，没有。In fact, NASA is not only required by law to give you access to many of those materials, it actuallyreallywants you to use them—here’s why.
NASA’s openness is intrinsically linked to its mission
NASA’s commitment to sharing its work openly with the public has, arguably, been there since its creation in 1958.NASA wasestablishedin the midst of a galactic battle for scientific and innovation dominance between the Soviet Union and the United States (U.S.) during the Cold War. Within this context, the Agency’sprimary functionwascivilianin nature, unlike the Advanced Research Projects Agency (later,DARPA) also created in 1958. Under the National Aeronautics and Space Act, NASA was tasked with encouraging “peaceful applications inspace science” and “expanding the frontiers of knowledge, advancing the understanding of the universe, and serving the American public.” Of course, at the time, generating public interest in space exploration was necessary to “win” the Space Race. Space exploration, especially when publicly funded, only happens if people are interested and willing to dedicate resources. In fact, one of the reasons NASA stopped going to the Moon in the 1970s was waning public and political interest, which led to the Agencydrastically cuttingits programs and activities.
因此，公开与原子能机构的使命相联系，该使命需要透明度来获得公众的支持。“作为一个政府机构，NASA希望告诉纳税人，我们用他们的钱做了什么，以及为什么我们认为这很重要。我们通过从科学论文到我们的社交媒体源和NASA电视直播事件的报道来做到这一点，”Brian Dunbar通过电子邮件解释道，他是NASA通信办公室的互联网服务经理/COMIT任务订单经理。对于研究人员来说也是如此，因为公开共享数据是增加任何任务研究数量的最佳方式。”
Space exploration only happens if people are interested and willing to dedicate resources. Openness is therefore linked to the Agency’s mission, one that requires transparency to generate public support.
However, we can’t ignore the very real and rather dry legal instruments that underpin this openness, particularly to NASA-produced images, research, and publications. Under theU.S. Copyright Act of 1976, a work by the U.S. federal government is defined as “a work prepared by an officer or employee as part of that person’s official duties.” These works are generally not subject to domestic copyright protection under section 105 of the Copyright Act and are therefore released into the public domain. Therefore, the footage and audio captured during Apollo 11, or during any of NASA’s missions by NASA itself should, in theory, be released into the public domain. This also includes NASA-funded research.
To make matters complicated, it’s not always clear what works fall under section 105 of the Copyright Act. For example, if a government publication includes works that are developed by a third party contractor or grantee, then it may be subject to copyright. In addition, the U.S. government can still assert copyright in other countries. To help create clarity and open access to all public research, in particular, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued anexecutive orderin 2013. This memorandum aimed to ensure that federally funded research would be made publically accessible within one year of publication. In response to the 2013 executive order, NASA created an agency-wide plan titled, “NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research,” and aspecific policy. Ultimately, the plan served as a reaffirmation of NASA’s existing “open-access culture” by “promoting the full and open sharing of data with research communities, private industry, academia, and the general public…[including] data and publications for all of the scientific research that the Agency sponsors.” Over the last decade, NASA has also created several iterations of an “Open Government Plan以应用开放政府的原则，包括“参与、透明和公开”。”
In cases where a work is not clearly and/or automatically placed into the public domain, NASA often usesCC licensesorpublic domaintools to indicate the work is free to reuse. Of course, it’s preferred that the Agency utilize more open licenses, likeCC BYorCC BY-SA,rather than the more restrictive Non-Commercial (NC) or No Derivatives (ND) licenses to allow more opportunities for others to reuse, remix, or reshare their work. Other space agencies have also utilized CC licenses to share their work, including theEuropean Space Agency该公司于2017年发布了开放获取政策，并选择了CC BY-SA。
As far as NASA’s logos and insignia are concerned (e.g. the “meatball” logo), those fall under a complex mix of trademark law and regulations. As a government entity, NASA doesn’t license out their logos or receive profit from merchandise, but they do have strong usage restrictions and clear guidelines when it comes tomerchandisingand themedia. Therefore, users must submit their designs to the Multimedia Division of NASA’s Office of Communications for approval.
For citizen scientists, researchers, and innovators, NASA is an invaluable resource
A core theory of the open movement is that the ability to access, remix, and share creative works and knowledge leads to further innovation, discovery, and creativity. NASA’s work has routinely proven that theory correct. The Agency actively makes its research, data, and content more accessible through a variety ofdata platforms,software catalogs, andcitizen science programs. These include theScientific and Technical Information Programsite and theNASA Technical Report Server, as well asNASA’s Data PortalandPubSpacewhich house results from NASA’s scientific research and published papers. For coders and developers, NASA has several repositories atOpen NASAand{NASA APIs}; and for creatives,NASA HQ Photo on Flickr, theNASA Image and Video Library,Planetary Photojournal, andEarth Observatoryare great resources for openly licensed content.
Using publicly accessible datafrom NASA’s Kepler telescope, citizen scientists and university students recently discovered a new planet “roughly twice the size of Earth.”
These efforts by NASA have led to important breakthroughs and collaborations in unexpected places. For instance,using publicly accessible datafrom NASA’s Kepler telescope, citizen scientists and university students recentlydiscovered a new planet“roughly twice the size of Earth.” In fact, many students studying space science and technology use NASA’s resources for their work, routinely tapping into their publicly shared and easily accessible research papers, patents, and archived presentations. Harrison, for instance, said she has NASA to thank for a portion of her dissertation topic onaerogels. Also known as “frozen smoke,” these lightweight, synthetic, and porous materials have a density close to that of air, and thanks to work by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1990s, aerogels are now used in space exploration. To achieve the required low density, explained Harrison, “aerogels are delicately dried using a special process that involves a supercritical dryer.” Unable to get access to this unique piece of equipment at her university, she was granted access to one at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, “It would have been impossible for me to do this work without their help!”
Finally, Dunbar was eager to point outNASA’s Technology Transfer Program, which is designed to “put NASA technology into wider use” through its patent licensing program. “NASA is well-known forspinoffs: commercial products that use technology created or further developed by or for NASA,” he explained.可以考虑记忆泡沫和应急毯，但不要考虑唐和魔术贴。More recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) signed onto theOpen COVID Pledgeand released thedesigns for three respiratorsso they can be used by anyone, anywhere.
Does NASA prove the power ofopen?
这是NASA的关键时刻。In just a few days, theDemo-2 mission(a.k.a. “Launch America”) is set to mark thefirst timeNASA will launch astronauts to the ISS from American soil since 2011. In just a few years, NASA also plans to return to the Moon through theArtemis program, and eventually, venture further to Mars. A “new era of human spaceflight” is coming and not since the 1960s has NASA needed and sought after such political and public support.
美国宇航局很清楚，通过开放其活动和研究的入口，可以促进其任务和工作，但欧菲诺斯认为，该机构的开放对更广泛的空间探索和科学也至关重要。他解释说:“NASA作为一种资源，仍然拥有独特的尊重和品牌地位。”因此，它有助于消除关于太空及其相关努力的虚假信息或错误信息。哈里森对此表示赞同:“许多人仍然认为登月是假的……我们生活在这样一个世界，在Facebook上阅读和分享故事比获取历史片段和动态科学数据更容易，而这些对我们整个社区来说很容易理解。”她强调，这就是为什么那些活跃在科学领域的人有责任公开、清晰地与公众分享信息。
太空正在变得越来越商业化，这也不是什么秘密，美国宇航局的商业载人计划就是明证，因此竞争更加激烈，拥挤，对某些人来说，排外。“我曾经听到有人说，‘太空属于富人’，”艾德森解释说，“这让我有点畏缩，因为我能从中看到真理。”This points to an increasingly important result of unfettered access to resources from publicly funded space agencies: it helps maintain the original ethos expressed in the 1967Outer Space Treaty—thatspace belongs to everyone.
Without public access to space science and activities, we risk making outer space the province of only the privileged.More than it already is.我们冒着让普通公民失去信心的风险，让他们怀着好奇、希望和骄傲的心情仰望宇宙。最终，我们可能永远无法激励像克里斯·哈德菲尔德(Chris Hadfield)这样的人成为宇航员或海莉·哈里森(Haley Harrison)这样的人成为空间科学的学生。她说:“知道人类已经实现了这样的壮举，在月球上行走，是我巨大的灵感来源。我很小的时候就知道，天空不是极限，在我的眼睛所能看到的范围之外，还有无尽的潜力。””Boiled down to its simplest essence, the power of “open” lies in its ability to create a better world through sharing. In the past, NASA has routinely illustrated this power—the hope is that it continues to do so.
This post is one in a series exploring openness “in the wild” to understand the tangible outcomes of implementing open policies and practices. So far, we’ve written about open access to scientific research (hereandhere) and open-source medical hardware during the COVID-19 pandemic (here); and interviewed the President of The Hewlett Foundation to understand how they’ve implemented an open licensing requirement for grantees (here). More to come!
