Greetings. My name is Stephen Steiner. I am new to Open NASA.

I am interested in what we as a society could create by open sourcing all technologies–not just computer code, but chemistry, materials, energy, automation, and more.

As an experiment in this spirit, my colleague (and artist-by-training) Will Walker and I co-founded Aerogel.org, an open-source resource about aerogels (the “original nanotechnology”). The mission of the project is

“…to empower, inspire, and motivate people to pursue nanotechnology using open source methodology and to catalyze the discovery of new technological possibilities for aerogel materials in the process.”

To do this, we had to develop an approach to try to make what is easily an impenetrable subject to a newcomer into something digestible by anyone with the interest to learn. As part of this approach, we felt that making straightforward information about exciting science available to everyone is the best way to do so and simultaneously stimulates people to pursue science, engineering, and other creative endeavors.

So I’d like to start some “open technology” on Open NASA to transition some of the knowledge we in technological pursuit have learned to those who want to get involved. Some ideas I have:

• Open carbon nanotubes–how to grow, growth models, unsolved problems
• Open biotech–how to take what we know affordably to the third world
• (Somewhat ironically) open closed loop tech–how to close-loop manufacturing, consumption, and energy production (great for a spaceship, or a planet)
• Open energy–yes, garage innovations are left to be had, even in the 21st Century!
• and of course, open aerogel

What if we could even get NASA to open-source some of its technology development?

What do you think?