You Can Now Access NASA's Research Online—for Free

PubSpace may sound like an app that maps out local watering holes (not a bad idea in its own right), but it's actually an online repository where NASA will make all its publicly funded research available for free, the Independent reports. This unprecedented access, which came after the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy mandated three years ago that federal agencies share more of their data, requires any NASA-funded research to be posted to PubSpace within a year of being published.

What readers won't find gratis: any articles related to national security or to patents and a limited group of other types of research. "Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air, and space," NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman says in a press release. There are already more than 850 articles up for perusing—an intriguing list of what's available so far can be found here, including such sexy-sounding papers as "Hot super-Earths stripped by their host stars"—with more soon to come. NASA notes PubSpace will be up and running with full functionality by the fall. (NASA set a huge fire in space earlier this year.)