You may not be spacewalking any time soon, but NASA has opened a free database to let you explore from Earth.

If you’re looking to add more authenticity to your science fiction writing, check this out: NASA has set up a website to make its publicly funded research available for free. The archive features a decent search engine and gives full access to peer-reviewed papers.

Working on a story on a space plague and wonder how microbes adapt to microgravity? Check it out. Want to know the latest developments in artificial gravity research? Yep, they’ve got that too.

Some of my fishing expeditions in the NASA database led me to articles light years above my scientific comprehension. But others, such as this piece on arctic climate trends as observed from space, were completely comprehensible to a neophyte such as myself.

Thanks go to sf writer Chris McKitterick for bringing this one to my attention.

Happy exploring.