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NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman conducting research aboard the International Space Station. (NASA photo)

NASA is opening its files on research conducted aboard the International Space Station. The space agency hopes the crowdsourcing will stimulate new research on the orbiting laboratory.

The information database is called Physical Science Informatics and was created by specialists at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. All search results at the website are sortable and include combustion science, complex fluids, fundamental physics, materials science and biophysics.

"The informatics system provides open access of the space station physical sciences data to the global community," Fran Chiaramonte, program scientist for physical sciences at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said. "The goals are to increase the number of scientists participating in space station research, allow new areas of research and discovery to occur more quickly, and accelerate the research-to-product timeline through rapid and open sharing of data."

Collecting the data in one place not only makes it easier to access, but NASA says it will be easier to see where research is needed.

"Informatics will help us identify gaps in our knowledge base," said Marshall Porterfield, NASA's director of Space Life and Physical Sciences at NASA Headquarters. "Too often there are lengthy delays in publishing results of experiments. The lack of access to information should not be a roadblock to discovery."

You do not have to be a researcher to access the informatics system, but you do have to register. NASA wants to know who is accessing this particular data system.