How to Access NASA’s Media Library With Videos and Images for Free
NASA has a media library full of images, sounds and videos that you can use however you want, and you can access this huge library for free.
NASA has always offered some content to the public, but it recently made its entire library available through its website . There, you can search for something, just like on Google, and instantly extract all images, videos and audio files available by NASA associated with that term.
For example, searching for Pluto gives 543 different results, including the number of images, nineteen videos, and nine audio files. Most of the results also include a short description for each video, photo or clip so you know what you’re looking at.
If you’re looking for something specific, the search results can also be narrowed down by year. The oldest content available on the NASA site is from 1920, and the most recent content is from this year. The slider allows you to select the ideal time window for your search, or leave it wide open to see everything NASA has.
The best part is that you can use the collection however you want. Here are the rules for non-commercial use : “NASA content — images, audio, video, and computer files used in rendering 3D models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format — are generally not copyrighted. You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibitions, computer graphics models, and web pages on the Internet. This general permission applies to personal web pages. “
If you want to use the content commercially, this is not easy and requires contacting NASA’s multimedia division in Washington DC.
At least the collection is a lot of fun to browse through. Who knows, you might even find the following desktop background in the process.