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I wonder: why this publicly funded code isn't available for download on GitHub or NASA website. Is this because Russians and Chinese can "steal" it and send another Curiosity to Mars?

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Not a complete answer, but certain kinds of NASA tech undoubtedly has military applications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_...

I think your question is valid nonetheless, especially for the USPS, Dept. of Education, etc.

This. I work at a space research lab and we can't even let many of our employees view mission code; let alone the public. Violating export controls in any way could cost us our funding

It probably contains lots of proprietary code to interface with the hardware.

Hardware was also funded by tax payers.

No, hardware is produced by big companies like Lockheed Martin. They adapt their proprietary solutions for NASA.

Most of which was originally developed to fulfil some government tender; space flight is not exactly the paragon of commercial innovation.

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