NASA NTRS Scraper

Scrape the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) — NASA's open-access repository of aerospace, engineering, and scientific research documents spanning over 80 years of spaceflight history. Search by keyword, filter by document type and NASA center, retrieve full metadata including authors, affiliations, keywords, report numbers, and direct PDF links. HTTP-only via the public NTRS API. No auth, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Two modes: search (keyword search with filters), getDocument (fetch by document ID)
• Flexible filtering: by STI document type, NASA center, and publication date range
• Full metadata: title, abstract, authors with affiliations, subject categories, keywords, report numbers
• Direct PDF links: extracts PDF download URLs from the document record
• Pagination: automatically pages through large result sets
• Empty fields are omitted — no nulls in output

Output per document

Field	Type	Description
id	string	NASA NTRS document ID
title	string	Document title
abstract	string	Abstract (truncated at 2000 characters)
authors	array	List of author names
authorAffiliations	array	List of {name, affiliation} objects
subjectCategories	array	NASA subject categories
keywords	array	Document keywords
stiType	string	STI document type (e.g. Technical Report)
reportNumbers	array	Assigned report numbers
publicationDate	string	Publication date
modifiedDate	string	Last modified date
centerName	string	NASA center full name
centerAbbrev	string	NASA center abbreviation (e.g. GSFC)
pdfUrl	string	Direct link to the PDF document
sourceUrl	string	NTRS citation page URL
recordType	string	Always "document"
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search or getDocument
searchText	string	rocket propulsion	Keywords to search (mode=search)
stiType	string	(any)	Filter by document type
centerName	string	(any)	Filter by NASA center abbreviation
dateMin	string	–	Min publication date (YYYY-MM-DD)
dateMax	string	–	Max publication date (YYYY-MM-DD)
documentIds	array	[]	Document IDs to fetch (mode=getDocument)
maxItems	integer	25	Max documents to return (1–2000)

Example: search for recent Mars mission reports

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchText": "Mars surface exploration",
  "stiType": "Technical Report",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: filter by NASA center and date range

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchText": "solar panel efficiency",
  "centerName": "GSFC",
  "dateMin": "2015-01-01",
  "dateMax": "2023-12-31",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: fetch specific documents by ID

{
  "mode": "getDocument",
  "documentIds": ["20230001234", "20220005678"],
  "maxItems": 2
}

Supported NASA Centers

Abbreviation	Full Name
ARC	Ames Research Center
DFRC	Armstrong Flight Research Center
GRC	Glenn Research Center
GSFC	Goddard Space Flight Center
HQ	NASA Headquarters
JSC	Johnson Space Center
KSC	Kennedy Space Center
LaRC	Langley Research Center
MSFC	Marshall Space Flight Center
SSC	Stennis Space Center
WFF	Wallops Flight Facility

FAQs

Do I need an API key? No. The NASA NTRS API is publicly accessible with no authentication required.

How many documents can I scrape? Up to 2000 per run. The actor pages through results automatically.

Are PDF links always available? No. Not all documents have associated PDF files. The actor extracts a PDF link when available, preferring STI-type downloads.

What is an STI type? STI (Scientific and Technical Information) types classify the kind of document — Technical Report, Conference Paper, Journal Article, etc.

Can I filter by multiple centers? Currently one center can be selected per run. Run the actor multiple times with different center values and merge results if needed.

How far back does the data go? NTRS contains documents dating back to the early days of NASA, including NACA reports from the 1940s and 1950s.

What subjects are covered? Aerospace engineering, propulsion, aeronautics, space science, materials science, robotics, communications, Earth observation, and more.