This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.
Artificial Gravity Modules
For both space tourism and space exploration, there is an interest in generating artificial gravity in space for entertainment, recreational, and scientific purposes, as well as to counter the health concerns of extended exposure to a microgravity environment. NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel technology — a system and approach for creating artificial gravity using a non-rotating spacecraft with connected moving modules, which can be used for habitation and other purposes. The novel technology not only provides a non-rotating space station or structure that can be easily built and balanced but can also reduce or eliminate Coriolis effect on occupants in habitation modules. The concepts of the invention are very cost-effective and allow for building a minimal initial system to produce artificial gravity at the first phases of construction, before the full structure is built.
Contact: NASA Communications
Phone: 202-358-7432
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Injection-Free Diabetes Control
One promising approach to treating Type 1 diabetes is implanting pancreatic islet cells that can produce insulin when needed, which can free patients from giving themselves frequent insulin injections. However, one major obstacle to this approach is that once the cells are implanted, they eventually run out of oxygen and stop producing insulin. To overcome that hurdle, MIT engineers have designed a new implantable device that not only carries hundreds of thousands of insulin-producing islet cells, but also has its own on-board oxygen factory, which generates oxygen by splitting water vapor found in the body. While the researchers’ main focus is on diabetes treatment, they say that this kind of device could also be adapted to treat other diseases that require repeated delivery of therapeutic proteins.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell
617-253-8923
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Shape-Changing Squishable Robot
Compliant Legged Articulated Robotic Insect (CLARI), a squishable robot that can passively change its shape to squeeze through narrow gaps developed by a team of engineers at CU Boulder, has the potential to aid first responders after major disasters in an entirely new way. Several CLARIs can easily fit in the palm of your hand, and each weighs less than a ping-pong ball. CLARI can transform its shape from square to long and slender when its surroundings become cramped. CLARI has four legs and each of CLARI’s legs functions almost like an independent robot — with its own circuit board and dual actuators that move the leg forward and backward and side-to-side. Theoretically, that modularity might allow CLARI robots to take on a wide variety of shapes and crawl independently into spaces where no robot has crawled before — e.g., the inside of a jet engine or the rubble of collapsed buildings.
