Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Investment in Small Businesses Helps Both Thrive

In the 1990s, Langley Research Center was looking for polymers to make building and operating supersonic airliners more viable. Now, a derivation from that materials research called...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Eagle Eyes in Treacherous Skies

Tornados can flip a car when the wind speed reaches 122 mph, making them unpredictability dangerous. Volcanic eruptions are as toxic as they are destructive. Researchers are working hard to improve...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Answering the Call of Distress

As companies and other entities continue making use of NASA know-how, spinoffs from the space agency are bound to bump into each other now and then. That’s what happened as the lifesaving Search and...

Spinoff: Transportation

NASA Helps Bring Airport Communications into the Digital Age

Some of the best entertainment at the airport is all the action outside the window. Loaded luggage carriers zip past on their way to planes. Fuel trucks come and go. Catering...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Hot Water on Demand

The worst part of any shower, outside of getting soap in your eyes, is probably getting unexpectedly blasted with cold water. Traditional home water heaters mean you have to wait for the right temperature to come...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Now Anyone Can Make Electronics on Demand—Thanks to NASA Research

Chance Glenn traces the inspiration for his 3D electronics printer back to Star Trek, which he began watching in reruns in the late 1970s as a middle schooler.

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Helps Optimize Air Purifiers with Modeling Expertise

Whether trapping microscopic germs or an abundance of pet hair, air filters help homes and offices alike maintain a clean environment. With any technology, research and...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Debugging Code Is Rocket Science

Incorrect computer code can blow up rockets, as NASA learned from the first launch in the Ariane 5 rocket series. The 501 rocket used computer code written for the Ariane 4 series – but the change to...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Taking Out the Trash, NASA-Style

The space station doesn’t have curb-side trash pickup. Nor does it have a local landfill or recycling plant. What it does have is access to a naturally efficient incinerator – Earth’s...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Industry Opens a New Door to Space

Anyone who has gotten a sofa stuck in a doorway on moving day knows how frustrating it is when there’s no other way in or out. The doorways on the International Space Station, or airlocks, have...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

TetrUSS Stacks Up Building Blocks for Aircraft Design

Anyone who excelled at the Game Boy’s top-selling video game will recall the animated rocket liftoffs that celebrated high scores. In addition to simulated rocketry and the name,...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Flying in the Fast Lane with Air Traffic Software

Think of the national airspace as a complex highway system, but with planes. They’re all moving at different speeds and converging on relatively few airports, intent upon arriving...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

In the Right Hands, NASA Satellite Data and Analysis Make Earth Better

The first photo of Earth rising over the horizon of another celestial body was captured on December 24, 1968, by astronauts on Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Communicating via Long-Distance Lasers

Visible light has been used to communicate for centuries: lanterns on ships and Morse code flashes allowed information to be conveyed at a distance. But now there’s a better way to use light to...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Brain Training Tech Makes Smart Glasses

A new pair of smart glasses uses a technique invented at NASA to measure users' brainwaves and tell them how well they’re paying attention. Others have used the NASA formula to help...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Environmental Cleanup Courtesy of a NASA Cafeteria Brainstorm

Jackie Quinn had an idea. What if the system NASA developed for removing contaminants from building paint could also be used to clean up the environment? In her quest to...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

The Rewards of Perseverance

A laser-light sensor that can identify bacteria in a wound may sound far-fetched, but it’s already becoming a reality, thanks in part to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The technology is going to Mars...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Space Fuel Cell Provides Deep-Sea Power

“Almost everything you need in space, you also need under the ocean,” said Thomas Valdez, manager of chemical engineering at Teledyne Energy Systems.

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

New Industrial Robotic Gripper Copies Geckos’ Toes

No sooner had the gecko’s secret been cracked than humans got to work trying to copy it.

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Planets Take Virtual Shape on Earth with NASA Knowledge and Imagery

In a time of quarantines and online learning, guided strolls along the surface of Mars are especially appealing.

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Catch the Waves

It’s very important that the highly tuned components in sensitive instruments, whether on a spacecraft or used in a lab, don’t see their own reflection. In sensing devices across the electromagnetic spectrum like...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

In Cloud Computing, Open Source Becomes Big Business

In 2010, open source software, once the playpen of renegade hackers and hobbyists, had already gone mainstream. Cloud computing was newer and less defined, but already commercially...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

For Work or Play, Comfort All Day

A new line of gaming chairs combines two NASA technologies to keep users comfortable during even the longest video game marathons.

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Artificial Intelligence for Astronauts Monitors Patients at Home

When chronic pain flares, the trip from your door to the doctor’s office can seem as difficult as getting from Earth to Mars. The same could be said for the challenge...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Recalibrating Fine Motor Skills

A touchscreen control panel similar to an Apple iPad seems like it would be easier to use than a panel of switches and buttons that must be flipped and pushed in the right order. But what if an...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

How the Moon Landing Led to Safer Food for Everyone

HAACP, which stemmed from requirements for the Apollo program, now underlies food safety programs and regulations for virtually all meats, poultry, fish, and processed foods,...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Space-Age Water Conservation

The more difficult a problem is for NASA, the more solutions it eventually produces for the rest of us.

Few challenges are more pressing for the space agency than the need for clean water. Water is...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Odor-Eliminating Shoe Inserts Rely on NASA-Tested Activated Carbon Cloth

This is the story of a space-age insert for shoes that got its start when a graduate student with smelly feet took off her shoes and another tapped into his...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Fix It Like an Astronaut with Augmented Reality

When astronauts on the International Space Station venture outside to install new equipment or perform maintenance, dozens of people on Earth are involved. These extravehicular...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Microphone Detects Turbulence Hundreds of Miles Away

Whether it’s in the wake vortex of airplanes taking off or in seemingly calm air, there are few issues more meddlesome to flight than turbulence. Not only can these...