NASA Spinoff

Topics:

Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Sterilizing Fogger Cleans Ambulances with a Breeze
Sterilizing Fogger Cleans Ambulances with a Breeze

NASA Technology

When paramedics come racing into a home, the last thing anybody is worrying about is where the ambulance was earlier that morning. But traces of those earlier...

Sterilizing Fogger Cleans Ambulances with a Breeze
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Biometric Sensors Optimize Workouts
Biometric Sensors Optimize Workouts

NASA Technology

What if, as a pilot was pulling heavy G-forces and headed toward a blackout, a voice in his or her ear said, “Pull out of the turn”? What if ground control had a screen with...

Biometric Sensors Optimize Workouts
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Optimized Imager Tracks Cancer, Stem Cells in Medical Research
Optimized Imager Tracks Cancer, Stem Cells in Medical Research

NASA Technology

After earning his doctorate, Debashish Roy set about creating a business from the biological imaging device he’d helped invent as a graduate...

Optimized Imager Tracks Cancer, Stem Cells in Medical Research
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Weightless “Weight”-Lifting Builds Muscle on Earth
Weightless “Weight”-Lifting Builds Muscle on Earth

NASA Technology

NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid spent hundreds of hours exercising during her 188-day stay on the Russian space station Mir in 1996. Although it was her least...

Weightless “Weight”-Lifting Builds Muscle on Earth
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Virtual Therapist Offers Out-of-This-World Depression Treatment
Virtual Therapist Offers Out-of-This-World Depression Treatment

NASA Technology

Imagine being stuck in a small space with just a few coworkers for months at a time. Each person’s work is crucial to the success—even the...

Virtual Therapist Offers Out-of-This-World Depression Treatment
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Compact Spectrometers Unveil Clues to Diagnose Cancer
Compact Spectrometers Unveil Clues to Diagnose Cancer

NASA Technology

It may seem hard to remember now, with thousands of planets of various types and sizes discovered throughout the galaxy, but back in the 1990s, the field of...

Compact Spectrometers Unveil Clues to Diagnose Cancer
Spinoff: Transportation
Innovative Design Propels Small Jet Faster, Farther with Less Fuel
Innovative Design Propels Small Jet Faster, Farther with Less Fuel

NASA Technology

These days computers handle a lot of the work for designing an airplane, but when it comes to seeing how well the new design will really handle in...

Innovative Design Propels Small Jet Faster, Farther with Less Fuel
Spinoff: Transportation
Design Software Transforms How Commercial Jetliners Are Built
Design Software Transforms How Commercial Jetliners Are Built

NASA Technology

In the late 1990s, as computers were becoming vastly more powerful, Stuart Rogers began working on Pegasus 5—software that made use of this...

Design Software Transforms How Commercial Jetliners Are Built
Spinoff: Transportation
Original Cryogenic Engine Still Powers Exploration, Defense, Industry
Original Cryogenic Engine Still Powers Exploration, Defense, Industry

NASA Technology

At a time when cell phones and automobile features are outdated after a few short years, it may seem impossible that any technology would...

Original Cryogenic Engine Still Powers Exploration, Defense, Industry
Spinoff: Transportation
Time-Triggered Ethernet Slims Down Critical Data Systems
Time-Triggered Ethernet Slims Down Critical Data Systems

NASA Technology

Ethernet computer networks date back to the 1970s and are now used virtually everywhere, including in space. Inexpensive, ubiquitous, and easy to use,...

Time-Triggered Ethernet Slims Down Critical Data Systems
Spinoff: Transportation
Simplified Aircraft Modeling Packs Weeks of Analysis into Minutes
Simplified Aircraft Modeling Packs Weeks of Analysis into Minutes

NASA Technology

It wasn’t Walt Silva’s job to invent a technique to dramatically speed up computational modeling of aircraft. But the NASA researcher did it...

Simplified Aircraft Modeling Packs Weeks of Analysis into Minutes
Spinoff: Public Safety
Radar Device Detects Heartbeats Trapped under Wreckage
Radar Device Detects Heartbeats Trapped under Wreckage

NASA Technology

Late on a sweltering morning in July 2016, David Lewis Jr. crawls into a concrete tube in a heap of rubble amid what used to be a Northern Virginia prison...

Radar Device Detects Heartbeats Trapped under Wreckage
Spinoff: Public Safety
Surveillance System Captures, Maps Lightning Strikes
Surveillance System Captures, Maps Lightning Strikes

NASA Technology

On July 7, 2011, as Space Shuttle Atlantis sat on the launch pad just one day before it was due to make the final voyage of NASA’s 30-year Shuttle program,...

Surveillance System Captures, Maps Lightning Strikes
Spinoff: Public Safety
Virtual Reality Platform Helps Pilots Land in the Sky
Virtual Reality Platform Helps Pilots Land in the Sky

NASA Technology

When a plane overshoots the final approach for a landing, often the pilot’s natural—and dangerous—instinct is to pitch up the aircraft to slow down and...

Virtual Reality Platform Helps Pilots Land in the Sky
Spinoff: Public Safety
Autonomous Robots Take On Dangerous Warehouse Jobs
Autonomous Robots Take On Dangerous Warehouse Jobs

NASA Technology

“Where does a 600-pound spider go? Anywhere she wants to.”

Autonomous Robots Take On Dangerous Warehouse Jobs
Spinoff: Public Safety
Drone Traffic Forecasts Show Commercial Skies of the Future
Drone Traffic Forecasts Show Commercial Skies of the Future

NASA Technology

It’s a safe bet that the skies of the future will be hosting a lot more drones than they do today. If you can see beyond the low-flying pizza and...

Drone Traffic Forecasts Show Commercial Skies of the Future
Spinoff: Public Safety
Offshore Oil Workers Learn Survival Skills in Astronaut Training Pool
Offshore Oil Workers Learn Survival Skills in Astronaut Training Pool

NASA Technology

To simulate weightlessness while rehearsing for NASA’s 1966 Gemini 12 mission, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Gene Cernan practiced spacewalks...

Offshore Oil Workers Learn Survival Skills in Astronaut Training Pool
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Apollo 11 History Archive Helps Virtual Reality Program Come to Life
Apollo 11 History Archive Helps Virtual Reality Program Come to Life

NASA Technology

Imagine yourself in the cramped cockpit of the Apollo spacecraft heading to the moon. Look around to see Earth out one window and stars lighting...

Apollo 11 History Archive Helps Virtual Reality Program Come to Life
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Light-Induced Oxidation Cleans Air, Surfaces, Clothes
Light-Induced Oxidation Cleans Air, Surfaces, Clothes

NASA Technology

In late 2015 and early 2016, while Southern California Gas workers struggled for months to stop a natural gas leak from a well at Aliso Canyon in Los Angeles,...

Light-Induced Oxidation Cleans Air, Surfaces, Clothes
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Ferrofluid Technology Becomes a Magnet for Pioneering Artists
Ferrofluid Technology Becomes a Magnet for Pioneering Artists

NASA Technology

In 2008, when Nikola Ilic came across an online video of moving ferrofluid sculptures by Japanese artist Sachiko Kodama, with black liquid rising into...

Ferrofluid Technology Becomes a Magnet for Pioneering Artists
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
The Martian Garden Recreates Red Planet’s Surface
The Martian Garden Recreates Red Planet’s Surface

NASA Technology

After the Phoenix lander settled into the northern polar region of Mars in 2008, its operators discovered that icy soil scraped from the planet’s surface was...

The Martian Garden Recreates Red Planet’s Surface
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Aerogel Insulation Makes Thinner, Warmer Outerwear
Aerogel Insulation Makes Thinner, Warmer Outerwear

NASA Technology

When Michael Markesbery, future cofounder of Oros, climbed the tallest mountain in the Swiss Alps with friends, he was bundled up with so many bulky layers he...

Aerogel Insulation Makes Thinner, Warmer Outerwear
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Space-Grade Insulation Keeps Beer Colder on Earth
Space-Grade Insulation Keeps Beer Colder on Earth

NASA Technology

A class of insulation invented to help NASA with a range of daunting tasks, from storing liquid hydrogen or helium to insulating spacecraft and keeping astronauts...

Space-Grade Insulation Keeps Beer Colder on Earth
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
High-Efficiency LEDs Grow Crops, Stimulate Alertness
High-Efficiency LEDs Grow Crops, Stimulate Alertness

NASA Technology

NASA harnesses the power of light for purposes as varied as laser communications, 3D mapping of land surfaces, and spectroscopy to determine the composition of...

High-Efficiency LEDs Grow Crops, Stimulate Alertness
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Paired Sleep Tracker, Light Therapy Tools Retrain Circadian Rhythms
Paired Sleep Tracker, Light Therapy Tools Retrain Circadian Rhythms

NASA Technology

Lack of sleep could be costing the U.S. economy around $411 billion a year, according to a 2016 estimate by the RAND Corporation. That same year,...

Paired Sleep Tracker, Light Therapy Tools Retrain Circadian Rhythms
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Organic Compound Turns Toxic Waste into Harmless Byproducts
Organic Compound Turns Toxic Waste into Harmless Byproducts

NASA Technology

In 2004, a team of researchers at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) was trying to develop a substance that would glow to indicate the presence of...

Organic Compound Turns Toxic Waste into Harmless Byproducts
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
LED Lighting Improves Efficiency, Imaging, Cuts Maintenance
LED Lighting Improves Efficiency, Imaging, Cuts Maintenance

NASA Technology

When Stennis Space Center officials wanted to try more energy-efficient lighting in the center’s rocket engine test stands, they couldn’t simply go...

LED Lighting Improves Efficiency, Imaging, Cuts Maintenance
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Plant Food for Space Grows Crops on Earth
Plant Food for Space Grows Crops on Earth

NASA Technology

The goal is a fresh and tasty salad on Mars. While other NASA programs are working on getting to the Red Planet, the Agency’s Veggie team is figuring out how to grow...

Plant Food for Space Grows Crops on Earth
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Remote Sensing Technology Fights Forest Fires Smarter
Remote Sensing Technology Fights Forest Fires Smarter

NASA Technology

Fires were raging in Northern California in June 2008, at the height of one of the state’s most destructive wildfire seasons in history, and one blaze was...

Remote Sensing Technology Fights Forest Fires Smarter
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions
Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions

NASA Technology

NASA has been taking pictures of Earth from space for as long as the Space Agency has been around—and well before Boston-based startup TellusLabs began using...

Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions