Spinoff: Computer Technology

Program Predicts Aerothermodynamics of Reentry, Subsonic Flight

NASA Technology

Traveling nearly five miles per second, the Space Shuttle began each reentry with nothing to slow it down but the air. The gasses rushing over its...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Light-Analysis Software Explodes across Industries

NASA Technology

Edward Freniere and a partner founded Lambda Research Corporation in 1992 with the idea of developing software to simulate the behavior of light, basing their...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Power Amplifiers Boost Radar, Communications, Defense Systems

NASA Technology

Normally, state-of-the-art technology comes at a cost. But when QuinStar Technology was subcontracted in 2009 to build a power amplifier for one of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Laser Imaging Helps Archaeologists Dig Up History

NASA Technology

Some 10,500 years ago, what is now western Oklahoma teemed in late summer and early fall with bison, traipsing through the grassy landscape. For the humans who...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Scheduling Software Plans Public, Private Space Missions

NASA Technology

When Alex and Ella Herz were working at Johnson Space Center in the late 1980s and early ’90s, it wasn’t the easiest time to plan payloads for...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Mars Rover Work Spawns PDF Collaboration Software

NASA Technology

Like satellites in orbit, some spinoffs just keep spinning.

Alliance Spacesystems, founded by a handful of engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Optimizes Designs from Spaceships to Wind Turbines

NASA Technology

Sharing computer code with the private sector has become a major component of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program, with the Agency’s latest software...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Algorithm Predicts and Evaluates Storm Surges

NASA Technology

It was sometime in late 2004, and Tom Stanley, technical monitor and small business technical advisor out of Stennis Space Center, took to studying newly completed...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Modeling Software Helps Rocket Scientists Go with the Flow

NASA Technology

Rocket science and simplicity don’t normally go hand in hand, but that’s what NASA had in mind when the Agency developed the Fastrac turbopump in the...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Open Source Tools Popularize Infrastructure for Cloud Computing

NASA Technology

When a small group of NASA software developers met with representatives of Rackspace Inc. at a Thai restaurant in early 2010, few would have...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Artificial Intelligence Targets Advertising by Understanding User

NASA Technology

A couple of years ago, AJ Abdallat went online and bought a bracelet from a major department store as a gift for his wife. He wasn’t happy with...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Electro-Optic Ceramic Creates High-Speed Fiber-Optic Networks

NASA Technology

By 2002, Corning Applied Technologies had developed a new electro-optic ceramic material, one that promised efficient, effective, rugged, low-cost...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

System-Health Monitor Predicts Failures before They Happen

NASA Technology

A young engineering and technical services company is betting that NASA teams at the Mission Control Center in Houston, aboard the International Space...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

NASA Climate Analytics Support Biological Research

NASA Technology

Every few seconds, NASA’s satellites transmit more than a gigabyte of data back to Earth. By 2030, it’s estimated the Agency will have amassed 350 petabytes...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Portable Planetariums Teach Science

NASA Technology

By the mid-1990s, NASA was collecting an enormous amount of information about Earth and the universe. For example, the Earth Observing System, comprising a fleet of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Sound Modeling Simplifies Vehicle Noise Management

NASA Technology

Exposure to a noise level of 105 decibels causes hearing damage after an hour or less. Concertgoers in the front row at a rock show can expect sustained noise of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Cuts Building Costs, Increases Energy Efficiency

NASA Technology

In order to prepare Curiosity for its trip to Mars, NASA had to pull out all the stops. Because the rover’s payload is 10 times as massive as those of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Schedule Analysis Software Saves Time for Project Planners

NASA Technology

Schedules for major projects get long and complicated, involving a slew of interdependent tasks and timelines, and few organizations handle projects more...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Cloud Computing Technologies Facilitate Earth Research

NASA Technology

Throughout the years, NASA has done more than any agency to explore what lies beyond our world. It has sent rovers to traverse the Martian landscape and...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Micro-Accelerometers Monitor Equipment Health

NASA Technology

Objects that orbit the Earth, such as the International Space Station (ISS), provide a unique environment called zero-g, or more correctly, microgravity. All objects...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Simulation Tools Prevent Signal Interference on Spacecraft

NASA Technology

Launching a satellite into space requires painstaking preparation, not only to make sure that a multitude of technologies are functioning, but also to...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Virtual Machine Language Controls Remote Devices

NASA Technology

Virtually all of Chris Grasso’s academic and professional career has been built on NASA technology. “I’ve been working with NASA since college,” he...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Accelerates Computing Time for Complex Math

NASA Technology

The 19th century mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, the astronomer par excellence of his day, called mathematics “the queen of the sciences.” If Gauss...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Simplifies the Sharing of Numerical Models

NASA Technology

Scientists at NASA not only focus on advancing space exploration; they study what is happening in the Earth’s atmosphere as well. The Global Climate...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Processor Units Reduce Satellite Construction Costs

NASA Technology

In December 2008, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center entered into an agreement with the Department of Defense and the Van Braun Center for Space Innovation...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Web Solutions Inspire Cloud Computing Software

NASA Technology

In 2008, a NASA effort to standardize its websites inspired a breakthrough in cloud computing technology. The innovation has spurred the growth of an entire industry...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Simulation Packages Expand Aircraft Design Options

NASA Technology

When engineers explore designs for safer, more fuel efficient, or faster aircraft, they encounter a common problem: they never know exactly what will happen...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Behavior Prediction Tools Strengthen Nanoelectronics

NASA Technology

Several years ago, NASA started making plans to send robots to explore the deep, dark craters on the Moon. As part of these plans, NASA needed modeling tools...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Power Converters Secure Electronics in Harsh Environments

NASA Technology

“Space weather” is a term more frequently used as solar storms and flares are closely monitored and analyzed for the impact they might have on Earth....

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Diagnostics Tools Identify Faults Prior to Failure

NASA Technology

The Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) project was designed to unearth the secrets of Mars—literally. The project’s engineers designed a light,...