Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Super Insulation Requires Super Materials

When developing a new coating to protect buildings from heat buildup, Superior Products InternationaI II Inc. of Shawnee, Kansas reached out to the experts at Marshall Space Flight...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Farmers Get Tools from Space

IrriWatch BV of Wageningen, Netherlands, uses streams of publicly available data from NASA-built instruments in orbit, including the Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment developed at the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Oil Drillers, Environmentalists Agree on Small, Sensitive Spectrometer

Technical assistance and STTR funding from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory helped Optoknowledge Systems Inc. (OKSI) develop a compact spectrometer for sensing...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Taking the Pulse of Earth

By combining NASA satellite data and imagery with proprietary artificial intelligence developed by terraPulse, Inc. the North Potomac, MD-based business makes it possible for companies to monitor changes to...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Next-Level Farming

Closed-environment plant-growth data and expertise developed at Kennedy Space Center through research into bioregenerative life support that could feed astronauts on long-duration missions helped Oslo,...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Satellites ‘See’ Sea Turtles, Ocean Threats

The Argos satellite technology operated by National Center for Space Studies in Ramonville Saint-Agne, France, serves as a wildlife tracking resource. Once an international partnership...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Digital Images on the Dime

The Earth is ever-changing—above us, around us, and under our feet. Often there are explanations for the shifting behavior of our surroundings, though in some cases, conclusions have not been...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Giant Batteries Deliver Renewable Energy When It’s Needed

A large, nontoxic battery that can store energy from the wind or sun was developed by Wilsonville, Oregon-based ESS Inc., which drew from flow battery research and...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Suspended Solar Panels See the Light

To determine how well a suspended solar panel system would hold up to potentially destructive oscillations caused by wind, Skysun LLC in Cleveland, Ohio sought the help of NASA employees at Glenn...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Astronaut Life Support for Earth Families

Kennedy Space Center spent decades developing indoor farming techniques for crops and even fish to support a closed-loop life-support system for space travel. Eden Grow Systems Inc. of...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Forecasting Saharan Dust to Minimize Health Risks

Last summer, wind carried nearly 24 tons of dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa across the Atlantic Ocean, to North and South America, hitting islands in the Caribbean Sea...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Getting Water out of Snow with NASA Technology

How much water is in mountain snowpack? That’s a question science has been attempting to solve for decades. Finally, NASA-developed technology provides an accurate answer, using a...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

NASA Technology Helps in Fight Against Climate Change

NASA technology fights climate change in all kinds of ways. Many of these innovations were pioneered for space travel and planetary exploration before anyone repurposed them for...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

NASA Enlists Trees, Bacteria to Clean Up Earth

NASA explores outer space, but it’s also owner and steward of hundreds of square miles of planet Earth. Populated with scientists and engineers, the space agency’s field centers have...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Measuring Moon Dust to Fight Air Pollution

Moon dust isn’t like the stuff that collects on a bookshelf or on tables – it’s ubiquitous and abrasive, and it clings to everything. It’s so bad that it even broke the vacuum NASA...

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: 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: 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.

Both extreme environments are...

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...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Carbon Capture Process Makes Sustainable Oil

NASA Technology

NASA has many researchers focused on the carbon cycle on Earth—and how it contributes to climate change—but the Space Agency has also spent plenty of time delving...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Laser Enables Precise Measurements for Weather Forecasting, Industry

NASA Technology

News of Hurricane Irma dominated forecasts for days before it made landfall in the Caribbean and then the southeastern United States in...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Field-Scanning Drone Gives Farmers Better Data

NASA Technology

There’s a reason people talk about a “bird’s-eye view” and “as the crow flies”: flying allows access and a perspective you just can’t get with feet...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Satellite Imagery Helps Farmers Cut Water Use in Half

NASA Technology

Irrigation—supplying water to growing crops—is one of the most important ways humans use water. Across the United States, for example, a full 80 percent...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Gas Processors Turn Oil Drilling Emissions into Fuel for Sale

NASA Technology

Pioneer Energy brings an unusual perspective to the oil and gas industry: many of its employees, including founder Robert Zubrin, have a background...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Versatile Fuel Cells Stop Natural Gas Emissions at Oil Wells

NASA Technology

In 1999, a NASA engineer and a professor from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) ran into each other at a conference and hatched an idea....

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Rocket Expertise Assists Transition to Green Energy

NASA Technology

Around the world, economic growth and prosperity is tied to the availability of cheap energy. Coal is abundant and cheap, but in developed countries the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Pointing Platform Enables Earth Imaging from Space Station

NASA Technology

Most people think of the International Space Station (ISS) as a place to learn about space, but in recent years the modules of humanity’s only outpost...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Algorithms to Detect Clouds Forecast Global Crop Production

NASA Technology

It started as an algorithm to detect clouds in satellite imagery, but now the software is being used for everything from increasing food security in the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Building-Monitoring System Provides Insights for Sustainability

NASA Technology

When we talk about “green buildings,” the conversation is generally about reducing consumption. That’s because buildings and their occupants...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Space Station Garden Shines Light on Earth-Based Horticulture

NASA Technology

Astronauts have been gardening on the International Space Station for years to learn how plants grow in microgravity, with the idea that space crops...