Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

High-Temperature Coatings Offer Energy Savings

NASA Technology

The U.S. X-Plane Program included the first-of-its-kind research in aerodynamics and astronautics with experimental vehicles, including the first...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Materials Advance Chemical Propulsion Technology

NASA Technology

In the future, the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate hopes to use better-performing and lower-cost propulsion...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Cameras Reveal Elements in the Short Wave Infrared

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In late 2009, a rocket traveling twice as fast as a speeding bullet crashed into the Moon as part of NASA’s...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Composite Sandwich Technologies Lighten Components

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

At Glenn Research Center’s Ballistic Impact Facility, engineers study new materials and the ways that they react to sudden, brute...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Deformable Mirrors Correct Optical Distortions

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In March of 2009, the Kepler spacecraft was launched to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems outside...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Stitching Techniques Advance Optics Manufacturing

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The amount of detail a telescope can see is directly related to the size of its mirrors. To look deep into space at...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Compact, Robust Chips Integrate Optical Functions

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

People often think of NASA’s research as pushing the boundaries of our universe—sending people, robots, and spacecraft into the dark...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Fuel Cell Stations Automate Processes, Catalyst Testing

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Since the early days of space flight, fuel cells have provided an important source of power for extended missions to space. Aboard...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Onboard Systems Record Unique Videos of Space Missions

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

It was one of the few times that a crash landing would be deemed a success. On October 9, 2009, nine sensor...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Space Research Results Purify Semiconductor Materials

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

While President Obama’s news that NASA would encourage private companies to develop vehicles to take NASA into...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Toolkits Control Motion of Complex Robotics

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

That space is a hazardous environment for humans is common knowledge. Even beyond the obvious lack of air and gravity, the extreme temperatures...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Advanced Sensors Boost Optical Communication, Imaging

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In 1992, on a gravity assist flyby of Earth that would help propel it along its mission to Jupiter, NASA’s Galileo probe detected a...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Tensile Fabrics Enhance Architecture Around the World

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

On a Friday night in March 2008, fans at a college basketball game at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome noticed the stadium’s scoreboard...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Thermoelectric Devices Cool, Power Electronics

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

More than 10 billion miles away from Earth, a NASA spacecraft continues a journey that began in 1977. Having long since accomplished its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Robust Light Filters Support Powerful Imaging Devices

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Consider the anatomy of a rainbow: From the inner arch, violet shifts to blue, then green, yellow, and red. Contained in the rainbow...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Innovative Tools Advance Revolutionary Weld Technique

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The iconic, orange external tank of the space shuttle launch system not only contains the fuel used by the shuttle’s main engines...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Methods Reduce Cost, Enhance Quality of Nanotubes

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

For all the challenges posed by the microgravity conditions of space, weight is actually one of the more significant problems NASA faces...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Gauging Systems Monitor Cryogenic Liquids

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Rocket fuel needs to stay cool—super cool, in fact. The ability to store gas propellants like liquid hydrogen and oxygen at cryogenic...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Voltage Sensors Monitor Harmful Static

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Anyone who has ever experienced an unpleasant jolt from a doorknob after shuffling across the carpet on a dry morning knows that static...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Compact Instruments Measure Heat Potential

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Without the insulating protection of Earth’s atmosphere, orbiting space shuttles, space stations, and satellites are subject to thermal...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA Innovation Builds Better Nanotubes

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

One of the basic nanotechnology structures, the carbon nanotube, is a graphite sheet one atomic layer thick that is wrapped on...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Polyimide Boosts High-Temperature Performance

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Polyimides are a class of polymers notable for chemical, wear, radiation, and temperature resistance, characteristics that...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA Design Strengthens Welds

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The Welding Institute (TWI), a nonprofit professional organization based out of the United Kingdom and devoted to the industry of joining...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Portable Device Analyzes Rocks and Minerals

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Building on the success of the two rover geologists that arrived on Mars in January 2004, NASA’s next rover mission is being...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Sensors Increase Productivity in Harsh Environments

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

A team of scientists at Glenn Research Center, operating under the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Novel Process Revolutionizes Welding Industry

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Deformation resistance welding (DRW) is a revolutionary welding process—a new technique for joining metals—in an...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Open-Lattice Composite Design Strengthens Structures

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA has invested considerable time and energy working with academia and private industry to develop new composite structures that are...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ultra-Sensitive Photoreceiver Boosts Data Transmission

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In June 2006, NASA scientists used extensive data transmitted from the Chandra X-ray Observatory deep space telescope to prove that...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Portable Hyperspectral Imaging Broadens Sensing Horizons

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

All objects reflect a certain amount of energy, even if it is just the electromagnetic energy created by the movement of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Micro Machining Enhances Precision Fabrication

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 State of the Union address, he announced plans for a U.S. space station, the equivalent of the Russian...