Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Lasers Enable Alternative Power Transmission

NASA Technology

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, in his hugely successful 1979 work The Fountains of Paradise, crafted a story around the development of a technology that had...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Helium Recapture System Reclaims Hydrogen for Industry Use

NASA Technology

Rising helium prices might not put much of a dent in the average birthday party balloon budget, but they add up quickly for an organization like NASA,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Custom 3D Printers Revolutionize the Space Supply Chain

NASA Technology

Like a desert caravan, a space flight crew has to bring with it everything it will need over the course of its journey into an utterly barren environment....

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Metalworking Techniques Unlock a Unique Alloy

NASA Technology

Half a century ago, a scientist at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory discovered that an alloy containing 60 percent nickel and 40 percent titanium could provide...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Improved Calibration Shows Images’ True Colors

NASA Technology

In satellite images, the waters of the Pearl River, which winds around NASA’s Stennis Space Center, are about the same brownish green typical of waterways the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Micromachined Parts Advance Medicine, Astrophysics, and More

NASA Technology

Anyone who remembers the Micro Machines line of toys might be surprised to learn that the tiny model vehicles are positively gargantuan compared with...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Testing Devices Garner Data on Insulation Performance

NASA Technology

Whether you wanted to know how certain insulation would work on a Mars-bound spacecraft or on an Earth-based refrigerator, you would want to test its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrical Monitoring Devices Save on Time and Cost

NASA Technology

The sun requires no introduction. Earth orbits it; life happens because of it; we schedule our lives around its rhythmic risings and settings. Yet, despite its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Dry Lubricant Smooths the Way for Space Travel, Industry

NASA Technology

Most of the power, communications, imaging, and computing technology on the Mariner planetary space probes—cutting-edge at the time—is now the NASA...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Improved Calibration Shows Images' True Colors

NASA Technology

In satellite images, the waters of the Pearl River, which winds around NASA’s Stennis Space Center, are about the same brownish green typical of waterways the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Compact Vapor Chamber Cools Critical Components

NASA Technology

Before the Apollo program sent the first men to the surface of the moon in 1969, in the early-to-mid-1960s NASA’s Project Gemini performed much of the fundamental...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Low-Cost Sensors Deliver Nanometer-Accurate Measurements

NASA Technology

Carlos Capiro gathers his thoughts to relate how a single NASA sensor led to a product poised to disrupt his industry. “Really, a lot of it had to do...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Oxygen Sensors Monitor Bioreactors and Ensure Health and Safety

NASA Technology

In the mid-1990s scientists at NASA Kennedy Space Center were experimenting with an unusual substance: cow digestive bacteria. Could it break down...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Reactors Save Energy, Costs for Hydrogen Production

NASA Technology

When flying, do you ever wonder how the electronics—lights, air vents, or WiFi—continue to function as you glide across the sky? Commercial aircraft supply...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Deformable Mirrors Capture Exoplanet Data, Reflect Lasers

NASA Technology

We have always wondered: Is there other life out there? Are there other planets like our own, orbiting other stars like our Sun? In the early 1990s,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Cameras Monitor Spacecraft Integrity to Prevent Failures

NASA Technology

Is there—or was there ever—life on Mars? In August 2012 NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down on the surface of Mars in an attempt to answer what has...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Smart Sensors Gather Information for Machine Diagnostics

NASA Technology

Surrounded by electronics and hovering over a work bench in the Data Acquisition and Control Systems (DACS) Laboratory, Scott Jensen startles when he hears...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Commercial Platforms Allow Affordable Space Research

NASA Technology

At an altitude of about 240 miles, its orbital path carries it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population. It circles the Earth in continuous free fall; its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Fiber Optics Deliver Real-Time Structural Monitoring

NASA Technology

If the wings of a plane could talk about what they feel during flight, what would they say? Engineers at Dryden Flight Research Center are beginning to find...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Camera Systems Rapidly Scan Large Structures

NASA Technology

Aging aircraft are an increasing concern at the national level. Commercial and government vehicles are being flown past their originally intended service life in order...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Terahertz Lasers Reveal Information for 3D Images

NASA Technology

After taking off her shoes and jacket, she places them in a bin. She then takes her laptop out of its case and places it in a separate bin. As the items move...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Thin Films Protect Electronics from Heat and Radiation

NASA Technology

Back in 1972, Anne St. Clair worked side by side with Langley Research Center colleague Vernon Bell as part of NASA’s research and development efforts...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Interferometers Sharpen Measurements for Better Telescopes

NASA Technology

Over the last decade, there have been a number of innovations that have made possible the largest and most powerful telescope of its time: the James...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Vision Systems Illuminate Industrial Processes

NASA Technology

When NASA designs a spacecraft to undertake a new mission, innovation does not stop after the design phase. In many cases, these spacecraft are firsts of their kind,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Meter Designs Reduce Operation Costs for Industry

NASA Technology

The space shuttle engines changed drastically from the drawing board to the launch pad. The engine—and each of its intricate parts—required extensive testing...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Custom Machines Advance Composite Manufacturing

NASA Technology

Here is a brief list of materials that NASA will not be using to construct spacecraft: wood, adobe, fiberglass, bone. While it might be obvious why...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Polyimide Foams Offer Superior Insulation

NASA Technology

At Langley Research Center, Erik Weiser and his colleagues in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch were working with a new substance for...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Nanotube Production Devices Expand Research Capabilities

NASA Technology

In order for the Hubble Space Telescope to take incredible, never-seen-before shots of celestial bodies and then send them back to Earth,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Beam Steering Devices Reduce Payload Weight

NASA Technology

Scientists have long been able to shift the direction of a laser beam, steering it toward a target, but often the strength and focus of the light is...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Models Support Energy-Saving Microwave Technologies

NASA Technology

During the Apollo Program, astronauts on the Moon encountered a small menace that created big problems: lunar dust. Similar to how tiny bits of...