Spinoff: Public Safety

AirMap Guides Drones toward Widespread Use

NASA Technology

The drones are coming for us all—and that’s a good thing. While unmanned, remote-controlled, or programmed flight is not new, it is becoming increasingly...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Rockets, Rovers Spur New Offshore Drilling Safety Technology

NASA Technology

On the night of April 20, 2010, a flow of oil, gas, and mud erupted onto the floor of the Deepwater Horizon drilling vessel from the oil well below....

Spinoff: Public Safety

Polyimide Foam Offers Safer, Lighter Insulation

NASA Technology

Oxygen, which comprises just over a fifth of Earth’s atmosphere, is highly reactive and able to form compounds with nearly all other elements. Heat facilitates...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Smaller, Cheaper Lasers Can Detect Gas, Monitor Structures, Take Tissue Images

NASA Technology

Since the invention of lasers in 1960, engineers have found countless ways to create these coherent, monochromatic beams of light and...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Autonomous Drone Navigation System Ends Reliance on GPS

NASA Technology

Self-piloted drone traffic may be just over the horizon, metaphorically speaking, but for now, vehicles cannot legally fly beyond the operator’s line of...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Wool Mask to Fight Fires in Space Inspires Fire Equipment on Earth

NASA Technology

A New Zealand-based company’s work to help astronauts fight fires in case of an anomaly on the Orion spacecraft is already informing its line...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Astronaut Experience Inspires Single-Handed Drone Flight Controller

NASA Technology

Astronaut Scott Parazynski has flown airplanes, climbed Mount Everest, and scuba-dived deep in a volcanic lake—but he says floating in space...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Freeze-Dried Foods Nourish Adventurers and the Imagination

NASA Technology

Freeze-dried food, today, is commonplace. It’s in the baby food aisle and next to the dried apricots. Hikers carry it on backwoods treks and doomsday...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Carbon-Fiber Heat Sink Makes Batteries Safer for Electric Cars, Bikes, and More

NASA Technology

Batteries have come a long way in recent years. Lithium-ion batteries in particular are more powerful, longer-lasting, and...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Spacesuit Insulation Protects Personal Devices

NASA Technology

Protecting astronauts from the extreme temperatures of space while they explore the Moon or repair the exterior of the International Space Station requires a suit...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Nanotechnology Repairs Engine Damage in Cars

NASA Technology

That spot of oil on the garage floor dripping from your engine indicates a problem. It’s so small that you put off going to the mechanic, until you hear a new noise...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Zero-Gravity Body Posture Influences Acupressure Massage Chair

NASA Technology

Most people don’t think about how easy it is to sit behind a desk or go through a door—for them, it’s automatic. But sitting horizontally at a...

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: Computer Technology

Swarming Technology Lets Drones Work as a Team

NASA Technology

Even before much-anticipated autonomous drones finally take to the sky, the U.S. airspace is saturated, says now-retired Langley Research Center scientist Kennie...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Simulation Software Optimizes High-Speed, Efficient Data Networks

NASA Technology

NASA famously uses simulation software to design spacecraft, predict satellite orbits, and train astronauts. But modeling and simulation are...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Mission Control Conference System Enables Global Collaboration

NASA Technology

Today conference calling is so easy and common it is essentially unremarkable. Share a toll-free phone number and instantly dozens, hundreds, or even...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Smart Sensor Networks Monitor System Health—and Themselves

NASA Technology

When it comes to monitoring and managing the health of any system, sensors are the front-line technology. They gauge a system’s vital signs, such as...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

AURA Software Tackles Uncertainty in Complex Systems

NASA Technology

The software started as a way to evaluate the reliability of systems that look for anomalies in aircraft components and respond to them in flight. Today it is...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Turbopump Modeling Software Propels Fluid-Flow Simulations

NASA Technology

Only 12 people have walked on the Moon. That may soon change—within the next few decades, when it simply becomes a matter of buying a ticket. It will...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Beowulf Clusters Make Supercomputing Accessible

NASA Technology

In the Old English epic Beowulf, the warrior Unferth, jealous of the eponymous hero’s bravery, openly doubts Beowulf’s odds of slaying the monster Grendel that...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Data Visualization Platform Helps Missions Fly

NASA Technology

There are so many pieces to a successful mission in space, and keeping track of it all is no easy task. Software designed to simplify the interface between mission...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Tiny Pulsed Lasers Have Medical, Industrial, Military, Environmental Applications

NASA Technology

On the outside, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will look nearly identical to the 2011-launched Curiosity rover. But inside, engineers...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Metallic Glass Coatings Improve Power Plant, Oil Rig Productivity

NASA Technology

A rover can be equipped with the most state-of-the-art scientific instruments NASA engineers can devise, but if the wheel breaks, that’s going...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrostatic Discharge Training Improves Manufacturing Practices

NASA Technology

Everybody has felt it from time to time: that sharp jolt of electric shock you get when you walk across a rug and touch a doorknob.

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Pulsed Laser Innovations Power Nobel-Winners’ Research

NASA Technology

When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon, the video and his first words—transmitted across nearly 240,000 miles and broadcasted around the...