Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

The Martian Garden Recreates Red Planet’s Surface

NASA Technology

After the Phoenix lander settled into the northern polar region of Mars in 2008, its operators discovered that icy soil scraped from the planet’s surface was...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Ferrofluid Technology Becomes a Magnet for Pioneering Artists

NASA Technology

In 2008, when Nikola Ilic came across an online video of moving ferrofluid sculptures by Japanese artist Sachiko Kodama, with black liquid rising into...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Aerogel Insulation Makes Thinner, Warmer Outerwear

NASA Technology

When Michael Markesbery, future cofounder of Oros, climbed the tallest mountain in the Swiss Alps with friends, he was bundled up with so many bulky layers he...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Space-Grade Insulation Keeps Beer Colder on Earth

NASA Technology

A class of insulation invented to help NASA with a range of daunting tasks, from storing liquid hydrogen or helium to insulating spacecraft and keeping astronauts...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

High-Efficiency LEDs Grow Crops, Stimulate Alertness

NASA Technology

NASA harnesses the power of light for purposes as varied as laser communications, 3D mapping of land surfaces, and spectroscopy to determine the composition of...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Paired Sleep Tracker, Light Therapy Tools Retrain Circadian Rhythms

NASA Technology

Lack of sleep could be costing the U.S. economy around $411 billion a year, according to a 2016 estimate by the RAND Corporation. That same...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Organic Compound Turns Toxic Waste into Harmless Byproducts

NASA Technology

In 2004, a team of researchers at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) was trying to develop a substance that would glow to indicate the presence of...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

LED Lighting Improves Efficiency, Imaging, Cuts Maintenance

NASA Technology

When Stennis Space Center officials wanted to try more energy-efficient lighting in the center’s rocket engine test stands, they couldn’t simply go...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Plant Food for Space Grows Crops on Earth

NASA Technology

The goal is a fresh and tasty salad on Mars. While other NASA programs are working on getting to the Red Planet, the Agency’s Veggie team is figuring out how to grow...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Remote Sensing Technology Fights Forest Fires Smarter

NASA Technology

Fires were raging in Northern California in June 2008, at the height of one of the state’s most destructive wildfire seasons in history, and one blaze was...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions

NASA Technology

NASA has been taking pictures of Earth from space for as long as the Space Agency has been around—and well before Boston-based startup TellusLabs began using...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Micronutrient Formula Strengthens Plants, Increasing Yields

NASA Technology

An apple a day keeps the doctor away—but how do you bring enough apples, and other fresh food, all the way to Mars and back? Given the limits on how...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Chemical Simulation Software Predicts Climate Change, Air Quality

NASA Technology

For climate scientists, the whole Earth is a laboratory. They need to observe what is happening across the entire planet over long swaths of...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

NASA Kite Invention Spurs Ever-Growing Educational Program

NASA Technology

When an educational agency contacted NASA engineer Geoff Bland in 2010, wondering about a way to monitor ponds and streams where water samples were being...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Planet-Navigating AI “Brain” Helps Drones and Cars Avoid Collisions

NASA Technology

Once you’ve designed a robot that can autonomously explore planetary terrains, putting the same technology in cars, toys, and drones seems...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Early NASA “Dream Computer Program” Still Optimizes Designs

NASA Technology

At the top of the food chain, an apex predator hunts without fear of being hunted. That’s why MSC Software Corporation branded its latest software...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

2D Analysis Software Clarifies Medical, Weather, Intelligence Images

NASA Technology

NASA engineer Semion Kizhner spent an entire week trying to understand the Hilbert-Huang Transform with the colleague who had developed it, but...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Quake Hunter Maps a Century of Quakes Worldwide

NASA Technology

Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural disasters, in terms of death tolls and the cost of recovery. They’re also nearly impossible to predict, but...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Free Aerodynamic Simulation Code Supports Industry, Education

NASA Technology

In the mid-1990s, NASA, the Air Force, and McDonnell Douglas Corporation realized they were duplicating each other’s efforts to make better software...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Models Atmosphere for Spacecraft

NASA Technology

When the Curiosity rover made its spectacular landing on Mars, most of the attention was focused on the revolutionary “sky-crane maneuver” that helped slow the...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Takes Cost Estimating to the Stars

NASA Technology

When imagining what it takes to design a spacecraft, few people think about the engineering work that goes into getting an accurate cost estimate before the building...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Communication Devices Ease Contact with Commercial Spacecraft

NASA Technology

Scientific experimentation is the central purpose of the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts work toward answers that will be crucial...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Mission Control Software Manages Commercial Satellite Fleets

NASA Technology

The task of monitoring and diagnosing spacecraft health is getting out of hand.

As satellites and other spacecraft have become more complex, the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

High-Speed Cameras Test Material Performances on Impact

NASA Technology

When something goes wrong in space, the results can be tragic. NASA takes the responsibility of testing to understand past accidents and prevent future ones...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

All-in-One Lab Device Gets New Instruments via Software Update

NASA Technology

Devices for testing electronics haven’t changed much in decades, and this presents an inconvenience not just for the engineers using them but for...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Gold Coating Keeps Oscars Bright

NASA Technology

The Academy Awards ceremony is probably the last place most people would look for NASA technology, but it turns out the Space Agency has had an impact even on the glammest of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

3D Printer Aims to Accelerate Materials Development

NASA Technology

When Mark Jaster was a brand-new graduate, he landed a coveted job at NASA’s Glenn Research Center after two summer internships there, in the heat treatment...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

External Platform Enables Space Research

NASA Technology

Not all the research on the space station happens on the inside. A good portion of the investigations take advantage of the orbiting outpost’s perch some 250 miles above...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Silicon Diode Sensor Tracks Extreme Temperatures

NASA Technology

When people feel sick, they can just grab a drugstore thermometer and pop it in their mouth. But it’s a different story for engineers looking to get an accurate...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Tunable Liquid Crystals Grab Particles and Cells Using Only Light

NASA Technology

Images taken from high in the sky can offer clues to how well a plant is growing and whether its water needs are being met. The key is in...