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: 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

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: 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: 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: Transportation

Plane-Launched Rocket Opens Up Space for Small Satellites

NASA Technology

More than ever, day-to-day life on Earth depends on the growing number of satellites in orbit used for communications, navigation, tracking, science,...

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

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: 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

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: 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: Health and Medicine

Fiber-Optic “Nerves” Enable Sensitive Surgery Tools

NASA Technology

Can you make a robot feel? That was the question posed to Johnson Space Center engineer Toby Martin.

It wasn’t a heart that NASA wanted to give...

Spinoff: Transportation

Flash Lidar Enables Driverless Navigation

NASA Technology

A spacecraft hovers over the gray, cratered moonscape, scanning for its landing spot, and then, in a blaze of rocket fire that kicks up a massive cloud of dust, the...

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: 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: 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: 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

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: 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: 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: Health and Medicine

Variable-Gravity Device Enables Medical, Pharmaceutical Research

NASA Technology

Through decades of sending astronauts into space, scientists have learned much about the biological effects of weightlessness. In the absence of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Unique Sensors Will Improve Aerodynamic Design, Aircraft Performance

NASA Technology

Even after almost 150 years of wind tunnel testing, no commercial product had ever been able to directly measure the localized force that...

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: Transportation

Water-Powered Engines Offer Satellite Mobility

NASA Technology

NASA has been planning for a water-powered rocket engine since the Agency’s early years. After all, water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, which have been powering...

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: Health and Medicine

Low-Outgassing, Space-Grade Coatings Cover Electronics, Sensors, Pacemakers

NASA Technology

You might open a window after painting a room, or let a foam mattress air out before sleeping on it so the materials can off-gas and...

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...

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: 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: 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...