Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Building-Monitoring System Provides Insights for Sustainability

NASA Technology

When we talk about “green buildings,” the conversation is generally about reducing consumption. That’s because buildings and their occupants...

Spinoff: Transportation

Space-Age Insulator Evolves to Replace Plastic and Save Weight

NASA Technology

When aerogels were first invented in the 1930s, nobody had much use for them. And yet, nearly a century later, these materials could become as...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Low-Cost Transceiver Will Allow First Laser Mass Communication

NASA Technology

Since the advent of the laser in the 1960s, engineers have struggled to use light beams in free space to send information the way we use radio waves....

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Memory Foam Supports and Shapes in Women’s Apparel

NASA Technology

If there’s one NASA spinoff that is almost guaranteed to have touched your life, it is memory foam. Even traditional spring mattresses typically have a layer...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Brainwaves Reveal Student Engagement, Operate Household Objects

NASA Technology

When we talk about operating “on autopilot,” we usually mean acting with little thought or effort, often resulting in error. It turns out...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Algorithms to Detect Clouds Forecast Global Crop Production

NASA Technology

It started as an algorithm to detect clouds in satellite imagery, but now the software is being used for everything from increasing food security in the...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Tiny Star Trackers Help Spacecraft Find Their Place

NASA Technology

NASA tackles some of the biggest questions in the universe, and the tools needed to look for answers are often, themselves, big, in both size and cost. But one...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Image-Analysis Software Sees Cancer in 3D

NASA Technology

Even NASA can be surprised.

The Space Agency works hard to search out surprising discoveries, of course, but it works equally hard to avoid unpleasant ones related...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Biofeedback Loops Aim to Enhance Combat, Sports Training

NASA Technology

Steadying an undulating putting green or a wandering computer cursor with your mind alone might sound far-fetched, but NASA has had this technology for...

Spinoff: Transportation

Software Helps Design Artery Stents, Lawn Mowers, Airplanes

NASA Technology

When Aloha Airlines Flight 243 made an emergency landing on Maui in April 1988, much of its upper fuselage was missing, leaving passengers entirely...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

NASA Code Speeds Nation’s Aircraft, Spacecraft Design

NASA Technology

In the late 1980s, NASA engineers were working to improve software to simulate how air flowed around vehicles in flight. But the Space Shuttle posed a...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Research Sends Video Game Players on a Journey to Mars

NASA Technology

What would it be like to venture to another planet? To kick up red dirt on Mars and crawl through the lava tubes that wind beneath the surface? To build...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Membranes Mimic Kidneys to Filter Water

NASA Technology

When trying to solve a tough problem, it’s not unusual for engineers to turn to nature for a solution.

“Nature is our biggest R&D lab. Whatever...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Carbon Capture Process Makes Sustainable Oil

NASA Technology

NASA has many researchers focused on the carbon cycle on Earth—and how it contributes to climate change—but the Space Agency has also spent plenty of time delving...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Pointing Platform Enables Earth Imaging from Space Station

NASA Technology

Most people think of the International Space Station (ISS) as a place to learn about space, but in recent years the modules of humanity’s only outpost...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Spacesuit Air Filters Eliminate Household Pet Odors

NASA Technology

In a surprising turn, NASA-backed research on new spacesuit technology could improve air quality in the homes of pet owners, as well as keep cars smelling fresh...

Spinoff: Public Safety

RoboMantis Offers to Take Over Dangerous Missions

NASA Technology

Moving slowly and deliberately, the robot picked its way over a pile of cinder blocks, testing and often reconsidering every step of its four black, tubular...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Miniature Positioner Focuses Lenses with Precision

NASA Technology

Nobody has ever directly seen dark matter or dark energy, yet physicists and astronomers observe their effects all around us. Dark matter is thought to hold...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Gas Regulators Keep Pilots Breathing

NASA Technology

In 1962, John Glenn hurtled around Earth at speeds that exceeded 17,000 mph, managing three orbits before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. In all, his historic...

Spinoff: Transportation

Probes Characterize Air and Water Flows over Aircraft, Yachts

NASA Technology

A new approach to characterizing high-speed turbulence in wind and fluid flows is on track to become the standard for wind tunnel measurements—and...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Bowflex System Spurs Revolution in Home Fitness

NASA Technology

The commercials were once ubiquitous, and the machines soon appeared in spare rooms and garages across the country. The Bowflex Revolution was a phenomenon of the...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Fluorescent Paints Spot DNA Damage from Radiation, Gene Editing

NASA Technology

A cutting-edge technique for detecting damage to chromosomes showed enough promise for space medicine that its creators founded a company to market...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Beryllium Blazes New Trail for Telescopes

NASA Technology

The James Webb Space Telescope is a mechanical eye so penetrating it will look back in time to the dawn of the universe. And its cornea of lightweight, durable mirrors is...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Toolkit Steadies Rockets

NASA Technology

“Combustion instability is the part of rocket science that makes rocket science hard,” says Paul Gloyer, actual rocket scientist and cofounder of a company that hopes to help...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Spray Analyzer Turns Up in Cars, Planes, Medicine, Cutting-Edge TVs

NASA Technology

At first, NASA just wanted a way to characterize fuel sprays in a turbulent environment such as a jet engine. What William Bachalo created to...

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...

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

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

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

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...