NASA Spinoff

Topics:

Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Innovative Software Tools Measure Behavioral Alertness

NASA Technology

For astronauts working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in low-Earth orbit, getting adequate sleep is a challenge. For one, there’s that...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Home Air Purifiers Eradicate Harmful Pathogens

NASA Technology

In the 1990s, NASA scientists were thinking of what astronauts would need to survive long-term missions to the moon and even to other planets in the solar system. One important requirement was a dependable source of food, which could be accomplished by astronauts growing...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Mars Technologies Spawn Durable Wind Turbines

NASA Technology

“It all started with ecological life support systems for exploration,” says David Bubenheim, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center....

Spinoff: Computer Technology
Simulation Tools Prevent Signal Interference on Spacecraft

NASA Technology

Launching a satellite into space requires painstaking preparation, not only to make sure that a multitude of technologies are functioning, but also to...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Miniaturized, Portable Sensors Monitor Metabolic Health

NASA Technology

On Earth, gravity might weigh you down, but it also builds you up. For astronauts working in space for long durations, the weightless environment can cause a...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Patient Simulators Train Emergency Caregivers

NASA Technology

Medical training is one of the most important aspects of preparing astronauts for space. Every crewmember must become proficient in basic emergency skills, such as...

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: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
NASA-Enhanced Water Bottles Filter Water on the Go

NASA Technology

Thanks to NASA bscience missions, researchers are finding that water may be more plentiful in space than we previously believed. The Lunar Crater Observation and...

Spinoff: Public Safety
Coatings Preserve Metal, Stone, Tile, and Concrete

NASA Technology

As numerous achievements have taken place in space over the last 50-plus years, a number of innovations have simultaneously taken place on the ground. For...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Monitors Enable Medication Management in Patients’ Homes

NASA Technology

To build a small and mobile monitoring and processing system for use onboard the station to capture, store, and transmit sensor data about astronauts back...

Spinoff: Public Safety
Robots Spur Software That Lends a Hand

NASA Technology

Robonaut 2 flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2011, but its development has been many years in the making. In 1997, Johnson...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Programs Visualize Earth and Space for Interactive Education

NASA Technology

Incredible sights are being seen, thanks to the development of technology both inside and outside of NASA. With just a few clicks, NASA’s Eyes on the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Satellite Data Aid Monitoring of Nation’s Forests

NASA Technology

Joe Spruce’s last name is a fitting one: Spruce is a research scientist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center working with the US Department of Agriculture Forest...

Spinoff: Public Safety
Catalytic Converters Maintain Air Quality in Mines

NASA Technology

In the 1980s, Langley Research Center teamed up with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a technology for the space-based detection of wind shears,...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Thermal Materials Protect Priceless, Personal Keepsakes

NASA Technology

Most of us cannot comprehend the task of building something to withstand temperatures over 4,000 °F—but NASA can. The space shuttles endured such...

Spinoff: Computer Technology
Virtual Machine Language Controls Remote Devices

NASA Technology

Virtually all of Chris Grasso’s academic and professional career has been built on NASA technology. “I’ve been working with NASA since college,” he says.

Spinoff: Transportation
NASA Standards Inform Comfortable Car Seats

NASA Technology

In the beginning, safety trumped comfort in spacecraft designs for human space travel. Mihriban Whitmore, a manager in the Human Research Program at NASA’s Johnson...

Spinoff: Computer Technology
Software Accelerates Computing Time for Complex Math

NASA Technology

The 19th century mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, the astronomer par excellence of his day, called mathematics “the queen of the sciences.” If Gauss were...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Radiant Barriers Save Energy in Buildings

NASA Technology

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s—a satelloon?

Spinoff: Computer Technology
Software Simplifies the Sharing of Numerical Models

NASA Technology

Scientists at NASA not only focus on advancing space exploration; they study what is happening in the Earth’s atmosphere as well. The Global Climate...

Spinoff: Transportation
Data Mining Tools Make Flights Safer, More Efficient

NASA Technology

When an aircraft experiences catastrophic failure, it’s not difficult to tell that something has gone wrong. But even if an airplane reaches its destination...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Shuttle Engine Designs Revolutionize Solar Power

NASA Technology

One of the hottest solar energy plants in the world was developed with engineering expertise derived from one of the hottest space technologies ever engineered: the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Procedure-Authoring Tool Improves Safety on Oil Rigs

NASA Technology

On May 11, 2013, two astronauts emerged from the interior of the International Space Station (ISS) and worked their way toward the far end of spacecraft. Over...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Thermal Materials Drive Professional Apparel Line

NASA Technology

From the time he was a Boy Scout, Gihan Amarasiriwardena had a fascination with performance materials. While growing up in the northeastern United States, he...

Spinoff: Computer Technology
Processor Units Reduce Satellite Construction Costs

NASA Technology

In December 2008, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center entered into an agreement with the Department of Defense and the Van Braun Center for Space Innovation to...

Spinoff: Public Safety
Air Systems Provide Life Support to Miners

NASA Technology

On July 21, 2011, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, having successfully completed a 13-day mission to ferry supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station (ISS),...

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: Transportation
Experiments Result in Safer, Spin-Resistant Aircraft

NASA Technology

James M. Patton Jr. completed a whopping 8,000 spin turns throughout his career at NASA. As a research pilot at Langley Research Center, Patton and his...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Open Source Initiative Powers Real-Time Data Streams

NASA Technology

Let’s say you are an academic researcher who needs to collect data over a long period of time, on a site hundreds of miles from your base of operation. You...