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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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?

That’s what researchers and designers at Langley Research Center nicknamed Echo I, the first NASA...

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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...

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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...

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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:...

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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...

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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...

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Spinoff: Computer Technology
Micro-Accelerometers Monitor Equipment Health

NASA Technology

Objects that orbit the Earth, such as the International Space Station (ISS), provide a unique environment called zero-g, or more correctly, microgravity. All objects...

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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...

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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),...

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Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Testing Devices Garner Data on Insulation Performance

NASA Technology

Whether you wanted to know how certain insulation would work on a Mars-bound spacecraft or on an Earth-based refrigerator, you would want to test its...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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NASA Technology

Comets are beautiful, and apparently it’s a youthful kind of beauty, because they look about the same from the time they were born. Often referred to as dirty...

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NASA Technology

It was Henry Ford who said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Following such an adage,...

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Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Smart Sensors Gather Information for Machine Diagnostics

NASA Technology

Surrounded by electronics and hovering over a work bench in the Data Acquisition and Control Systems (DACS) Laboratory, Scott Jensen startles when he hears...

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NASA Technology

In a world that’s increasingly interconnected, the effects of even smaller-scale natural disasters or other emergencies are often felt far and wide. Not all...

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Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Meter Designs Reduce Operation Costs for Industry

NASA Technology

The space shuttle engines changed drastically from the drawing board to the launch pad. The engine—and each of its intricate parts—required extensive testing...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Space-Inspired Trailers Encourage Exploration on Earth

NASA Technology

An inch can make a world of difference. Which is why Garrett Finney moved the office coffee-maker into the full-size, cardboard mockup of the new trailer...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Ultra-Thin Coatings Beautify Art

NASA Technology

The craftsmen in the Roman Empire who constructed the Lycurgus Cup 17 centuries ago probably didn’t think their artifact would survive for nearly 2,000 years as a prized...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Spacesuit Materials Add Comfort to Undergarments

NASA Technology

“Life’s too short to wear average underwear,” says Mo Moorman, the director of public relations at Jockey International. By “average underwear,” Moorman...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Gigapixel Images Connect Sports Teams with Fans

NASA Technology

NASA’s twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, remain one of the Agency’s greatest achievements in exploration. On Earth, these robots are best known for...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Satellite Maps Deliver More Realistic Gaming

NASA Technology

In June 2009, NASA launched Terra, the flagship of NASA’s Earth Observing System, which studies a sweeping set of the planet’s characteristics. Included in the...

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Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Elemental Scanning Devices Authenticate Works of Art

NASA Technology

What do you think the paper or computer screen you are looking at is made of? Are the shoes you are wearing really made of leather? Is the...

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Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Microradiometers Reveal Ocean Health, Climate Change

NASA Technology

When NASA researcher Stanford Hooker is in the field, he pays close attention to color. For Hooker, being in the field means being at sea. On one such research...

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