Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Photocatalytic Water Splitter Stores Energy as Hydrogen

NASA Technology

At a glance, the surface of Mars appears to offer little in the way of natural resources. Scenes captured by the various rovers exploring the planet depict...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Algorithm Predicts and Evaluates Storm Surges

NASA Technology

It was sometime in late 2004, and Tom Stanley, technical monitor and small business technical advisor out of Stennis Space Center, took to studying newly completed...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Space-Ready Spectrometer Offers Terrestrial Advantages

NASA Technology

In the 1990s, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist Joy Crisp oversaw an effort to get a cutting-edge, ruggedized, lightweight spectrometer on a lander...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Recycling Technology Converts Plastic Waste to Energy

NASA Technology

Glenn Research Center has always been in the business of perfecting engines. During World War II, the center, then called the Aircraft Engine Research...

Spinoff: Transportation

Multidisciplinary Software to Help Take Aircraft to the Next Level

NASA Technology

Consider any component of a modern passenger airplane, and you’ll discover a remarkable amount of engineering complexity that went into its...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Optimizes Designs from Spaceships to Wind Turbines

NASA Technology

Sharing computer code with the private sector has become a major component of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program, with the Agency’s latest software...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

CO₂ Recovery System Saves Brewers Money, Puts Bubbles into Beer

NASA Technology

Building on work he and his companies did with Johnson Space Center’s In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) team, Robert Zubrin has developed and...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Hydrogen Detection Tape Saves Time and Lives

NASA Technology

From the Apollo missions through the Space Shuttle Program, NASA has relied on liquid hydrogen as a fuel source for the upper stages of its rocket launches. The reason...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Buildings for Manipulating Magnetism Revolutionize Magnetometers

NASA Technology

In a corner of Ames Research Center in California stand a pair of rather unusual buildings, where mere mortals can control magnetic...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Wide Area Thermal Imaging System Brings the Landscape into Focus

NASA Technology

Finding a forest fire can be more difficult than some would expect. Seeing smoke in the distance indicates a problem, but determining the exact...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Precision Coffeemaker Adapts Brews to Beans, Taste

NASA Technology

Technology often takes circuitous paths. A magnetron developed for precision bombing during World War II led to the microwave oven, and a battery-powered drill...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Analytic Tool Simplifies Metal Fracture Assessments

NASA Technology

When NASA builds a spacecraft, materials engineers at the Agency have the important task of assessing the structural properties of the materials that comprise...

Spinoff: Public Safety

GPS Sensor Web Helps Forecasters Warn of Monsoon Flash Floods

NASA Technology

In the American Southwest and in northwestern Mexico, more than half the annual rainfall often comes in the form of the torrential and unpredictable...

Spinoff: Transportation

Open Source Aircraft Design Software Helps Industry, Hobbyists

NASA Technology

The old saying about the inability to build a better mousetrap could also apply to aircraft design tools. For years, the best, and maybe only, way to...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NODE+ Platform Integrates Sensors with Smartphones

NASA Technology

In 2007, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a call for a sensor that could equip a smartphone with the ability to detect dangerous gases and...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Tool Kit Simplifies Development of High-Affinity Molecules

NASA Technology

As NASA sets its sights on long-duration missions deeper into the solar system, including a planned mission to Mars, astronauts will need access to...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Laser Vision Helps Hubble, Package Shippers See Clearly

NASA Technology

For more than 25 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided stunning photos of the universe unequalled in their depth, detail, and distinction. Hubble...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Mars Rover Work Spawns PDF Collaboration Software

NASA Technology

Like satellites in orbit, some spinoffs just keep spinning.

Alliance Spacesystems, founded by a handful of engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

DigitalClone Software Predicts, Extends Machine Life

NASA Technology

Medical scientists have made great progress in recent years toward understanding how genetic factors play a role in an individual’s susceptibility or...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrospray Thrusters Boost Efficiency, Precision

NASA Technology

When NASA thrusters are mentioned, most people imagine something like the breathtaking launch of the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the Moon. Its five...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Underwater Adhesives Retrofit Pipelines with Advanced Sensors

NASA Technology

B y the time the gas you fill your car with hits the engine, it’s been through quite a journey. Even apart from its transformation from organic...

Spinoff: Transportation

Flight Controller Software Protects Lightweight, Flexible Aircraft

NASA Technology

Since its founding in 1958, NASA has made profound contributions to aviation, including advancing our understanding of flight mechanics—the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Custom 3D Printers Revolutionize the Space Supply Chain

NASA Technology

Like a desert caravan, a space flight crew has to bring with it everything it will need over the course of its journey into an utterly barren environment....

Spinoff: Transportation

IonoSTAGE Ensures Accuracy of Pilots’ GPS

NASA Technology

To permit safe and reliable aircraft navigation over North America using the Global Positioning System (GPS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Improved Calibration Shows Images’ True Colors

NASA Technology

In satellite images, the waters of the Pearl River, which winds around NASA’s Stennis Space Center, are about the same brownish green typical of waterways the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Micromachined Parts Advance Medicine, Astrophysics, and More

NASA Technology

Anyone who remembers the Micro Machines line of toys might be surprised to learn that the tiny model vehicles are positively gargantuan compared with...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Magnetic Fluids Deliver Better Speaker Sound Quality

NASA Technology

In the early 1960s NASA scientists were trying to work around a major problem for orbiting spacecraft: how to move fuel into an engine without the benefit of...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Space Grant Research Launches Rehabilitation Chair

NASA Technology

A stay on the International Space Station is no vacation. During a visit to the orbiting National Laboratory, astronauts divide their time among a variety of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Metalworking Techniques Unlock a Unique Alloy

NASA Technology

Half a century ago, a scientist at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory discovered that an alloy containing 60 percent nickel and 40 percent titanium could provide...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Low-Cost Sensors Deliver Nanometer-Accurate Measurements

NASA Technology

Carlos Capiro gathers his thoughts to relate how a single NASA sensor led to a product poised to disrupt his industry. “Really, a lot of it had to do...