Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Algae-Derived Dietary Ingredients Nourish Animals

NASA Technology

Algae-based food ingredients pioneered by NASA-sponsored research in the early 1980s revolutionized the infant formula industry a decade later and have...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Audio App Brings a Better Night's Sleep

NASA Technology

With demanding schedules, a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes, and extremely noisy surroundings, it’s understandable why many astronauts onboard the International Space...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Vision Trainer Teaches Focusing Techniques at Home

NASA Technology

Inventions often find unintended uses. The first mechanical clocks in Europe were intended to track the motions of celestial bodies and found their original...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

3D Endoscope to Boost Safety, Cut Costs of Surgery

NASA Technology

“A lot of things are not easy to solve when you’re trying to break through a new technology right from the get-go,” says Harish Manohara, supervisor of the...

Spinoff: Transportation

Aircraft Geared Architecture Reduces Fuel Cost and Noise

NASA Technology

Just 12 years after the Wright brothers became the first to take to the skies in a powered airplane, in 1915 Congress established the National Advisory...

Spinoff: Transportation

Ubiquitous Supercritical Wing Design Cuts Billions in Fuel Costs

NASA Technology

By the time he was visiting what is now known as Armstrong Flight Research Center to witness the first tests of his latest creation, Richard T....

Spinoff: Public Safety

Shock Absorbers Save Structures and Lives during Earthquakes

NASA Technology

In the early 1960s NASA tackled one of its greatest challenges: sending a man to the moon. The physical embodiment of that effort, the Apollo...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Software Facilitates Sharing of Water Quality Data Worldwide

NASA Technology

Onboard the International Space Station, or ISS, very little goes to waste. One of the more glaring examples is the spacecraft’s water supply, which...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Laser Imaging Video Camera Sees through Fire, Fog, Smoke

NASA Technology

In November 2012, Bob Foraker was strolling through the NASA Technology Days expo in Cleveland, Ohio. He was there to look for technology that might apply...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Water Mapping Technology Rebuilds Lives in Arid Regions

NASA Technology

Turkana County in northwest Kenya has been reeling from several years of crippling drought. As a consequence, the nomadic peoples in the region have...

Spinoff: Public Safety

3D Lasers Increase Efficiency, Safety of Moving Machines

NASA Technology

As NASA planned the logistics for a proposed space station, called Space Station Freedom, in the early 1990s, one of the agency’s concerns was ensuring...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Air Revitalization System Enables Excursions to the Stratosphere

NASA Technology

In order to test a parachute system for surviving high-altitude bailouts, from 1959 to 1960 the US Air Force commenced Project Excelsior. It...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Bioreactor Yields Extracts for Skin Cream

NASA Technology

Most scientists do not question whether the force of gravity will affect their experiments. On Earth, gravity is a constant. For NASA scientists studying the effects of...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

LEDs Illuminate Bulbs for Better Sleep, Wake Cycles

NASA Technology

Kennedy Space Center has been known as America’s spaceport for more than 50 years. From Project Mercury to recent commercial-space missions, the nation has...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Private Astronaut Training Prepares Commercial Crews of Tomorrow

NASA Technology

In addition to teaching crewmembers to perform crucial tasks like using their spacecraft’s technical devices, piloting a vehicle back into...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Activity Monitors Help Users Get Optimum Sun Exposure

NASA Technology

To the casual observer, the sun appears as a steady, static, glowing ball of heat. But closer inspection reveals our closest star can be rambunctious, capable...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Balance Devices Train Golfers for a Consistent Swing

NASA Technology

After a stint in space, astronauts’ minds and bodies take some time to readjust to life on Earth. While the human body adapts relatively quickly to a lack of...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Charged Particles Kill Pathogens and Round Up Dust

NASA Technology

Before astronauts are able to undertake long-term missions into the solar system, they’ll need technologies that allow them to grow their own fruits and...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Remote Sensing Technologies Mitigate Drought

NASA Technology

California is an agricultural powerhouse. In 2012, its 81,500 farms and ranches produced $42.6 billion in cash receipts, the most by any state. But that abundance is...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Probes Measure Gases for Environmental Research

NASA Technology

To understand climate change, we need to understand the movement of carbon, one of the planet’s most abundant resources and a building block of life that is...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Ruggedized Spectrometers Are Built for Tough Jobs

NASA Technology

Curiosity is the undisputed hot rod of planetary rovers. Nine-and-a-half feet long, nearly 2,000 pounds, and powered by a thermo-nuclear power generator under its...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Gas Conversion Systems Reclaim Fuel for Industry

NASA Technology

To understand the connection between the development of Martian power systems and technology that can pull oil from old wells or capture gases released during...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Satellite Data Inform Forecasts of Crop Growth

NASA Technology

Farming has never been more productive, but increasing demands from a growing economy and world population mean age-old risks such as insects and plant disease...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Landsat Data Enriches Google Earth

NASA Technology

When NASA launched the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, later known as Landsat, in July 1972, the first spacecraft dedicated to monitoring Earth’s surface carried two...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Portable Planetariums Teach Science

NASA Technology

By the mid-1990s, NASA was collecting an enormous amount of information about Earth and the universe. For example, the Earth Observing System, comprising a fleet of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Sound Modeling Simplifies Vehicle Noise Management

NASA Technology

Exposure to a noise level of 105 decibels causes hearing damage after an hour or less. Concertgoers in the front row at a rock show can expect sustained noise of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Cuts Building Costs, Increases Energy Efficiency

NASA Technology

In order to prepare Curiosity for its trip to Mars, NASA had to pull out all the stops. Because the rover’s payload is 10 times as massive as those of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Schedule Analysis Software Saves Time for Project Planners

NASA Technology

Schedules for major projects get long and complicated, involving a slew of interdependent tasks and timelines, and few organizations handle projects more...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Cloud Computing Technologies Facilitate Earth Research

NASA Technology

Throughout the years, NASA has done more than any agency to explore what lies beyond our world. It has sent rovers to traverse the Martian landscape and...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrical Monitoring Devices Save on Time and Cost

NASA Technology

The sun requires no introduction. Earth orbits it; life happens because of it; we schedule our lives around its rhythmic risings and settings. Yet, despite its...