Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Shuttle Topography Data Inform Solar Power Analysis

NASA Technology

The next time you flip on a light switch, there’s a chance that you could be benefitting from data originally acquired during the Space Shuttle Program. An...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Photocatalytic Solutions Create Self-Cleaning Surfaces

NASA Technology

Hazy smog over cities and smoke pouring from the stacks of factories and power plants are visible reminders of the threat posed by air pollution to the...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Concentrators Enhance Solar Power Systems

NASA Technology

“Right now, solar electric propulsion is being looked at very seriously,” says Michael Piszczor, chief of the photovoltaic and power technologies branch at Glen...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Innovative Coatings Potentially Lower Facility Maintenance Costs

NASA Technology

NASA’s Stennis Space Center is located on 13,500 acres in Hancock County, Mississippi, surrounded by another 125,000 acres that act as a buffer...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Web Solutions Inspire Cloud Computing Software

NASA Technology

In 2008, a NASA effort to standardize its websites inspired a breakthrough in cloud computing technology. The innovation has spurred the growth of an entire industry...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Simulation Packages Expand Aircraft Design Options

NASA Technology

When engineers explore designs for safer, more fuel efficient, or faster aircraft, they encounter a common problem: they never know exactly what will happen...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Behavior Prediction Tools Strengthen Nanoelectronics

NASA Technology

Several years ago, NASA started making plans to send robots to explore the deep, dark craters on the Moon. As part of these plans, NASA needed modeling tools...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Power Converters Secure Electronics in Harsh Environments

NASA Technology

“Space weather” is a term more frequently used as solar storms and flares are closely monitored and analyzed for the impact they might have on Earth....

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Diagnostics Tools Identify Faults Prior to Failure

NASA Technology

The Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) project was designed to unearth the secrets of Mars—literally. The project’s engineers designed a light,...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Archiving Innovations Preserve Essential Historical Records

NASA Technology

The Moon hosts perhaps the most fascinating museum that no one ever visits. From reflectometers to space boots, the lunar module’s descent stage, and...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Commercial Platforms Allow Affordable Space Research

NASA Technology

At an altitude of about 240 miles, its orbital path carries it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population. It circles the Earth in continuous free fall; its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Fiber Optics Deliver Real-Time Structural Monitoring

NASA Technology

If the wings of a plane could talk about what they feel during flight, what would they say? Engineers at Dryden Flight Research Center are beginning to find...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Camera Systems Rapidly Scan Large Structures

NASA Technology

Aging aircraft are an increasing concern at the national level. Commercial and government vehicles are being flown past their originally intended service life in order...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Terahertz Lasers Reveal Information for 3D Images

NASA Technology

After taking off her shoes and jacket, she places them in a bin. She then takes her laptop out of its case and places it in a separate bin. As the items move...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Thin Films Protect Electronics from Heat and Radiation

NASA Technology

Back in 1972, Anne St. Clair worked side by side with Langley Research Center colleague Vernon Bell as part of NASA’s research and development efforts...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Interferometers Sharpen Measurements for Better Telescopes

NASA Technology

Over the last decade, there have been a number of innovations that have made possible the largest and most powerful telescope of its time: the James...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Vision Systems Illuminate Industrial Processes

NASA Technology

When NASA designs a spacecraft to undertake a new mission, innovation does not stop after the design phase. In many cases, these spacecraft are firsts of their kind,...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Bioreactors Drive Advances in Tissue Engineering

NASA Technology

It was an unlikely moment for inspiration. Engineers David Wolf and Ray Schwarz stopped by their lab around midday. Wolf, of Johnson Space Center, and Schwarz,...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Tooling Techniques Enhance Medical Imaging

NASA Technology

They can release as much energy as tens of billions of hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. They send protons and electrons rocketing at near the speed of light....

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Ventilator Technologies Sustain Critically Injured Patients

NASA Technology

Consider this scenario: A soldier has been critically wounded in a sudden firefight in a remote region of Afghanistan. The soldier’s comrades attend...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Protein Innovations Advance Drug Treatments, Skin Care

NASA Technology

Dan Carter carefully layered the sheets of tracing paper on the light box. On each sheet were renderings of the atomic components of an essential human...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Mass Analyzers Facilitate Research on Addiction

NASA Technology

The famous “go/no go” command for Space Shuttle launches comes from a place called the Firing Room. Located at Kennedy Space Center in the Launch Control Center...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Frameworks Coordinate Scientific Data Management

NASA Technology

Voyager 2 sailing beyond the far boundary of the solar system. The rover Opportunity churning across the red soil of Mars. Cassini-Huygens imaging the moons of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Cameras Improve Navigation for Pilots, Drivers

NASA Technology

After 10 months of traveling through deep space to Mars, the Phoenix Lander finally approached its destination. The last 7 minutes of the spacecraft’s 423...

Spinoff: Transportation

Modeling Programs Increase Aircraft Design Safety

NASA Technology

“Flutter” may sound like a benign word when associated with a flag in a breeze, a butterfly, or seaweed in an ocean current. When used in the context of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Integrated Design Tools Reduce Risk, Cost

NASA Technology

As NASA designs new spacecraft for its science missions and begins designs for the next generation of human spaceflight vehicles, it also works to revolutionize Earth’s...

Spinoff: Transportation

Advisory Systems Save Time, Fuel for Airlines

NASA Technology

Heinz Erzberger never thought the sky was falling, but he knew it could benefit from enhanced traffic control. Throughout the 1990s, Erzberger led a team at Ames...

Spinoff: Transportation

Fly-by-Wire Systems Enable Safer, More Efficient Flight

NASA Technology

In 1961, not long after NASA received the imperative from President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the Moon within the decade, then-NASA administrator...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Modified Fittings Enhance Industrial Safety

NASA Technology

Kennedy Space Center is not only home to one of the largest buildings in the world—the massive Vehicle Assembly Building—it also hosts a number of one-of-a-kind...