Spinoff: Public Safety

Collaborative Platforms Aid Emergency Decision Making

NASA Technology

Terra. Aqua. Cloudsat. Landsat. NASA runs and partners in many missions dedicated to monitoring the Earth, and the tools used in these missions continuously...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Oxygen Assessments Ensure Safer Medical Devices

NASA Technology

Alongside the tragedies that are part of the history of human spaceflight, bittersweet lessons have been learned. These lessons have not only...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Emergency Systems Save Tens of Thousands of Lives

NASA Technology

Shortly before midnight on September 21st, 2010, the small fishing boat Ebby Luz started taking on water. In immediate danger and 8 miles from the shore, its crew...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Detectors Ensure Function, Safety of Aircraft Wiring

NASA Technology

Pedro Medelius waited patiently in his lab at Kennedy Space Center. He had just received word that a colleague was bringing over a cable from a Space Shuttle...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Ultrasonic Detectors Safely Identify Dangerous, Costly Leaks

NASA Technology

In 1990, NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet. The reason: leaks detected in the hydrogen fuel systems of the Space Shuttles Atlantis and Columbia....

Spinoff: Transportation

Wireless Sensors Pinpoint Rotorcraft Troubles

NASA Technology

Helicopters present many advantages over fixed-wing aircraft: they can take off from and land in tight spots, they can move in any direction with relative ease, and...

Spinoff: Transportation

Polymers Advance Heat Management Materials for Vehicles

NASA Technology

For 6 years prior to the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program, the shuttles carried an onboard repair kit with a tool for emergency use: two tubes of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Speech Recognition Interfaces Improve Flight Safety

NASA Technology

“Alpha, Golf, November, Echo, Zulu.” “Sierra, Alpha, Golf, Echo, Sierra.” “Lima, Hotel, Yankee.”

It looks like some strange word game, but...

Spinoff: Transportation

Shuttle Repair Tools Automate Vehicle Maintenance

NASA Technology

Successfully building, flying, and maintaining the space shuttles was an immensely complex job that required a high level of detailed, precise engineering. After...

Spinoff: Transportation

Anti-Icing Formulas Prevent Train Delays

NASA Technology

In the winter of 2009, Washington, DC, workers faced the prospect of a difficult commute due to record-setting snowfalls. But thousands of the city’s Metrorail riders...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Superconductors Enable Lower Cost MRI Systems

NASA Technology

The future looks bright, light, and green—especially where aircraft are concerned. The division of NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program called the Subsonic...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Telescope Innovations Improve Speed, Accuracy of Eye Surgery

NASA Technology

One of the main components of NASA’s vision for the future of space exploration will actually have a keen eye for the past. The James Webb Space...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Dry Electrodes Facilitate Remote Health Monitoring

NASA Technology

You wouldn’t find a big bowl of spaghetti served on the International Space Station (ISS). In microgravity, it would be a complete mess. There is, however,...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Rovers Pave the Way for Hospital Robots

NASA Technology

Before Curiosity came the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Before Spirit and Opportunity came Pathfinder and Sojourner. Before Pathfinder and Sojourner, the...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Dietary Formulas Fortify Antioxidant Supplements

NASA Technology

The astronaut’s life and work is so different from our own daily experiences that it’s easy to forget that astronauts are people, too. Just like everyone...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Water Treatment Technologies Inspire Healthy Beverages

NASA Technology

If you wandered the halls of Johnson Space Center in the mid-1990s, you might have run across Mike Johnson lugging a large container of freshly collected...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

High-Temperature Coatings Offer Energy Savings

NASA Technology

The U.S. X-Plane Program included the first-of-its-kind research in aerodynamics and astronautics with experimental vehicles, including the first...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Materials Advance Chemical Propulsion Technology

NASA Technology

In the future, the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate hopes to use better-performing and lower-cost propulsion...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Models Support Energy-Saving Microwave Technologies

NASA Technology

During the Apollo Program, astronauts on the Moon encountered a small menace that created big problems: lunar dust. Similar to how tiny bits of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Beam Steering Devices Reduce Payload Weight

NASA Technology

Scientists have long been able to shift the direction of a laser beam, steering it toward a target, but often the strength and focus of the light is...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Polyimide Foams Offer Superior Insulation

NASA Technology

At Langley Research Center, Erik Weiser and his colleagues in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch were working with a new substance for...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Custom Machines Advance Composite Manufacturing

NASA Technology

Here is a brief list of materials that NASA will not be using to construct spacecraft: wood, adobe, fiberglass, bone. While it might be obvious why...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Nanotube Production Devices Expand Research Capabilities

NASA Technology

In order for the Hubble Space Telescope to take incredible, never-seen-before shots of celestial bodies and then send them back to Earth,...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Controller Chips Preserve Microprocessor Function

NASA Technology

Above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Brazil, there is a dip in the Earth’s surrounding magnetic field called the South Atlantic Anomaly....

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Software Innovations Speed Scientific Computing

NASA Technology

What causes the Sun to change? And what are the impacts on our planet and our daily lives?

These are some of the top questions that the...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Electronic Handbooks Simplify Process Management

NASA Technology

Getting a multitude of people to work together to manage processes across many organizations —for example, flight projects, research,...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Tools Ensure Reliability of Critical Software

NASA Technology

In November 2006, after attempting to make a routine maneuver, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) reported unexpected errors. The onboard software...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Content Platforms Meet Data Storage, Retrieval Needs

NASA Technology

Earth is under a constant barrage of information from space. Whether from satellites orbiting our planet, spacecraft circling Mars, or probes...