NASA Spinoff
Topics:
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Taking Out the Trash, NASA-Style
The space station doesn’t have curb-side trash pickup. Nor does it have a local landfill or recycling plant. What it does have is access to a naturally efficient incinerator – Earth’s...
Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Industry Opens a New Door to Space
Anyone who has gotten a sofa stuck in a doorway on moving day knows how frustrating it is when there’s no other way in or out. The doorways on the International Space Station, or airlocks, have...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
TetrUSS Stacks Up Building Blocks for Aircraft Design
Anyone who excelled at the Game Boy’s top-selling video game will recall the animated rocket liftoffs that celebrated high scores. In addition to simulated rocketry and the...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Flying in the Fast Lane with Air Traffic Software
Think of the national airspace as a complex highway system, but with planes. They’re all moving at different speeds and converging on relatively few airports, intent upon arriving...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
In the Right Hands, NASA Satellite Data and Analysis Make Earth Better
The number of illegal gold mines in the Amazon is increasing so fast that activists have turned to satellite imagery to identify them. Still, with thousands of...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Communicating via Long-Distance Lasers
Visible light has been used to communicate for centuries: lanterns on ships and Morse code flashes allowed information to be conveyed at a distance. But now there’s a better way to use light...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
NASA Brain Training Tech Makes Smart Glasses
A new pair of smart glasses uses a technique invented at NASA to measure users' brainwaves and tell them how well they’re paying attention. Others have used the NASA formula to help...
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Environmental Cleanup Courtesy of a NASA Cafeteria Brainstorm
Jackie Quinn had an idea. What if the system NASA developed for removing contaminants from building paint could also be used to clean up the environment? In her quest to...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
The Rewards of Perseverance
A laser-light sensor that can identify bacteria in a wound may sound far-fetched, but it’s already becoming a reality, thanks in part to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The technology is going to...
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Space Fuel Cell Provides Deep-Sea Power
“Almost everything you need in space, you also need under the ocean,” said Thomas Valdez, manager of chemical engineering at Teledyne Energy Systems.
Both extreme environments are...
Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
New Industrial Robotic Gripper Copies Geckos’ Toes
No sooner had the gecko’s secret been cracked than humans got to work trying to copy it.
“It was one of those mysteries that had been around for a long time,” says...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Planets Take Virtual Shape on Earth with NASA Knowledge and Imagery
In a time of quarantines and online learning, guided strolls along the surface of Mars are especially appealing.
These tours are possible with Access Mars ,...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Catch the Waves
It’s very important that the highly tuned components in sensitive instruments, whether on a spacecraft or used in a lab, don’t see their own reflection. In sensing devices across the electromagnetic spectrum like...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
In Cloud Computing, Open Source Becomes Big Business
In 2010, open source software, once the playpen of renegade hackers and hobbyists, had already gone mainstream. Cloud computing was newer and less defined, but already commercially...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
For Work or Play, Comfort All Day
A new line of gaming chairs combines two NASA technologies to keep users comfortable during even the longest video game marathons.
Raynor Group, a major manufacturer of office furniture, has...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Artificial Intelligence for Astronauts Monitors Patients at Home
When chronic pain flares, the trip from your door to the doctor’s office can seem as difficult as getting from Earth to Mars. The same could be said for the...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Recalibrating Fine Motor Skills
A touchscreen control panel similar to an Apple iPad seems like it would be easier to use than a panel of switches and buttons that must be flipped and pushed in the right order. But what if an...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
How the Moon Landing Led to Safer Food for Everyone
As many Americans prepare for a socially distanced Thanksgiving meal, some may be aware that NASA helped develop the tiny, highly efficient video cameras in the devices that...
Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources
Space-Age Water Conservation
The more difficult a problem is for NASA, the more solutions it eventually produces for the rest of us.
Few challenges are more pressing for the space agency than the need for clean water. Water...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Odor-Eliminating Shoe Inserts Rely on NASA-Tested Activated Carbon Cloth
This is the story of a space-age insert for shoes that got its start when a graduate student with smelly feet took off her shoes and another tapped into his...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Fix It Like an Astronaut with Augmented Reality
When astronauts on the International Space Station venture outside to install new equipment or perform maintenance, dozens of people on Earth are involved. These extravehicular...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
NASA Microphone Detects Turbulence Hundreds of Miles Away
Whether it’s in the wake vortex of airplanes taking off or in seemingly calm air, there are few issues more meddlesome to flight than turbulence. Not only can these...
Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Tiny Pulsed Lasers Have Medical, Industrial, Military, Environmental Applications
NASA Technology
On the outside, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will look nearly identical to the 2011-launched Curiosity rover. But inside, engineers...
Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Metallic Glass Coatings Improve Power Plant, Oil Rig Productivity
NASA Technology
A rover can be equipped with the most state-of-the-art scientific instruments NASA engineers can devise, but if the wheel breaks, that’s going...
Spinoff: Computer Technology
Swarming Technology Lets Drones Work as a Team
NASA Technology
Even before much-anticipated autonomous drones finally take to the sky, the U.S. airspace is saturated, says now-retired Langley Research Center scientist Kennie...
Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Electrostatic Discharge Training Improves Manufacturing Practices
NASA Technology
Everybody has felt it from time to time: that sharp jolt of electric shock you get when you walk across a rug and touch a doorknob.
...Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology
Pulsed Laser Innovations Power Nobel-Winners’ Research
NASA Technology
When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon, the video and his first words—transmitted across nearly 240,000 miles and broadcasted around the...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Low-Outgassing, Space-Grade Coatings Cover Electronics, Sensors, Pacemakers
NASA Technology
You might open a window after painting a room, or let a foam mattress air out before sleeping on it so the materials can off-gas and...
Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation
Astronaut Experience Inspires Single-Handed Drone Flight Controller
NASA Technology
Astronaut Scott Parazynski has flown airplanes, climbed Mount Everest, and scuba-dived deep in a volcanic lake—but he says floating in space...
Spinoff: Transportation
Water-Powered Engines Offer Satellite Mobility
NASA Technology
NASA has been planning for a water-powered rocket engine since the Agency’s early years. After all, water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, which have been powering...