Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Reflecting on Space Benefits: A Shining Example

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA has long been known for having developed the thin, shiny reflective material used to insulate everything from the Hubble Space...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Microspheres in Plasma Display Panels

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA does things that have never been done "before" sending spacecraft to other planets, sending people to the Moon, and exploring the limits of the...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Modern Exploration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

One of the forces that propels scientific and cultural advancement is exploration. The mission of NASA is to pioneer the future of...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

PRP: The Proven Solution for Cleaning Up Oil Spills

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker exporting millions of gallons of oil, ran aground just after midnight on March 24, 1989 in Alaska,...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Progressive Plant Growing Has Business Blooming

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Soil, water, and light. According to prevailing dogma, these are the three main ingredients for growing and maintaining healthy plants. But...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

FLIPPER: Validation for Remote Ocean Imaging

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In order to better understand our solar system and the ways it supports life, scientists and researchers at NASA study the planets. Of course,...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Paper-Thin Plastic Film Soaks Up Sun to Create Solar Energy

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

A solar cell is a semiconductor device that converts photons, or light, into electricity. The most widely used solar cells...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Saving Space and Time: The Tractor That Einstein Built

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In 1984, NASA initiated the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) program to test two unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's theory of general...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

A Predictive Approach to Eliminating Errors in Software Code

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA's Metrics Data Program Data Repository is a database that stores problem, product, and metrics data. The primary goal of...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Scheduling Software for Complex Scenarios

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Preparing a vehicle and its payload for a single launch is a complex process that involves thousands of operations. Because the equipment and...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Difficult Decisions Made Easier

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA missions are extremely complex and prone to sudden, catastrophic failure if equipment falters or if an unforeseen event occurs. For these reasons,...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

GPS Eye-in-the-Sky Software Takes Closer Look Below

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite navigation system developed and maintained by the U.S. Government. Though initially...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

A History of High-Performance Computing

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Faster than most speedy computers. More powerful than its NASA data-processing predecessors. Able to leap large, mission-related computational...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

The Echoes of Earth Science

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) acquires, archives, and manages data from all of NASA’s Earth science satellites, for...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Cryogenic Cooling for Myriad Applications—A STAR Is Born!

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Cryogenics, the science of generating extremely low temperatures, has wide applicability throughout NASA. The Agency employs...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Temperature Sensing for Oil, Gas, and Structural Analysis

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

With retirement of the space shuttle imminent, and the commercial space industry burgeoning, NASA is searching for safe and...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Robust, Thin Optical Films for Extreme Environments

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The environment of space presents scientists and engineers with the challenges of a harsh, unforgiving laboratory in which to conduct...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

The Cutting Edge of High-Temperature Composites

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA’s Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology (UEET) program was formed in 1999 at Glenn Research Center to manage an important national...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Nano Goes Magnetic to Attract Big Business

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Glenn Research Center has combined state-of-the-art electrical designs with complex, computer-aided analyses to develop some of today’s most...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Laser Mapping for Visual Inspection and Measurement

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Each space shuttle orbiter has 38 Primary Reaction Control System (PRCS) thrusters to help power and position the vehicle for maneuvers...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrical Conductivity in Textiles

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Copper is the most widely used electrical conductor. Like most metals, though, it has several drawbacks: it is heavy, expensive, and can break. Fibers...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Spatial Phase Imaging

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a young Scottish scientist with a side practice of discretely treating the syphilis infections of prominent Londoners, was researching...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Miniature Wireless Sensors Size Up to Big Applications

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Like the environment of space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. But far beneath the waves near Key...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Lighting the Way for Quicker, Safer Healing

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Who's to say that a little light can't go a long way? Tiny light-emitting diode (LED) chips used to grow plants in space are lighting the way...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Discovering New Drugs on the Cellular Level

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

With the Vision for Space Exploration calling for a sustained human presence in space, astronauts will need to grow plants, while in orbit, for...

Spinoff: Transportation

Hydrogen Sensors Boost Hybrids; Today's Models Losing Gas?

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Advanced chemical sensors are used in aeronautic and space applications to provide safety monitoring, emission monitoring, and...

Spinoff: Transportation

3-D Highway in the Sky

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

If it were 50 years ago, NASA's contribution to rock and roll could have been more than just the all-astronaut rock band, Max Q, composed of six NASA astronauts,...

Spinoff: Transportation

Popping a Hole in High-Speed Pursuits

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA's Plum Brook Station, a 6,400-acre, remote test installation site for Glenn Research Center, houses unique, world-class test facilities,...

Spinoff: Transportation

Monitoring Wake Vortices for More Efficient Airports

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Wake vortices are generated by all aircraft during flight. The larger the aircraft, the stronger the wake, so the Federal Aviation...

Spinoff: Transportation

From Rockets to Racecars

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

NASA's Langley Research Center scientists developed a family of catalysts for low- temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide and other gases. The catalysts provide...