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

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

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

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...

Spinoff: Public Safety

All-Terrain Intelligent Robot Braves Battlefront to Save Lives

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

As NASA's lead center for creating robotic spacecraft and rovers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) builds smart machines...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Keeping the Air Clean and Safe—An Anthrax Smoke Detector

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Scientists at work in the Planetary Protection division at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sterilize everything before...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Technology That's Ready and Able to Inspect Those Cables

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Attempting to locate a malfunctioning wire in a complex bundle of wires or in a cable that is concealed behind a wall is as...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Lightning Often Strikes Twice

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Contrary to popular misconception, lightning often strikes the same place twice. Certain conditions are just ripe for a bolt of electricity to come zapping...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Secure Networks for First Responders and Special Forces

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

When NASA needed help better securing its communications with orbiting satellites, the Agency called on Western DataCom Co., Inc.,...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Space Suit Spins

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Space is a hostile environment where astronauts combat extreme temperatures, dangerous radiation, and a near-breathless vacuum. Life support in these unforgiving...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Cooking Dinner at Home From the Office

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

It is well past quitting time, but you are still stuck in the office. Your spouse left work over an hour ago, but is caught in bumper-to-bumper...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Nanoscale Materials Make for Large-Scale Applications

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Since its dawning days, NASA has been at the forefront of developing and improving materials for aerospace applications. In...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA's Growing Commitment: The Space Garden

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Astronauts cannot live on dehydrated ice cream alone. Like everyone else, they need their vegetables. Enter VEGGIE, the Deployable Vegetable...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Bringing Thunder and Lightning Indoors

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and electrical energy into mechanical energy. They generate electrical...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Forty-Year-Old Foam Springs Back With New Benefits

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The most recognized and widely used NASA spinoff is at it again. Temper foam, whose origins date back to 1966 when it was developed to...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Experiments With Small Animals Rarely Go This Well

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In the mid-1950s, a young U.S. Air Force engineer named Clark Beck began work with what is now one of NASA's most prolific spinoffs, the...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Crystal-Clear Communication a Sweet-Sounding Success

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

On July 20, 1969, millions were glued to their television sets when...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA, the Fisherman's Friend

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Every angler has his secrets, whether it be an old family recipe for stink bait, a midnight worm-hunting ritual, or the most coveted of all, the no-fail...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Inertial Motion-Tracking Technology for Virtual 3-D

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In the 1990s, NASA pioneered virtual reality research. The concept was present long before, but, prior to this, the technology did not...