Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Air Treatment Systems Break Down Pollutants, Germs

Fresh-Aire UV of Jupiter, Florida, developed a line of air purifiers that break down organic contaminants with a process called photocatalytic oxidation (PCO). The company gets its...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

From Magnetic Rocket Fuel to Semiconductors

A liquid with magnetic properties developed by NASA in the 1960s was the basis for ferrofluids now sold by MAGRON, a company in Ansan, South Korea, whose customers use them in...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Super Insulation Requires Super Materials

When developing a new coating to protect buildings from heat buildup, Superior Products InternationaI II Inc. of Shawnee, Kansas reached out to the experts at Marshall Space Flight...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Pumping Out State-of-the-Art Design

Decades of collaboration on multiple SBIR contracts gave Concepts NREC LLC extensive access to NASA rocket engine expertise. The White River Junction, Vermont-based company incorporates Marshall...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ion Thrusters Keep Satellites Going and Going

When Orbion Space Technology Inc. of Houghton, Michigan, wanted to bring high-efficiency ion thrusters to the commercial satellite industry, the company entered into agreements with...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Making the Most of Meticulous Measurements

When NASA needed to make sure telescope mirrors were perfectly flat, 4D Technology of Tucson, Arizona, was contracted to develop measuring instruments that could ensure the James Webb Space...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Keeping Beds in the Goldilocks Zone

Using his former experience as an engineer working on spacesuit environmental control systems, the founder of Bedjet LLC of Newport, Rhode Island, designed a cooling system to keep each side of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA Ingredients for Industrial Expedience

When Johnson Space Center wanted to explore ways of cooking food for long term habitation in deep space, Induction Food Systems Inc. of Durham, North Carolina received Small Business...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Temperature-Regulating Clothing Additive Heats Up

A highly emissive coating that NASA invented to protect the heat shield on a planned spaceplane in the 1990s was licensed and turned into the Emisshield product line. Now it’s been...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Webb Telescope Made Simulation Software Better

Developers of the James Webb Space Telescope relied heavily on simulation software, work that helped advance the whole field of integrated modeling. In particular, the Goddard Space...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA’s Moon Shot Launched Commercial Fuel Cell Industry

The first practical fuel cells were developed for Johnson Space Center in preparation for NASA’s Apollo missions because batteries would have weighed too much. The group...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Where the Wildfires Are

Technosylva Inc.’s wildfire monitoring service combines Landsat Earth-observation data with other fire resources, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to predict, monitor, and support post-fire...

Spinoff: Transportation

New Energy Source Powers Subsea Robots Indefinitely

A former NASA engineer licensed technology he had developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to power sensors on the marine floats that calibrated NASA’s Aquarius satellite...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Unfurling Antennas Let Tiny Satellites Do Big Things

A license, SBIR funding, and a contract to develop a deployable antenna, all from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as a former JPL chief engineer, helped Tendeg LLC of...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Semiconductor Research Leads to Revolution in Dental Care

Research into growing crystals for electronics at NASA’s short-lived Electronics Research Center led to an agency patent for repairing teeth by growing crystals of...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Medical-Grade Smartwatch Can Monitor Astronauts, Patients

A research consortium backed by Johnson Space Center funded the development of a wearable device that could monitor the vital signs and activities of astronauts in space or...

Spinoff: Transportation

NASA Gives the World a Brake

Thanks to exclusive patent licenses for a radical new disc brake design, Orbis Brakes Inc. of Santa Rosa, California, incorporates Marshall Space Flight Center structural materials expertise into a more...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Rocket Manufacturing Meets Science Friction

SBIR funding from Langley Research Center let a team from Aeroprobe Corporation try out additive friction stir deposition, a new method for 3D printing with metal. The work demonstrated...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Concentrating on Microbes

SBIR funding for InnovaPrep LLC of Drexel, Missouri, led to a bioconcentration system for testing air and water quality on the space station and improved the company’s commercial technology. The funding...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Oil Drillers, Environmentalists Agree on Small, Sensitive Spectrometer

Technical assistance and STTR funding from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory helped Optoknowledge Systems Inc. (OKSI) develop a compact spectrometer for sensing...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ultrasonic Inspections Protect Astronauts, Boat Owners

Aerospace Corporation spent two years working under funding from Langley Research Center to develop an ultrasonic scanner capable of detecting subsurface defects in the Orion...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Taking the Pulse of Earth

By combining NASA satellite data and imagery with proprietary artificial intelligence developed by terraPulse, Inc. the North Potomac, MD-based business makes it possible for companies to monitor changes to...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Next-Level Farming

Closed-environment plant-growth data and expertise developed at Kennedy Space Center through research into bioregenerative life support that could feed astronauts on long-duration missions helped Oslo,...

Spinoff: Transportation

‘Digital Winglets’ for Real-Time Flight Paths

To improve aircraft efficiency and reduce emissions, Langley Research Center developed software that finds optimal routes for airplanes in flight. Through a NASA licensing agreement,...

Spinoff: Transportation

Additive Manufacturing Subtracts from Rocket Build Time

Through a series of Space Act Agreements, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center have helped Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California, 3D print its Aeon rocket...

Spinoff: Transportation

Redefining the 'Rugged' Video Camera

A video camera rugged enough to survive the first Space Launch System rocket launch and function in the extreme conditions of space is tough enough for harsh Earth environments. A license and...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Spherical Robots to the Rescue

Dr. Alice Agogino realized the spherical robots she was designing to comb planetary and lunar surfaces could also help first responders assess disaster scenes on Earth. She cofounded Berkeley,...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Satellites ‘See’ Sea Turtles, Ocean Threats

The Argos satellite technology operated by National Center for Space Studies in Ramonville Saint-Agne, France, serves as a wildlife tracking resource. Once an international partnership...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Space-Saving Exploration

Putting the “fun” into functional campers is what Taxa Outdoors Inc. of Houston does using the know-how of a former NASA employee. Design principles developed at Johnson Space Center for living quarters...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Eco-Friendly Bio Breaks

American Innotek Inc. took a polymer utilized in undergarments developed at Johnson Space Center to manage human waste on spacewalks and incorporated it into a bag for use on the go. Sold under the brand...