Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Pointing Platform Enables Earth Imaging from Space Station

NASA Technology

Most people think of the International Space Station (ISS) as a place to learn about space, but in recent years the modules of humanity’s only outpost...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Carbon Capture Process Makes Sustainable Oil

NASA Technology

NASA has many researchers focused on the carbon cycle on Earth—and how it contributes to climate change—but the Space Agency has also spent plenty of time delving...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Membranes Mimic Kidneys to Filter Water

NASA Technology

When trying to solve a tough problem, it’s not unusual for engineers to turn to nature for a solution.

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Research Sends Video Game Players on a Journey to Mars

NASA Technology

What would it be like to venture to another planet? To kick up red dirt on Mars and crawl through the lava tubes that wind beneath the surface? To build...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

NASA Code Speeds Nation’s Aircraft, Spacecraft Design

NASA Technology

In the late 1980s, NASA engineers were working to improve software to simulate how air flowed around vehicles in flight. But the Space Shuttle posed a...

Spinoff: Transportation

Software Helps Design Artery Stents, Lawn Mowers, Airplanes

NASA Technology

When Aloha Airlines Flight 243 made an emergency landing on Maui in April 1988, much of its upper fuselage was missing, leaving passengers entirely...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Biofeedback Loops Aim to Enhance Combat, Sports Training

NASA Technology

Steadying an undulating putting green or a wandering computer cursor with your mind alone might sound far-fetched, but NASA has had this technology for...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Image-Analysis Software Sees Cancer in 3D

NASA Technology

Even NASA can be surprised.

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Tiny Star Trackers Help Spacecraft Find Their Place

NASA Technology

NASA tackles some of the biggest questions in the universe, and the tools needed to look for answers are often, themselves, big, in both size and cost. But one...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Algorithms to Detect Clouds Forecast Global Crop Production

NASA Technology

It started as an algorithm to detect clouds in satellite imagery, but now the software is being used for everything from increasing food security in the...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Brainwaves Reveal Student Engagement, Operate Household Objects

NASA Technology

When we talk about operating “on autopilot,” we usually mean acting with little thought or effort, often resulting in error. It turns out actual...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Memory Foam Supports and Shapes in Women’s Apparel

NASA Technology

If there’s one NASA spinoff that is almost guaranteed to have touched your life, it is memory foam. Even traditional spring mattresses typically have a layer...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Low-Cost Transceiver Will Allow First Laser Mass Communication

NASA Technology

Since the advent of the laser in the 1960s, engineers have struggled to use light beams in free space to send information the way we use radio waves....

Spinoff: Transportation

Space-Age Insulator Evolves to Replace Plastic and Save Weight

NASA Technology

When aerogels were first invented in the 1930s, nobody had much use for them. And yet, nearly a century later, these materials could become as...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Building-Monitoring System Provides Insights for Sustainability

NASA Technology

When we talk about “green buildings,” the conversation is generally about reducing consumption. That’s because buildings and their occupants...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Collaborative Platform Trains Students in Simulation and Modeling

NASA Technology

It’s the 2050s. On the far side of the Moon, in the vast, pockmarked South Pole-Aitken Basin impact crater, groups of college students from...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Space Station Garden Shines Light on Earth-Based Horticulture

NASA Technology

Astronauts have been gardening on the International Space Station for years to learn how plants grow in microgravity, with the idea that space crops...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Rocket Design Leads to Turbo-Charged Air Purifier

NASA Technology

The founders of Wynd, a start-up that makes personal air purifiers, didn’t particularly have space exploration on the brain when they built their prototype. But...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Emissive Coatings Cut Industrial Costs, Emissions, Fuel Consumption

NASA Technology

It’s no surprise that the experimental X-Plane Program has led to improvements in commercial flight, but the program also produces...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Material for Mars Makes Life-Saving Sutures

NASA Technology

Although NASA has sent many missions to Mars, nothing, so far, has ever come back. That’s something the Agency hopes to change—and it is working on the technology...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

NASA Plant Research Offers a Breath of Fresh Air

NASA Technology

Try to name sources of air pollution. Most likely your first thoughts would be things like exhaust from burning coal or driving a car. But, perhaps...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Space Mission Planning System Targets Advertising with Precision

NASA Technology

Most Internet users may not know that every time they see an online ad, it was placed there after a near-instant auction for that slot. Each slot...

Spinoff: Public Safety

NASA Brings Accuracy to World’s Global Positioning Systems

NASA Technology

In the 1960s, NASA used a network of radio telescopes and a technique called very large baseline interferometry (VLBI) to capture images of quasars in...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Tiny Springs Improve Electronic Reliability

NASA Technology

Space exploration comes with many giant challenges, but some of them are downright tiny. One project to solve a connection issue in printed circuit boards has resulted...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Phase-Change Coating Absorbs Heat from Rockets, Pipes, Beer

NASA Technology

Most people enjoy an icy drink on a hot summer day without thinking about the physics happening inside the glass. But the phase-change reaction—in...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Deep-Space Food Science Research Improves 3D-Printing Capabilities

NASA Technology

Crew health is critical to any successful mission, and maintaining astronauts’ nutrition gets harder the farther they get from Earth and any...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Simulated Space Dirt Supports Future Asteroid Mining

NASA Technology

When companies finally begin mining asteroids in space, they probably won’t be looking for precious metals, nor anything else normally mined on Earth. Some...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Light Research Aids Slumber

NASA Technology

In the age of smartphones and e-readers, with touchscreens and LED displays seemingly on every appliance and everywhere else, it has also become quite commonplace to talk about the...

Spinoff: Transportation

Battery Innovations Power All-Electric Aircraft

NASA Technology

The X-planes, experimental aircraft built by NASA and the military, started out by breaking the sound barrier in 1947 and have been pushing through invisible...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Biometric Sensor Tracks Vital Signs for Health

NASA Technology

NASA monitors its astronauts in orbit 24/7, aiming both to learn new information about how human bodies adapt to microgravity as well as to keep track of their health...