NASA has revealed some of the real word products and services being developed thanks to the innovate technologies it has pioneered.
Spinoff 2022 includes an air purifier capable of growing plants in space and underwear to race car drivers.
This report includes information on 45 companies who have used NASA technology to improve manufacturing processes, remove polluted soils and forecast the weather.
Thousands of patents are held by the US space agency, available for license by a range of companies working in industries from robotics to aerospace.
NASA’s exploration mission requires the development of new technology, software and research to achieve success. These products, ideas and concepts were born.
Kennedy Space Center’s Biomass Production Chamber replicates the environment that astronauts use to grow biomass in closed spaces.
At the launch of Spinoff 20,22, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated that NASA’s value isn’t just limited to outer space but can be found throughout the country.
According to him, it is in the form “hundreds upon thousands of highly-paid jobs to world-leadingclimate science, understanding our place in it and technology transfers that make it easier for people around the globe.”
Nelson said that NASA technology was essential in addressing the greatest human challenges.
MailOnline has gathered a selection of products and services that are being made from NASA innovations, such as…
Fire-resistant underwear for race car drivers
One of the NASA-patent products is a racing car driver suit. It was made from phase change materials that were used in keeping astronauts safe while on orbit.
Space technology has made its way into cars over the years. This includes space shuttle tires that are now used on roads, as well as zero-gravity studies to improve car seat comfort.
While astronaut Drew Feustel isn’t wearing a spacesuit behind the wheel of this NASCAR racing vehicle, developments in spacesuit technology have seen adoption in auto racing
Above, astronaut Anne McClain in her spacesuit gloves. These gloves are both able to handle tools but also able to withstand the extreme temperatures of working in orbit. NASA and industry explored using phase-change material for this purpose.
The phase-shifting material was created for spacesuit gloves and is one of many products making the jump from use in space to Earth.
The basic properties of matter are that these materials can absorb heat and then release it. As the temperature rises, heat from the surroundings melts the material, making it liquid again.
‘No matter what phase it’s in, in either hot or cold environments, the temperature stays around the melting point. This ensures that the material, much like Goldilocks’ porridge, always feels just right,’ NASA engineers wrote.
Walero’s cooling qualities are essential for drivers participating in major races because of the extreme temperature inside. Cristiana Oprea (pictured), wears it when she drives in the European Rally Championship.
Outlast Technologies was granted the license to create the synthetic-fiber. It is used in bedding and infant swaddling.
Outlast was sold by its technology to Walero UK. Walero was started in Amateur Racer Fiona James with the intention of producing safe, absorbent, and heat-resistant underwear.
James had Outlast material incorporated into fire-retardant fabric, that has seen been approved for us in multiple world racing championships and meets safety standards laid out by the US-based SFI Foundation.
These products can now be used by IndyCar drivers and European Rally Championship drivers, along with NASCAR drivers.
You can grow potatoes in soilless conditions.
NASA has developed techniques and technologies to enhance existing systems and processes, other than actual materials.
UN estimates that there will be an additional 2.3 billion hungry people by 2050. Most of these people are concentrated in urban centers, far from the farmland.
Plenty Unlimited uses robotics to maintain plant health at every stage of its farming operations. This is a NASA-based vertical farm.
NASA states that agriculture today may not be capable of feeding that many people. While farmers look to improve efficiency in their fields, vertical farming may offer the best long-term solutions.
Since the 1970s, NASA has worked to solve similar issues in space exploration and to find ways to provide food for people who don’t have access to Earth.
It is possible to reuse limited amounts of water and minimize energy consumption.
CSS Farms was able to grow potatoes by using some of these NASA techniques and the results of experiments conducted by the space agency in order to improve yields of plants without soil.
Bowery Farming’s vertical hydroponic system, the nutrient-film technique, is used to grow plants. It creates dense root mats that can absorb water, nutrients, oxygen and other elements without having to use soil.
NASA’s experiment showed that potatoes grown in nutrient baths produced 175,000 pounds per acre, which is a significant improvement on the 89,000 lb/acre world record for potatoes.
CSS Farms uses the same hydroponics nutrient film technique in greenhouses to grow seed potatoes for customers who plant them in their fields.
Many of the same methods as NASA’s closed-loop vertical farm were used, such as carefully monitoring nutrient baths. This allowed for significantly higher yields than if they had been grown in soil.
Purifying the air
NASA says that a NASA-developed system for cultivating plants aboard the International Space Station helps to improve indoor air quality and decrease the spread of viruses such as coronavirus.
As it was clear that COVID-19 could spread through airways, many companies realized they had NASA-derived technology to help stop its spread.
Airgloss’ air quality sensors work in conjunction with a thermostat to regulate ventilation and manage indoor air, sending alerts and reports. During the pandemic, the company learned how the sensors could calculate a space’s risk of COVID-19 spread
Peggy Whitson (NASA astronaut) inspects soybean plants grown in Advanced Astroculture, or ADVASC plant growth chamber. It was 2002. Photocatalytic air scrubbers that regulate ethylene levels in ADVASC, and their predecessor, turned out to be effective at eliminating other contaminants. This led eventually to many commercial air purifiers.
Soon, they were overwhelmed by the demand for services from hospitals to shopping malls, offices buildings to airports and schools.
One of these was ActivePure Technology, that sold six months’ worth of its inventory in the first few weeks of the pandemic.
ActivePure’s air purifiers, are based on a technology developed in the 1990s at the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR), a NASA Research Partnership Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It was intended to remove the plant hormone, ethylene from spacecraft air. Without gravity, the air was not able to circulate around and ethylene built up, leading to premature plant death.
In the 1990s engineers from NASA’s Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics created the Astroculture plant-growth chamber. They came up with photocatalytic oxygenation to stop the buildup ethylene (a plant growth hormone which accelerates withering and ripening).
The solution, photocatalytic oxygen, was able to eliminate a lot more than just ethylene and is now used in purification technology.
ActivePure incorporates photocatalytic oxygenation in about 100 air purifiers. These units come under a variety of brand names. They can be portable or fitted into cars and elevators.
Airgloss was one of the other developers who created sensors that used NASA technology to identify impurities and then feed them into their filters.
The heart rate can be used for identificationLock your mobile phone
Spinoff 2022 includes a Spinoffs of Tomorrow Section that highlights NASA technologies available for licensing and commercial applications.
They include the next-generation biometric identification verification system that unlocks phones and computers with heartbeats.
NASA technology was developed to monitor astronauts from space. Heartbeats may be the next biometric identifier.
Biometric data points such as voice-prints and fingerprints are currently used to verify or identify a user’s identity.
Heartbeats, based on NASA technology that closely monitors astronauts in space and is being used to identify them, could become the next major biometric identifier.
NASA has predicted that NASA could use the heartbeat system to replace a user’s PC password or access their bank accounts.
It measures the electrical signals that are associated with heart beat waves and has about 192 parameters to serve as an identifier.
NASA says this can be used for identity verification, law enforcement and banking.
Technology alternatives
This technology is not yet available for licensing by NASA, and no products have been created.
Unlicensed patents include a nanomaterial thin film device for converting carbon dioxide to fuel and an aluminum self-healing alloy that can fix cracks and reverse structural damage such as tanks and aircraft.
NASA developed new technology to transform the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into fuel. This was done using solar-powered thin-film devices
Jim Reuter (associate administrator, agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate) in Washington stated, “NASA’s technology collection contains many innovations which not only enable exploration but also address issues and improve life here, at home.”
“We have captured successful examples of commercialization of NASA technology, research and technologies not only for the benefit of the public, but also to encourage the next generation entrepreneurs.
Another highlight is the creation of one of NASA’s first commercial robotic lunar landing vehicles, with mentorship from NASA and investment in technology.
Although they’re not directly offshoots from NASA technology, these devices were privately designed and built with NASA guidance. They will be sent to the Moon in this year.
This publication features a glove that can be used to strengthen your grip and reduce the risk of workplace stress injury.
NASA developed an MMC (metal matrix composite) that is able to repair large fatigue cracks during service life.
You can also use a flight simulator, detect-and avoid systems and a navigation program to remotely pilot an aircraft.
“These NASA technologies not only give companies and entrepreneurs an edge in their respective industries, but also help to shape budding businesses such as the commercial lunar landings,” said Daniel Lockney (Technology Transfer Program Executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington).
The mission of NASA is not limited to rocket launches and astronauts. Our goal is to improve the quality of lives for all people around the globe.
Spinoff is part NASA’s Technology Transfer Program, and it has been charged with finding NASA technology in as wide an array of applications as possible.
These agreements can be made through partnerships or licensing agreements with the industry. This ensures that NASA’s investments in space and research have other uses.
EXPLAINED. THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONALSPACE STATION IS SET 250 MILES ABOVE EARTH
The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
Since November 2000, it has been permanently manned by rotating teams of astronauts and cosmos.
Although crews have mostly come from Russia and the United States, the Japanese space agency JAXA as well as the European space agency ESA also send astronauts.
Over 20 years, the International Space Station has been continually occupied. Numerous new modules and system upgrades have been made to it.
Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.
ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.
So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.
The future of the station is still up for debate beyond 2025. It is believed that some elements of the original structure may be deemed obsolete by then.
Russia, which is an important partner for the station’s construction, will launch its orbital platform in that same period. Axiom Space (a private company) plans to also send modules directly to the station.
NASA, ESA and JAXA, as well as Canada’s Space Agency (CSA), are teaming up to create a space station orbiting the moon. Russia and China also have similar projects, which would include a base at the surface.