Michael D. Griffin Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA is making significant progress in implementing our Nation’s space exploration strategy, which calls for American leadership in exploring other worlds and in the inevitable expansion of human civilization into the cosmos.

This past year, NASA engineers developed the Exploration Systems Architecture for the spacecraft and launch vehicles that will enable the renewed human exploration of the Moon, as early as 2018. On August 31, 2006, we announced the selection of Lockheed Martin Corp. as the prime contractor that will build a key element of the architecture, our new Crew Exploration Vehicle Orion. Throughout the year, NASA engaged with potential international, academic, and commercial partners to develop a strategy for scientific, commercial, and exploration activities on the lunar surface, as this next great era of space exploration unfolds.

The past year was also marked by the resumption of space shuttle missions, continued productive activity onboard the International Space Station, the launching of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the CloudSat and CALIPSO Earth-monitoring satellites, the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope’s imaging of a remarkable nest of red supergiant stars—14 supernovas in the making—and the exciting findings of the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe in the vicinity of Saturn and its fascinating moons, Titan and Enceladus.

When NASA engages in activities such as these, we make discoveries of fundamental scientific importance and we develop new technologies that help improve people’s lives. Our investment in exploration is an investment in the highest of high-tech sectors and will help maintain America’s position as the preeminent technical nation on Earth. Space exploration is a lens that brings a focus to the development of key technologies in a way that simply would not occur without the “demand pull” that arises when trying to accomplish the near-impossible.

To this point, Spinoff 2006 highlights NASA’s work, consistent with our Agency’s charter, to “research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space, and related technologies.” Below are a few of the beneficial, NASA-derived technologies that are featured in Spinoff 2006 and utilized in the commercial and public sectors:

• A Global Positioning System-controlled steering device that automatically steers farm equipment to maximize productivity. The device, which prevents the skipping and overlapping of rows when planting or watering fields, was inspired by a NASA experiment that tested two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
  
  

• Microencapsulating technology with roots in NASA research that is helping to clean up contaminants in bodies of water and other ecologically fragile areas in an environmentally safe manner.
  
  

• Wireless patient-monitoring systems used in hospitals across the country today that were derived from concepts behind the medical telemetry devices used to monitor astronauts’ health.

As impressive as these technologies are, I am confident that NASA’s ongoing efforts to expand our exploration horizons will significantly increase our Nation’s return on investment in the future. I thank a supportive American public, and all those who are dedicated to the noble work of exploring the space frontier, for helping to achieve this progress.