Introduction
|
Douglas
A. Comstock
Director
Innovative Partnerships Program |
As NASA approaches its 50th anniversary, we reflect on
a proud history of achievements that have pushed back boundaries
and opened new frontiers for all humanity in the exploration
of our solar system and our understanding of the universe
and our place in it. New technologies have arisen during
this journey, developed of necessity and spurred by the
innovative spirit that answers the call of doing the impossible.
In the wake of a half-century of advancement, myriad
technologies—without which the limits of aeronautics
and space could not have been challenged—have found other
uses. From the mundane to the sublime, these technologies
have become part of the fabric of our everyday life,
driving innovation, helping the economy, and adding to
the quality of life not only in the United States, but
around the world. This 31st edition of Spinoff continues
the annual tradition of documenting a few of these happy
byproducts by showcasing numerous technologies that have
been derived from such diverse projects as launching
space shuttles, developing the next generation of helicopters,
and analyzing images from Mars probes, all of which are
now put to use in our hospitals, homes, and communities.
NASA’s core conviction has long been that space exploration
is a lens that serves to sharply focus the development of
key technologies in a way that simply would not occur without
the rigorous scientific demands that arise from seeking to
accomplish the near-impossible. Fundamentally, we help to
create new technologies to meet our challenging aeronautics
and Space Program goals, and once proven, these technologies
often have been demonstrated to have a multitude of productive
uses in society. Making these sometimes surprising connections
and transferring NASA’s technologies to the public is an
important focus of NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program
(IPP).
IPP also seeks solutions to some of NASA’s pressing technical
challenges by funding Small Business Innovation Research
and Small Business Technology Transfer projects, seeking
cost-shared, technology-development partnerships through
the IPP Seed Fund, and tapping into new sources of innovation
through NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program. In seeking
innovative partnerships, IPP is moving technology in two
directions—both into and out of NASA. IPP achieves these
objectives through a nationwide network of offices across
NASA’s 10 field centers.
As a direct result of the National Aeronautics and Space
Act of 1958 and the ensuing Technology Utilization Act of
1962, NASA began to publish Spinoff. Since 1976, this widely
read and highly anticipated annual has featured life-saving
advances in health care, cutting-edge safety innovations
for the aeronautics industry, cost-saving manufacturing methods,
groundbreaking ecological advances, and a multitude of consumer
goods that changes the way we live. Each issue includes dozens
of articles highlighting how these products emerged from
NASA’s investment in aeronautics and space technology to
how they are helping real people in everyday life, as well
as helping to maintain the position of the United States
as the world leader in advanced technologies. Spinoff 2007
features such achievements as:
- A network of environmental sensors
based on devices worn by astronauts in space and now
providing health workers in urban centers with up-to-date
information about water quality and disease outbreak
information from remote, hard-to-reach areas
- A simple and affordable system for doctors to use
ultrasound to perform advanced, noninvasive heart monitoring
based on software designed to interpret spacecraft imagery
- An ecologically friendly oil additive originally designed
for the space shuttle crawlers at Kennedy Space Center,
a wildlife refuge
Spinoff also features such award-winning
technologies as:
- The Macro-Fiber Composite,
named “NASA Invention of the Year” for 2007, is an
innovative, low-cost device designed to control vibration,
noise, and deflections in composite structural beams
and panels, now used in over 120 different products,
including sporting goods, automobiles, aircraft, and
spacecraft.
- A portable hyperspectral device designed to analyze differences
in radiated energy and monitor temperature and climate
change and now used worldwide in the medical, food safety,
forensics, counter-terrorism, and military markets has
been inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame.
- Two additional NASA technologies previously included
in Spinoff were also inducted into the Space Technology
Hall of Fame this year. Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (Spinoff 2005) cleans up contaminated groundwater, and the Microbial
Check Valve (Spinoff 2006) provides clean drinking water
in locations around the globe.
As we look forward to NASA’s next 50 years, boundaries
will be pushed even further. Future achievements will be
enabled by new technologies—many perhaps not even imagined
today. Fifty years ago, we could not foresee that heart
disease would one day be detected early and with no discomfort,
using technology developed to analyze images from Mars
probes. So today, we cannot predict the technologies of
tomorrow or the spinoffs they will leave in their wake.
But as the examples in Spinoff 2007 attest, we know they
will be there, and we will be looking for them.
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