Some attribute it to extensive training as athletes prepare to compete at this summer's games in Beijing. Others say one factor may be a new swimsuit … a space-age swimsuit made of fabric tested at NASA. A medical diagnostic software tool that measures the thickness of arteries, a non-invasive medical device that improves blood flow to the heart and brain, and a technology that safely removes petroleum-based pollutants from water or soil each are being recognized as important products that originated from space technology.
NASA Spinoff Highlights Space Innovation in Everyday Life Spinoff highlights 39 new examples of how NASA innovation can be transferred to the commercial market place and applied to areas such as health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, homes and recreation, environmental and agricultural resources, computer technology and industrial productivity.
Ironically, airplane seats remain uncomfortable. The thermometer sensors were first developed for satellites to check the temperatures of stars and other celestial objects by reading infrared radiation.
The underlying technology was modified to measure the energy emitted from the human eardrum, making it much easier on everybody to see if the baby has a fever. When NASA needed to find a way for astronauts to eat on long-duration, deep space missions, it cultivated nutrient-enriched algae containing docosahexaenoic acid DHA and arachidonic acid ARA , which are polyunsaturated fatty acids. The idea was for astronauts to grow their own food.
Because these nutrients are also found in breast milk and delivered in utero to developing babies—DHA and ARA are key to visual and cognitive development—another, more terrestrial use was soon found. And while astronauts have yet to need it, babies have been eating it up. The goal was to help reduce hydroplaning on NASA runways. One challenge with space exploration is that equipment must withstand radical conditions, from the heat of rocket exhaust to extreme cold in space. Surprisingly, one of the most destructive forces is the corrosive effect of saltwater-laden ocean spray and fog.
It rusts gantries -- large frames that surround rocket launch sites -- and launch structures at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and other coastal facilities. Fortunately, in the s, researchers at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center discovered that coating the equipment with a protective layer containing zinc dust and potassium silicate would help thwart the costly rusting.
In the early s, a company called Inorganic Coatings Inc. The coating has been applied to bridge girders, pipelines, oil rigs, dock equipment, buoys, tractor-trailer truck frames and even to the exteriors of U. Army tanks. But perhaps the coating's most celebrated application came in the mids, when gallons liters of it were applied to the inside of the Statue of Liberty , to help curb further deterioration of the century-old iconic figure [source: Space Foundation ].
Next up, we'll meet technology with the ability to let us glimpse something as expansive as the cosmos and as tiny as the arteries traveling away from the human heart. Since the mids, scientists in the image processing lab at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL have been working to improve video imaging software, so that astronomers can turn space probe data into increasingly vivid, high-resolution images of distant planets and other celestial objects.
In recent years, medical researchers have applied some of NASA's software innovations to peer not into the sky but into patients' circulatory systems for signs of atherosclerosis, a common disease in which fatty material builds up inside arteries and threatens to cause heart attacks and strokes. The result was ArterioVision software.
It can be used with ultrasound equipment to perform a noninvasive examination of a patient's carotid artery, which carries blood to the brain. Paired with ultrasound technologies, ArterioVision can detect signs of cardiovascular illness at very early stages, when it would otherwise evade detection by conventional tests.
As a result, medical experts say that more patients may have a chance to curb the disease with dietary and lifestyle changes, rather than medication or surgery down the line [source: NASA ].
Doctors' offices in all 50 U. This next NASA invention has expanded lifestyle options for hearing-impaired individuals worldwide. In the late s, Adam Kissiah Jr. They simply amplified sound entering the ear without clarifying it. In an effort to solve the problem, he put to use his knowledge of NASA's advances in electronic sensing systems, telemetry, and sound and vibration sensors. He came up with the concept for a new type of hearing aid -- an implant that would produce digital pulses to stimulate the auditory nerve endings, which then would transmit the signals to the brain.
Kissiah went on to work with BioStim, a private company, to develop the new device. Kissiah's patented concepts were built upon by other manufacturers [source: Space Foundation ]. Since then, according to the U. The devices enable people who've been deaf since birth to hear for the first time. They've also restored hearing for those who still have a responsive auditory nerve but who've lost hearing due to trauma or disease [source: Space Foundation ].
This application of space technology has made an enormous difference in the lives of people like Mike Scheerer, a Peoria, Ill. NASA's role in revolutionizing our senses doesn't stop with hearing. Find out how the organization protects people's vision next. It may seem hard to believe, but there was a time when eyeglasses actually were made of glass. Not only were they heavy, but if the person wearing them was hit with something, the lens would shatter and spew tiny, vision-threatening shards of glass.
For that reason, in , the U. Food and Drug Administration declared that all sunglasses and prescription lenses be shatter-resistant, which essentially compelled lens makers to shift to more durable plastic. Technology Innovation is a digital publication of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate that features coverage of technology innovators and project developments across the agency.
The magazine highlights the work of NASA scientists and engineers who design, build and test the cutting-edge technologies that will become vital components of future space missions.
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