BENEFITS OF SPACE EXLORATION: TECH TRANSFER NEWS

NASA’s Technology Transfer Mission: Since NASA’s inception in 1958, it has transferred the knowledge and technology it developed to commercial and other organizations! 

Technology Transfer Office: NASA has for decades maintained a Technology Transfer Office to promote and manage the “transfer of NASA technology to promote the commercialization and public availability of Federally-owned inventions to benefit the national economy and the U.S. public.” Unlike spin-offs, where the new application was not envisioned at the time the technology was developed, tech transfer was usually planned for as part of the development process. In some cases, NASA partnered with outside entities to develop technology that would have both NASA and non-NASA uses from the get-go.

U.S. Space Foundation Technology Hall of Fame: Long-time recipients may remember that I have showcased the USSF Tech Hall of Fame items in the past in Air and Space this Week. The USSF recently altered their website to make how I’ve been showing HoF entries less convenient, but I still want to show important and sometimes-unexpected examples of technology developed initially for NASA’s that wound up with valuable unrelated commercial uses when the technology is transferred to the private sector. 

Sometimes new technology has applications unforeseen by its developers. Sometimes the applications were known ahead of time and guided the development process, sometimes an unexpected application will arise. The second of the two 2013 USSF HoF inductees is an example of the latter, the “Inflatable Satellite Communications System (GATR).

“In 1997, SRS Technologies (now ManTech International Technologies) received a NASA SBIR contract to develop a solar concentrator for power generation. While developing an inflatable model, SRS researchers realized that a variant could be used for ground-based communications. In 2004 GATR Technologies was formed to license and commercializing the spinoff for use on Earth.

“A Space Act Agreement led to GATR and Glenn researchers refining and testing the promising technology. In 2008, GATR delivered the world’s first inflatable antenna certified by the Federal Communications Commission.

“Already deployed in six of the seven continents GATR has benefited people the world over to support a range of missions including military and security, natural disasters response, and to provide much needed high-bandwidth satellite communications in remote regions of the world. GATR is rugged enough to have seen action in Afghanistan, versatile enough to have supported a wide array of international humanitarian efforts, and compact enough to be checked as airline baggage enabling otherwise impossible missions.

“GATR Technologies has voluntarily supported relief efforts for Hurricane Ike, and Katrina, the 2011 Alabama tornadoes, southern California wildfires, the Haiti earthquake, and medical clinics in Africa, and Central and South America. GATR now employees more than 40 people and has been listed for the past four years in Inc. Magazine’s list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.”

THANK YOU, NASA!

NASA Software Available for Business and Public Use: The public can now download NASA computational innovations originally designed to support its missions. To find out more, and to access NASA’s catalog of available software, see: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-software-benefits-earth-available-for-business-public-use.

TECH TRANSFER LINKS AND OTHER INFO

NASA Office of Chief Technologist, Technology Transfer, and Spinoffs: Website closed down

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/pdf/AIAA%202011%20Quantifying%20Spinoff%20Benefits.pdf

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/new_interactive_website_homeandcity

Introduction: https://technology.nasa.gov/network

T2 Portal: https://technology.nasa.gov

NASA Software Catalog: https://software.nasa.gov

NASA Patent Portfolio: https://technology.nasa.gov/patents

JPL Tech Transfer Office: https://ott.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program: https://sti.nasa.gov