BENEFITS OF SPACE EXLORATION: TECH TRANSFER NEWS
TECH TRANSFER: The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 that created NASA called for the new agency to disseminate its technology for public benefit. Accordingly, NASA is obliged to provide for the widest practicable dissemination of information concerning results of NASA’s activities. Subsequent legislation further formalized NASA’s obligation to find secondary uses for its technologies.
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
Alas, the Space Foundation has updated its website, making it very difficult to access the still-extant HoF entries. I will continue to showcase the technologies the Space Foundation recognized as a way of documenting the value to the public of Space-related technologies.
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. NASA had pioneered the necessary technologic infrastructure, then turned to commercial partners to allow the full benefit to all of us, exactly as was intended in NASA founding documents.
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 three 2008 USSF HoF inductees is an important of the latter, the “Petroleum Remediation Product.”
The HoF citation reads in part, “Spills and leaks of all kinds threaten water resources around the world. Today a new technology provides safe and permanent removal of petroleum-based pollutants from water.
“The basic delivery system grew out of NASA biological encapsulation research and the orbital production of microspheres so uniformly precise they provide calibration standards for scientific and industrial equipment.
“PRP can be spread over water or soil to absorb, contain, and safely dispose of hydrocarbon pollutants. Essentially highly absorbent hollow spheres of beeswax, PRP immediately binds with hydrocarbons and provide nutrients to naturally occurring microbes. The feeding microbes then create enzymes which biodegrade contaminants. In 2004, Universal Remediation, Inc. rapidly commercialized this space technology developing products to treat contaminants in a wide variety of situations.”
As Always, THANK YOU, NASA!
TECH TRANSFER LINKS AND OTHER INFO
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.
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