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 first of the two 2013 USSF HoF inductees is an example of the latter, the “Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity (ADUM) Experiment.”
“In 2000, NASA approached Dr. Scott Dulchavsky of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit to develop medical ultrasound remote diagnostic techniques for use by non-expert astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The goal was to create the basis for an operational telemedicine capability for future advanced space missions. … Dulchavsky’s team was able to train non-expert astronauts to use remotely guided ultrasound to obtain a wide variety of diagnostic-quality medical images. Experts on the ground received these diagnostic-quality images from the ISS through satellite downlink, demonstrating the effectiveness of ultrasound as a multipurpose, remote diagnostic tool in space. … Buoyed by the successes in space, Dulchavsky’s team decided to deploy the technique on Earth; teaming with Henry Ford Hospital, and Wyle engineers to develop cost-effective, technologically viable methods for sending ultrasound scans over long distances on Earth without loss of image quality.” This technology was developed further, resulting in now-routine telemedicine help for serving patients anywhere, but particularly in remote locations. Doctoral expertise is now readily available almost everywhere.
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