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 two 2009 USSF HoF inductees is an extremely-important of the former, “Aerodynamic Vehicle Design – Space Age Design on the Highways.” 

The HoF citation reads, “Vehicle design has seen radical improvements thanks in large part to NASA aerodynamics and fluid dynamics research. As vehicles move down the road at highway speeds, they must ‘push’ the air in front of them out of the way. Large trucks in particular must move huge quantities of air, creating high pressure zones around the vehicle. The compressed air spills around the cab in swirling vortices. At the back end the opposite occurs – the air is unable to negotiate the abrupt turn at the end of the vehicle and creates a low-pressure zone. These effects produce significant aerodynamic drag on the vehicle and decrease fuel efficiency. In the early 1970s, Edwin J. Saltzman, Dryden aerospace engineer, felt these turbulent effects first hand while cycling to work.

“As trucks overtook him, the air waves pushed him away from the road; as the trucks swept past, their wake drew him toward the road. Saltzman and other Dryden engineers – already studying drag and wind resistance on aircraft and space shuttle designs – applied their knowledge to improving truck design. Using a retired delivery van, they attached aluminum sheeting to create a “shoe box – similar in design to many period vehicles. They first took baseline drag measurement on the test vehicle, and then modifications began. Rounding the vehicle’s edges reduced drag by more than 59% and increased highway fuel economy an estimated of 22%. Further testing allowed them to fine-tune which adjustments best reduced drag and improved efficiency. The team next modified a cab-over-engine (COE) tractor trailer, the dominant design at the time. These modifications included rounding the corners and edges of the box-shaped cab, reducing drag at those points by as much as 40 percent with a negligible loss of internal volume. Other modifications included placing a smooth fairing on its roof, and extending the sides back to the trailer to produce additional significant drag reduction and fuel savings.

“Assuming a typical truck drives 100,000 miles annually, these modifications translate to fuel savings of more than 6,000 gallons per year per vehicle. In keeping with the Space Act of 1958 to disseminate newfound technologies to the public, NASA shared its research and expertise through a variety of means. The modifications tested at Dryden have been widely adopted. Streamlined cabs and fairings are now a common sight around the world with the once-prominent cab-over design virtually abandoned. The benefits of fuel savings and improved handling are often taken for granted. While new materials and technologies continue to advance the cause, we owe much to aerospace research and the Dryden Flight Research Center “shoebox” testing.”

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