Mission Accomplished

Space-Based Tech for Home Health Monitoring

Technologies from NASA, federal labs, and universities have found commercial applications in the medical industry. Read on, as this article highlights some of those spin-off innovations.

Vision Trainer Teaches Focusing Techniques at Home

Inventions often find unintended uses. The first mechanical clocks in Europe were intended to track the motions of celestial bodies and found their original market among monks who kept a strict...

Metalworking Techniques Unlock a Unique Alloy

Half a century ago, a scientist at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory discovered that an alloy containing 60 percent nickel and 40 percent titanium could provide exceptional performance for rocket nose...

Space Grant Research Launches Rehabilitation Chair

A stay on the International Space Station is no vacation. During a visit to the orbiting National Laboratory, astronauts divide their time among a variety of tasks. For one, they look after a...

Micromachined Parts Advance Medicine, Astrophysics, and More

Anyone who remembers the Micro Machines line of toys might be surprised to learn that the tiny model vehicles are positively gargantuan compared with actual micromachine...

3D Endoscope Boosts Safety, Cuts Costs of Surgery

"A lot of things are not easy to solve when you’re trying to break through a new technology right from the get-go,” says Harish Manohara, supervisor of the Nano and Micro Systems Group and...

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Prosthetic Socket Manufacturing

An orthopaedic surgeon resident Andrew Pedtke, MD, and a prosthetist, Garrett Hurley, CPO (Certified Prosthetist and Orthotist), both working at the University of California San...

Oxygen Sensors Monitor Bioreactors and Ensure Health and Safety

In the mid-1990s scientists at NASA Kennedy Space Center were experimenting with an unusual substance: cow digestive bacteria. Could it break down leftover dead plant matter in...

Brainwave Monitoring Software Improves Distracted Minds

Imagine moving an object using only your mind. Software company Unique Logic’s Time on Task exercise makes that feat possible, at least on a computer screen. The game, which is designed...

Space Station Inspired Robot Can Help Heal Sick Children

Children love robots. In all shapes, sizes, “personalities” and “smarts,” these electronic wonders have been found under Christmas trees by kids and unwrapped on birthdays for...

Patient Simulators Train Emergency Caregivers

Medical training is one of the most important aspects of preparing astronauts for space. Every crewmember must become proficient in basic emergency skills, such as CPR, ventilation, and intubation.

Miniaturized, Portable Sensors Monitor Metabolic Health

On Earth, gravity might weigh you down, but it also builds you up. For astronauts working in space for long durations, the weightless environment can cause a host of detrimental health...

Handheld Diagnostic Device Delivers Quick Medical Readings

In a 1962 speech, President John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because...

Innovative Software Tools Measure Behavioral Alertness

For astronauts working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in low-Earth orbit, getting adequate sleep is a challenge. For one, there’s that demanding and often unpredictable...

Miniaturizing a Wearable Ultrasound Pain Therapy Device

According to the American Chronic Pain Association, more than 50 million Americans suffer from some form of chronic pain. The most common types of pain include arthritis, lower back pain,...

Oxygen Assessments Ensure Safer Medical Devices

When the first Apollo mission to carry humans to the Moon ended in a fire that took the lives of three astronauts, NASA undertook a thorough investigation. The final accident report identified a...

Superconductors Enable Lower Cost MRI Systems

The future looks bright, light, and green—especially where aircraft are concerned. The division of NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program called the Subsonic Fixed Wing Project is aiming to...

Large-Scale Hybrid Reality Environment Aids Researchers

When you think of the word cave, you might think of a dark, hidden place, right? Not anymore. The CAVE™ and CAVE2™, developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at...

Collaborative 3D Printing Project Connects Hands Across the World

Have you heard of Robohand? No, it’s not the next sci-fi blockbuster. It’s a story of compassion, technology, and a collaboration from 10,000 miles apart between Richard Van...

Telescope Innovations Improve Speed, Accuracy of Eye Surgery

One of the main components of NASA’s vision for the future of space exploration will actually have a keen eye for the past. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to...

Sensory Vibrations Get Stroke Victims Moving

Currently, in the United States alone, there are more than 10 million people whose movement is profoundly limited by diseases of and injuries to the brain and spinal cord. About half of these people...

Low Cost Respiratory Support System for Newborns

The mission of the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health Technologies, part of Rice University, Houston, TX, is to bring together faculty, students, clinicians, and private and public sector...

Rovers Pave the Way for Hospital Robots

Before Curiosity came the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Before Spirit and Opportunity, came Pathfinder and Sojourner. Before Pathfinder and Sojourner, the Mars Global Surveyor, and...

Dry Electrodes Facilitate Remote Health Monitoring

You wouldn’t find a big bowl of spaghetti served on the International Space Station (ISS). In microgravity, it would be a complete mess. There is, however, something like spaghetti on the...

Heart Imaging Simulator Advances Echocardiography Training

As cardiovascular disease has increased globally in recent decades, clinical demand for transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has risen along with it. In TEE, a clinician inserts an...

Handheld Brain Hematoma Detector Provides Faster Diagnosis in Field

An estimated one and half million individuals seek medical treatment for head trauma in the US each year, and annually about 10 million individuals seek treatment for head...

Diaphragm Pacing Helps Patients with ALS Delay Need for Ventilator

An electronic system that stimulates the nerve of the diaphragm muscles received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with Amyotrophic...

NASA Tooling Techniques Enhance Medical Imaging

They can release as much energy as tens of billions of hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. They send protons and electrons rocketing at near the speed of light. They heat gas in the Sun’s...

Exoskeletons Provide Hope for Those with Paraplegia

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, somewhere between 236,000 to 327,000 people in the US are living with serious spinal cord injuries. About 155,000 have...