Astronaut Icecream and Medical Devices

In recent years, my father has picked up a new hobby of star-gazing. What started out, as I believe, as an excuse to get out of the house and away from the mother-in-law, has slowly turned into a full-fledged astronomical geekfest (no pun intended). So, for Christmas this year, I thought it would be pretty awesome to buy the old man a star – a physical star in space. Yes, I know… no one can own a star, or a planet, or even Space itself, but the theory is amusing. Upon purchasing a star, its coordinates are issued, registered in the company’s database of stars, and the “owner” of the star is given the super-hero or super-villain ability to name it (now, I think a hilariously clichéd, yet appropriate name for my Dad’s star would be “Death Star”, but I am leaving the naming up to him).

Upon acquiring this unnamed star, I started thinking about the capitalization that this company is making on Space. I started thinking about other products that were initially for Space and ultimately landed in the private sector. Naturally, Astronaut Icecream came to mind first (one of my favorites!), with moon shoes coming in as a close second. I have to admit that it was downhill from there, like a rover mission to Mars gone badly. The Astronaut Icecream and moon shoes took me down an entertaining path (refer to flow chart above), which ultimately led me to medical devices.

After a speedy search for NASA inspired products, I was thrilled to discover the NASA Spinoff Homepage¹, where NASA proudly showcases space technologies that have materialized into products over the decades. The first report, “Technology Utilization Program Report,” was published in 1973. The public’s interest in the report resulted in NASA publishing an issue of Spinoff annually since 1976. The NASA Spinoff Homepage has a nifty Spinoff Database², which allows you to search products/technologies by topic and NASA Center, as well as by manufacturer, state, category, and issue. I searched by category and topic for medical devices. Some of the most interesting products that had humble beginnings at NASA can be found in Table 1.

Table 1: NASA Spinoff Database Products

Have there been any products/technologies that have originated in the private sector and transitioned into a vital product/technology for NASA? What are other technologies that have emerged from unlikely sources?

Please, feel free to leave comments.

-RSpelich ^_^

References

1. NASA. NASA Spinoff Homepage. Last updated 10 Aug. 2012. Available at: http://spinoff.nasa.gov/index.html. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

2. NASA. NASA Spinoff Database. Last updated 01 May 2011. Available at: http://spinoff.nasa.gov/spinoff/database. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

3. NASA. Polymer Coats leads on Implantable Medical Device. Spinoff. 2008;52-3.Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090002469_2009001778.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

4. NASA. Robotic Joints Support Horses and Humans. Spinoff.2008;56-7.Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090002485_2009001788.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

5. NASA. Robotic Surgery. Spinoff.2010;36-7. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020066443_2002101767.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

6. NASA. Bioreactors Drive Advances in Tissue Engineering. Last updated 01 May 2011. Available at: http://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2011/hm_1.html. Accessed 17 Dec.2012.

7. NASA. Anti-Shock Garment. Spinoff. 1996:54. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020079137_2002127479.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

8. NASA. Prosthesis Material. Spinoff. 1995:70-1. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020078353_2002126563.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

9. NASA. Invisible Braces. Spinoff. 1989:82. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020087639_2002143303.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

10. NASA. Talking Wheelchair. Spinoff. 1981:93. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030005002_2003000393.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec. 2012.

11. NASA. A New Tool for the Hospital Lab. Spinoff. 1979:72-3. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20070019755_2007020347.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec. 2012.