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Laser Angioplasty
The DymerTM 200+ excimer angioplasty system vaporizes blockages in coronary
arteries without damaging arterial walls
Physicians have a powerful new weapon in the war against heart disease,
thanks to space technology. A laser system first used for satellite-based
atmospheric studies has been reapplied to treat atherosclerosis, the buildup of
fatty deposits - called plaque - in the arteries. These deposits can lead to
heart disease, the number one cause of death in the United States.
Developed by Advanced Interventional Systems, Inc. (AIS), Irvine, California,
the DymerTM 200+ excimer laser angioplasty system vaporizes blockages in
coronary arteries without damaging arterial walls. In January 1992, the system
received Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of coronary
disease.
Laser angioplasty is less expensive and, because it is minimally invasive,
less risky than a coronary bypass, which replaces clogged blood vessels.
Further, lasers can help a broader range of patients than the current bypass
alternative, balloon angioplasty (see next page), in which a flexible catheter
with a tiny balloon at its tip is threaded into the blocked artery and inflated
to widen the path for blood flow.
The AIS system employs excimer laser technology pioneered at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for remote sensing of the ozone layer. While other
types of lasers such as CO2 and nd:YAG have surgical applications, they are too
hot for delicate coronary surgery and could damage tissue, cause blood vessel
spasms, or create blood clots. The excimer is a "cool" laser that uses
ultraviolet light energy to operate at 65° C, a temperature human tissue can
tolerate.
The Dymer 200+ laser angioplasty system is safer than coronary bypass
operations and offers wider utility than balloon angioplasty.
The laser light is carried through fiber optic bundles within a flexible
catheter designed to navigate the complex coronary anatomy. The Dymer 200+
incorporates NASA- developed switching technology to produce a uniform laser
beam that can be controlled and pulsed in as little as 200 billionths of a
second to maintain a low working temperature.
Since clinical tests began in 1988, over 2000 coronary angioplasty procedures
have been performed with the system at 30 hospitals nationwide. It can be used
to treat peripheral vascular disease and may have applications in neurosurgery
and orthopedics.
Cardiac Imaging System
Computer- created "movies" of the heart help doctors to spot life-threatening
blockages
Balloon angioplasty is a non-surgical procedure for clearing fatty deposits
in the coronary arteries that block blood flow and cause heart attacks. The
procedure involves threading a thin hollow tube called a catheter directly into
a clogged artery. A cardiologist guides the catheter with the aid of an imaging
system that shows on a monitor the heart's regions and the catheter as it moves.
When the catheter penetrates a blocked segment, a small balloon at the tip of
the catheter is inflated, pushing aside the fatty plaque and clearing the
artery.
Although not available to all patients with narrowed arteries, the use of
balloon angioplasty has expanded dramatically over the past decade‹from 12,000
procedures worldwide in 1982 to an anticipated 560,000 in the U.S. alone this
year. This growth has fueled demand for higher quality imaging systems to
improve accuracy and the odds for success.
The Digital Cardiac Imaging (DCI) System answers this demand by incorporating
image processing technology first developed for NASA's Earth remote sensing
satellites. Designed by Philips Medical Systems International, The Netherlands,
and marketed in the U.S. by Philips Medical Systems North America Company,
Shelton, Connecticut, the DCI offers much sharper real-time images. It is the
most widely used digital cardiac imaging system, according to the manufacturer,
with more than 300 units in operation worldwide, including over 100 in the U.S.
The Philips system gives the cardiologist direct control of "roadmapping," in
which freeze-frame images of a blood vessel section aid in guiding the catheter.
Using a cordless control unit such as a remote TV channel selector, the
cardiologist can manipulate images to make immediate assessments, compare live
x-ray and road map images by placing them side-by-.side on monitor .screens, or
compare pre- and post-procedure conditions. The additional information allows
the doctor to get into and out of the heart more quickly, minimizing trauma.
The image processing technology employed by the DCI originated some 15 years
ago at International Imaging Systems (I2S), Milpitas, California. 12S pioneered
optical, analog, and digital image processing equipment for NASA's Earth
resources survey spacecraft, exemplified by the Landsat satellite family. In the
early 1980s, 12S responded to emerging interest within the medical industry for
such applications as ultrasound, computer-aided tomography (CT), and magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) body scanners. I2S supplied medical equipment firms with
image processing hardware and software identical to that used by NASA.
Subsequently, I2S broadened its market and developed application-specific
products for its industrial clients, including a high-performance processor for
Philips Medical's DCI system.
Advanced Pacemaker
A state-of-the-art implantable pacemaker closely matches the natural rhythm
of the heart
Communications technology that bridges the gap between Earth stations and
orbiting satellites also enables doctors to communicate with pacemakers
implanted in the human body.
At top is Synchrony*, a state-of-the-art implantable pacemaker that closely
matches the natural rhythm of the heart. Below is the companion element of the
Synchrony Pacemaker System, the Programmer Analyzer APS-II, which allows a
doctor to reprogram and fine-tune the pacemaker to each user's special
requirements without surgery.
Bi-directional telemetry, a type of two-way communications developed by NASA,
provides the means to both instruct and query the pacemaker. For example, the
doctor can send signals to the pacemaker to alter its rate and also receive
signals from the implanted device regarding the status of its interaction with
the heart. This way, the doctor can adjust the device to best suit a patient's
needs, which may change over time.
Developed by Siemens-Pacesetter Inc., Sylmar, California, the Synchrony
Pacemaker System won Food and Drug Administration approval for general marketing
in August 1989 after clinical trials involving more than 750 implants in 90
hospitals.
Synchrony features a unique sensor that allows the pacemaker to respond to
body movements. During increased activity, it accelerates the heart rate,
boosting the supply of oxygen to the body. This opens up to pacemaker patients a
wide range of activities‹jogging, dancing, swimming,‹from which they were
previously barred.
The Programmer Analyzer APS-II has 28 pacing functions and thousands of
programming combinations to accommodate diverse lifestyles. The microprocessor
unit records and stores pertinent patient data for up to a year.
Implantable Heart Aid
Miniaturized space technology detects a broad range of spontaneous heart
arrhythmias
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) strikes nearly half a million Americans each year.
Eighty percent die before medical help arrives and those who survive face a
two-year recurrence rate that may be a as high as 55 percent. For many potential
victims, however, the Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator, or AICD*
(shown at right) offers new hope: it can reduce the two-year SCD mortality rate
to less than three percent.
The AICD incorporates spacebased miniaturized electronics to detect a broad
range of spontaneous heart arrhythmias, including those caused by ventricular
fibrillation, during which the heart loses its ability to pump blood, causing
death or brain damage in minutes. The AICD works by shocking the heart via
electrodes that have been surgically placed in and on the heart. Comprising a
pulse generator and two sensors that continuously monitor heart activity, the
AICD automatically delivers electrical countershocks to restore rhythmic
heartbeat as necessary. It works in the same way as defibrillators used by
emergency squads and hospitals, but offers the advantage of being permanently
available to patients with high risk of experiencing SCD.
The AICD pulse generator was developed in the early 197Os by Intec Systems
Inc. and Medrad Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, in conjunction with researchers at Sinai
Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. NASA funded development of an AICD recording
system and an independent design review of the system, both conducted by the
Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Howard County, Maryland.
The first model was successfully implanted in a dog in 1976 and, after 12 years
and more than $4 million in research, the device was implanted in a 57-year-old
woman at Johns Hopkins Hospital on February 4, 198O. Clinical studies ensued and
a grant from NASA enabled Intec Systems and the Applied Physics Laboratory to
pursue development of more advanced models.
The AICD is manufactured by Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota, a
subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, which purchased Intec Systems in 1985. CPI
was the first company to receive FDA approval for an implantable defibrillator
and continues to work to make this lifesaving technology available to a greater
number of patients.
Implantable and External Pumps
Offering diabetics automatic, precise control of blood sugar levels
Insulin-dependent diabetics have been aided by the use of space technology in
the development of both external and implantable insulin delivery systems. A
computerized pump can serve as an electronic artificial pancreas that infuses
insulin at a pre-programmed rate, allowing for more precise control of blood
sugar levels, without which complications such as blindness and kidney disease
may result, while freeing the diabetic from the burden of daily insulin
injections.
The Programmable Implantable Medication System (PIMS) resulted from efforts
begun in the 197Os at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to transfer aerospace
technology to the medical field. Created by the Applied Physics Laboratory of
Johns Hopkins University in cooperation with Goddard and MiniMed Technologies, a
California-based manufacturer of medical equipment, the PIMS is surgically
implanted in the diabetic's abdomen to continuously deliver insulin.
The implant consists of a refillable drug reservoir, a pumping mechanism, a
catheter leading from the pump to the diabetic's intestines, a microcomputer,
and a lithium battery‹all encased in a titanium shell 3.2 inches in diameter and
three quarters of an inch thick. The pump's tiny dimensions are the product of
years of work to miniaturize components for satellite use.
(Photo Caption) The MiniMed 504 Insulin Infusion Pump, on aid to diabetics.
(Photo Caption) Clipped to a patient's clothing, the minipump delivers
insulin continuously at a preprogrammed rate adjusted to the individual,
allowing the insulin-dependent diabetic to lead a more normal life.
NASA technology also helped create the pumping mechanism, which is based on a
design for the biological laboratory of the Mars Viking space probe. The device
delivers insulin into the abdominal cavity in short bursts or "pulses," which
conserves battery power. When an insulin refill is needed‹about four times a
year‹it can be injected without surgery by a special hypodermic needle.
Both patient and physician can adjust the insulin delivery rate via digital
telemetry‹a technique developed by NASA to communicate with spacecraft from
Earth. By holding a small radio transmitter over the implant and dialing one of
ten preprogrammed codes, the diabetic can change the infusion rate or ask for a
supplemental dose of insulin before meals or when blood sugar levels are
elevated. Another code allows the physician to access information from the
pump's stored memory, reprogram insulin delivery, and generate computer records
of the pump's performance.
A device similar to the PIMS, but worn externally, is the MiniMed* 5O4
Insulin Infusion Pump. Also based on NASA technology, the MiniMed SO4 can be
clipped to a belt or other part of the user's clothing and worn around the
clock. About the size of a credit card and weighing just 3.8 ounces, it houses a
microprocessor, a long-life battery, and a syringe reservoir filled with
insulin. The syringe is connected to an infusion set that consists of a thin,
flexible plastic tube about 3O inches long with a needle at its end. The patient
inserts the needle subcutaneously, usually in the abdomen. Insulin is infused at
rates determined by the patient's needs and programmed into the microprocessor.
Temperature Pill
The sensor reads the patient's internal temperature and telemeters the
information to a receiving coil outside the body
Illustrated below is an ingestible thermometer capable of accurately
measuring and relaying deep internal body temperatures. Developed by the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics information to Laboratory in collaboration
with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Ingestible Thermal Monitoring
System (marketed under the trade name CorTemp by Human Technologies, Inc. of St.
Petersburg, Florida) enables improved patient care in hospitals and offers
opportunities in medical experimentation.
The three-quarter-inch silicone capsule contains a telemetry system, a
microbattery, and a quartz crystal temperature sensor. The sensor reads the
internal temperature and telemeters the information to a receiving coil outside
the body. From there it is relayed to a computer. The ITMS monitors continuously
during the 24 to 78 hours it takes the capsuleto travel through the digestive
system. The pill can record a patient's temperature every 3O seconds and can be
programmed to sound an alarm if the temperature exceeds preset limits.
Researchers developed the ITMS for treatment of such emergency conditions as
dangerously low (hypothermia) and dangerously high (hyperthermia) body
temperatures. Extremely accurate readings are vital in treating such cases.
While the average thermometer is accurate to one-tenth of a degree Centigrade,
ITMS is off no more than one hundredth of a degree, and provides the only means
of gauging deep body temperature.
Although the concept for the temperature pill dates back to the 195Os, until
recently technology could not produce parts small enough for an ingestible
capsule, while meeting reliability, accuracy, and cost objectives. The ITMS
achieves these performance goals by adopting space-based technologies such as
miniaturized integrated circuits and telemetry techniques originally developed
for transmission of coded signals to Earth from orbiting satellites.
The system has applications in fertility monitoring, incubator monitoring,
and some aspects of surgery, critical care, obstetrics, metabolic disease
treatment, gerontology (aging), and food processing research. APL is working on
an advanced four-channel capsule that will simultaneously monitor temperature,
heart rate, inner body pressure, and acidity.
Infrared Thermometer
Aural thermometer gauges body temperature in two seconds or less
Adopting infrared sensor technology developed for space missions,the Diatek
Corporation of San Diego, Calif., produced an aural thermometer that gauges body
temperature in two seconds or less. Accurate to within two-tenths of a degree,
the Model 7OOO thermometer measures heat emitted from the patient's tympanic
membrane, or eardrum.
The technique could save considerable time for nurses, who take many
temperatures in the course of a hospital shift. In the U.S. alone, some two
billion clinical temperature readings are taken annually, about half of them in
acute care hospital facilities. The national shortage of nursing personnel
spurred Diatek to pursue development of a faster thermometer. The company's
researchers turned to infrared optical technology because it offered quick
operation and extreme accuracy. The Model 7OOO optical sensor was designed by
Diatek engineers and refined with help from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
which has 3O years experience using infrared sensors to remotely measure the
temperatures of planets and stars.
To take a temperature, the nurse inserts the plastic-covered probe into the
opening of the patient's ear canal and presses a button to activate the sensor.
The probe detects infrared radiation emitted from the eardrum and a
microprocessor converts it to the corresponding body temperature, which is
displayed on a liquid crystal screen. The aural device enhances the comfort of
critically ill, incapacitated, or newborn patients, and makes frequent
temperature taking less bothersome Further, it reduces the risk of
cross-infection because it avoids contact with mucous membranes and employs
disposable probe covers.
The thermometer weighs only eight ounces and can be operated with one hand.
It is targeted for acute-care hospitals ancl alternative health care sites such
as nursing homes, blood banks, and cancer and burn centers. Diatek expects 6O
percent of all clinical thermometers to use infrared sensors by 1997.
(Photo Caption) A nurse takes a patient's temperature with the Diatek Model
7000 aural thermomenter, which employs infrared technology to obtain a
near-instantaneous reading.
Thermal Video
A noninvasive means of observing physiological problems
Since the time of Hippocrates, physicians have known that temperature
variations hold important clues for diagnosing disease. A localized hot spot on
the skin's surface might indicate unseen inflammation, while a cold spot could
be symptomatic of poor blood circulation. In the past, however, there was no way
to accurately measure fluctuating heat emissions. Now, through the rapidly
advancing technology of infrared thermography, physicians have a tool to detect
the slight temperature differences that warn of pathology.
Thermographic devices convert invisible infrared (IR) radiation into voltage
signals that can be displayed on a monitor. The first IR sensors were developed
for military purposes such as missile guidance. Hughes Aircraft Company
pioneered the civil application of IR heat sensors as part of a NASA-sponsored
research project.
More recently, medical use of thermography has rapidly gained acceptance as a
noninvasive means of observing physiological problems. Whereas an x-ray
indicates structural anomalies, thermography can pointout functional anomalies.
For instance, a thermogram showing an asymmetrical temperature pattern on the
body surface serves as a visual indicator of pain, while mapping of dermatones
(areas of skin supplied by a specific spinal nerve) enables accurate measurement
of nerve dysfunction. Sensory nerve impairment in the lower back is indicated by
a temperature difference, from one extremity to the other, of only 1 degree C.
Thermography is proving to be a valuable screening tool in diagnosis. It can
provide information that obviates the need to do more invasive tests that might
be painful or hazardous. Thermal imaging also can verify a patient's progress
through therapy and rehabilitation, and it is finding special utility in
determining the extent of sports injuries.
One of the leading purveyors of thermographic equipment is FLIR Systems of
Portland, Oregon. The company purchased Hughes' line of Probeye* thermal video
systems in 199O and now markets a wide range of infrared systems and
accessories, principally for industrial uses such as inspection of electronic
components, profiling for nonrestrictive testing, quality inspection, preventive
maintenance. and routine monitoring of production processes and energy losses.
(Photo Caption) The Probeye thermal video system serves as a none invasive
diagnostic tool. Here, the patient's posture allows the scanner to sense heat
differences in the lower back and thereby assess sensory nerve impairment.
(Photo Caption) This thermographic image reveals that the first two fingers
of the right hand emit less heat at the skin surface, indicating subnormal blood
circulation.
Body Imaging
Apollo research spawned new medical and diagnostic tools
The high-tech art of digital signal processing (DSP) was pioneered at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the mid-196Os for use in the Apollo Lunar
Landing Program. Designed to computer-enhance pictures of the moon, this
technology became the basis for the Landsat Earth resources satellites and
subsequently has been incorporated into a broad range of Earthbound medical and
diagnostic tools.
DSP is employed in advanced body imaging techniques including computer-aided
tomography, also known as CT and CATScan, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
CT images are collected by irradiating a thin slice in the body with a
fan-shaped x-ray beam from a number of directions around the body's perimeter. A
tomographic (slice-like) picture is reconstructed from these multiple views by a
computer. MRI employs a magnetic field and radio waves to create images, rather
than x-rays. The resultant MRI and CT images are often complementary. In most
cases, MRI is useful for viewing soft tissue but not bone, while CT images are
good for bone but not always for soft tissue discrimination.
Physicians and engineers in the Department of Radiology at the University of
Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor, Michigan, are developing a method for combining
the best features of MRI and CT scans to increase the accuracy of discriminating
one type of body tissue from another. one of their research tools is a computer
program originally developed to distinguish Earth surface features in Landsat
image processing. Called HICAP, the program can be used to distinguish between
healthy and diseased tissue in body images.
At top is a CT image of a slice of human liver with many lesions. It was
analyzed and processed by HICAP to produce the image at bottom, in which the
false-color red areas represent regions of a normal liver. Consecutive liver
slices can be processed in this manner to produce a three-dimensional view of
the liver.
HICAP was supplied to the Department of Radiology by NASA's Computer Software
Management and Information Center (COSMIC*). Located at the University of
Georgia, COSMIC makes available to the private sector government-developed
computer programs that have commercial applications.
Skin Damage Assessment
High-resolution color images of human tissue aid burn treatment
The critical factor in the diagnosis and treatment of serious burns is
accurate measurement of burn depth. The application of NASA ultrasound
technology, originally developed to detect microscopic flaws in aircraft and
spacecraft materials, has provided an advanced instrument that enables immediate
assessment of burn damage. This knowledge improves patient treatment and may
even save lives in serious burn cases.
The customary treatment for a severe burn is to allow natural sloughing of
necrotic or dead tissue and then to close the resulting wounds with skin grafts.
Effective treatment, therefore, depends upon early recognition of the extent of
the dead tissue and its removal, by chemical or surgical means, to minimize risk
of infection and hasten healing.
In 1983, NASA's Langley Research Center initiated a project to address this
need for precise determination of burn depth. The project was spearheaded by
physicists with Langley's Nondestructive Measurement Science Branch, which
conducts research on ultrasonic and other techniques for evaluating quality and
fatigue of aerospace materials. Also participating in the project were the
Medical College of Virginia (MCV), Richmond, Virginia; the University of
Aberdeen, Scotland; and the NASA Technology Applications Team, Research Triangle
Institute (RTI), North Carolina.
(Photo Caption) Dr. Anthony Marmarou of the Medical College of Virginia uses
the Supra Scanner to measure the depth of a patient's burn, a key factor in
diagnosis and treatment.
Langley developed a prototype instrument capable of determining the level
where bumed tissue ends and healthy tissue begins. This is possible because,
when skin is burned, the protein collagen that makes up some 4O percent of skin
becomes more dense. The Langley technique involved directing ultrasonic waves at
the burned area: the difference in density between damaged and healthy tissue
causes sound waves to reflect at the point of interface.
After successful completion of preliminary clinical tests by MCV, NASA's RTI
technology team negotiated an agreement with Jack Cantwell Inc. (now Topox,
Inc., Chadds Ford, Pa.) to commercialize the technology. Following clinical
tests of the commercial version, known as the Supra Scanner, it was granted FDA
approval in December 199O.
The Supra Scanner combines a scanning transducer and computer in a single
instrument that can be used at a patient's bedside. The patented system produces
high-resolution color images of up to 14 millimeters of human tissue, generates
cross-sectional images of the skin, and provides data on skin surface and
subsurface features.
The Supra Scanner also is applicable in diagnosis of skin cancer and
lymphatic disorders, and in plastic surgery.
Gait Analysis System
A diagnostic tool for patients who experience difficulty walking
Data collected by orbiting satellites is relayed to Earth using telemetry, in
which coded signals are sent by radio and then decoded on the ground. Telemetry
is employed in collecting weather, air pollution, and water quality data and, in
a specialized form known as biotelemetry, for such applications as monitoring
astronaut vital functions from the ground.
One important Earth spinoff of biotelemetry is a diagnostic tool for patients
who experience difficulty walking due to birth defects, disease, or injury. Such
disorders affect the nervous system, causing muscular spasticity and loss of
coordination. The impact on individual muscles varies widely and is difficult to
determine solely by physical examination. Through a process called
electromyography‹the recording of electrical activity in the muscles‹physicians
can identify the affected muscles and prescribe treatment.
A space-derived invention known as the Gait Analysis Telemetry System
provides valuable assistance in electromyographic analyses. The system, a
cooperative development of NASA, the Children's Hospital at Stanford, Palo Alto,
California, and L&M Electronics Inc., Daly City, Califomia, registers
detailed information on a patient's leg muscle action during walking tests.
Miniature sensor/transmitters, each about the size of a half dollar, are affixed
directly over the muscle group being studied. Each transmitter has its own tiny
lithium battery and a pair of sensing electrodes. The muscle activity
sensed‹called an EMG, for electromyogram‹is sent to a computer for analysis and
display.
Because it is wireless, the system has a big advantage over other EMG
monitoring systems, which involve wires that connect leg sensors with a
receiver/recorder. Wires may hamper a patient's walking and distort the recorded
gait pattern.
Numerous hospitals use the system to conduct walking tests of children
afflicted with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, congenital disorders, or
injuries. The telemetry records, measures, and analyzes muscle activity in the
limbs and spine, yielding computer-generated pictures of gait pattems. These
help physicians determine the potential of corrective surgery, evaluate various
types of braces, or decide whether physical therapy can improve a child's
mobility. The system also is employed in a research program at the Department of
Veterans Affairs' Rehabilitation Research and Development Center, Palo Alto,
Califomia, to investigate the possibility of restoring locomotion to patients
with spinal cord injuries and severe gait disorders.
(Photo Caption) The Motion Analysis Loboratory of thildren's Hospital at
Stanford uses o spote-derived biotelemetry system in tests of walking impaired
children. The resulting data is used to determine the degree and locomotion of
abnormal muscle activity and in prescribing treatment.
(Photo Caption) At left, leg sensars send signals to a computer that develops
pictures of gait patterns for use by physicians and therapists.
Programmable Remapper
It manipulates images so that the portions that would normally fall outside
are mapped onto the usable field of vision
At right is the Programmable Remapper, a novel digital image processing
machine that has important potential for alleviating retinitis pigmentosa,
maculopathy, and other vision impairments.
The Remapper candetermine how to best use the functional parts of a patient's
retina. It manipulates images so that the portions that would normally fall
outside are mapped onto the usable field of vision. If, for example, a person's
central vision has deteriorated but peripheral vision is still intact, images
are remapped or "pushed out" to the still-functioning peripheral field of
vision.
The Remapper is an offshoot of a NASA program aimed at developing an image
processor to simplify, speed up, and improve the accuracy of pattem recognition
in video imagery. The processor is needed to solve problems associated with
automated spacecraft tracking/docking and autonomous planetary landings. The
original specifications were drawn up by the Tracking and Communications
Division of Johnson Space Center (JSC), and the design accomplished jointly by
JSC and Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas.
During its development, the Remapper's potential for application to human low
vision problems quickly became apparent and NASA's Technology Utilization office
provided funds to conduct vision- related research. Commercially available from
Texas Instruments as a tool for optometric research, the Remapper is being
adapted for use as a prosthesis for people suffering from certain forms of low
vision.
It works at video rates; what is seen on the monitor screen is what is
actually seen by the subject, with no computer analysis necessary. Thus, the
system is a good candidate for prosthesis use if researchers can sufficiently
reduce its size and cost to make it practical and portable. Worn on a belt or
elsewhere, the Remapper would warp the image to correspond to the patient's
vision characteristics and the viewing task. The patient would then view the
warped image on a small video display in front of one or both eyes.
Computer Reader for the Blind
Optacon has provided a new level of independence
More than 20 years ago, Telesensory, Mountain View, Califomia, produced a
spinoff technology that enabled the blind and deaf-blind to read‹not just
braille transcriptions but anything in print. In 1989, the company introduced an
even more exciting aid for the blind, a second-generation spinoff that not only
provides access to printed words, but also to the electronic information
available on most personal computers. The original device, called optacon, is a
combination of optical and electronic technology and incorporates research
performed at Stanford Research Institute under the sponsorship of NASA's Ames
Research Center. The user passes a mini-camera over a printed page with his left
hand; a control unit processes the camera's picture, translates it into a
vibrating image of the words the camera is viewing, and the user senses the
tactile image with his other hand. optacon, which can be used with virtually any
alphabet or language, has provided a new level of independence for thousands of
blind people in more than 7O countries.
(Photo Caption) Optocon II permits a blind woman to perceive print and
graphical images by providing to the images that she can read by touch.
Optacon II, a dramatically enhanced version, is a joint product of
TeleSensory and Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, which introduced the original optacon
to Japan in 1974. It employs the same basic technique of converting printed
information into a tactile image, but connects directly to an IBM or Macintosh
computer. This opens up a new range of job opportunities to the blind. optacon
II comprises a handheld camera with a silicon integrated circuit of lOO
light-sensitive transistors; a microprocessor control unit that processes
information from the camera; and a tactile array, driven by the control unit,
consisting of lOO vibrating rods. The camera's "retina" sends the shape of what
it is viewing to the control unit and the corresponding rods in the tactile
array vibrate. Moving the camera with one hand, the operator perceives the
vibrating image with the index finger of the other hand. optacon II is not
limited to reading printed words; it can convert any graphic image viewed by the
camera.
Vision Trainer
Improving vision defects by teaching a patient to control the eye's focusing
muscle
Optometrist Dr. Joseph N. Trachtman invented a vision training system that
could help the estimated 150 million Americans who are either nearsighted or
farsighted to see better without glasses. Called the Accommotrac* Vision
Trainer, it is based on vision studies by NASA's Ames Research Center and a
special optometer developed for Ames by Stanford Research Institute.
Dr. Trachtman's vision trainer is designed to improve vision defects by
teaching a patient to control the ciliary body, the focusing muscle of the eye.
The key is biofeedback, a technique whereby a patient leams to control a bodily
process or function of which he is not normally aware. Biofeedback can be used,
for example, to enable a person to voluntarily control blood pressure and heart
rate.
For vision training, the patient dons a headset and enters a darkened room.
As he looks into the optical part of the system, harmless infrared light is
directed into his eye and its focusing status measured 4O times a second. As the
patient opens and closes the eye, an audible tone tells him how well he is
controlling the focusing muscle. A nearsighted person, for example, would want
the tone to go higher, indicating that he is relaxing the muscle and thereby
improving his vision. The inability of the eye muscle to relax causes the blurry
vision experienced by many nearsighted people.
(Photo Caption) Dr. Sanford Cohen, an optometrist, uses the Accommotrac
Vision Trainer to teach a patient how to improve her vision by controlling and
relaxing the eye's focusing muscl.
It takes a lot of practice and motivation, but through a series of one-hour
sessions, a patient gradually learns to control relaxation or contraction (for
farsightedness) of the eye muscle by auditory feedback. Not all patients can
throw away their corrective lenses, but a high percentage achieve an improvement
such as halting or reversing their need for ever-stronger lens prescriptions.
The Accommotrac Vision Trainer has also proven effective in treating eye
movement problems such as strabismus (cross eyes) and amblyopia (lazy eye).
Professional athletes have used the system to improve peripheral visual
awareness and, thereby, athletic performance.
The origin of Dr. Trachtman's invention dates back more than 2O years, to
when Ames contracted with Stanford Research Institute for studies of pilots'
visual accommodation, the ability of the eye to adapt to distinct vision at
different distances. Stanford researchers developed an optometer to measure
visual accommodation. While running experiments with the optometer on pilots,
they discovered that humans could learn to control eye focusing. Adding auditory
biofeedback created an effective learning system and a way to overcome an
aviation phenomenon known as "empty field myopia," the potentially dangerous
tendency of pilots to absently focus on the windscreen instead of scanning the
sky for hazards.
Ocular Screening System
Visiscreen-100 provides the means for wide-scale detection of vision problems
In the United States today, thousands of young children have eye defects
which, if not detected and treated in the early stages, could result in
permanent blindness. Until recently, there was no nationwide ocular screening
program for the young, due to the lack of a fast, reliable, and economical
method. Now, however, a NASA-patented invention called Visiscreen-lOO provides
the means for wide-scale detection of vision problems.
Visiscreen was developed jointly by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and
Dr. Howard Kerr, President of Medical Sciences Corporation (MSC), the exclusive
manufacturer. The portable 2.4-meter apparatus has a hood at one end to hold the
subject's head. At the other end is a photorefractor consisting of a 35-mm
camera with a telephoto lens and an electronic flash unit.
When the subject is photographed, the light from the flash is sent into the
retina and then reflected back to the camera lens. The camera captures the
reflective properties of the inner and outer parts of both eyes in a color
photograph that MSC technicians analyze using a set of computerized algorithms.
Each eye is examined for refractive error and obstruction in the cornea or lens,
while alignment problems are detected by the simultaneous imaging of both eyes.
If problems are discovered, they are verified by an ophthalmologist.
Because it requires minimal cooperation, the system can be used for infants,
preschoolers, and noncommunicative children. Visiscreen offers greater
sensitivity than the traditional eye chart. In a test of 1657 Alabama children,
only 111 failed the chart test, but the Visiscreen system found 5O7
abnormalities that were verified later by ophthalmologists. The system
identifies amblyopia (progressive dimming of vision), also known as "lazy eye,"
in time for treatment.
(Photo Caption) The Visiscreen-l00 Photorefractor Ocular Screening System
offers a simple, reliable, fast, inexpensive method for detecting eye problems
in children.
(Photo Caption) Dr. Keith Morgan, a pediatric ophthalmologist, displays an
example of a defect detected by Visiscreen-100. Note the difference in the
child's plupils: the right eye shows a red disk characteristic of a normal
retinal reflex; the left shows a dark coloration in the retinal reflex; the left
shows a dark coloration in the retina indicating a defect later diagnosed as a
cataract.
Speech Aids
The Speech Teacher* provides visual cues for speech improvement
A deaf person learning to speak requires assistance to modulate the tone and
volume of his speaking voice. Recognizing this need, Joseph A. Resnick,
president of Dynamed Audio Inc., Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, invented the
Resnick Speech Teacher* to provide visual cues for speech improvement.
Many deaf people, for example, tend to speak in unusually high- pitched
tones. When the subject speaks into the Speech Teacher, it electronically
processes the speech. Indicator lights on the device's panel corresponding to
the subject's speech are compared with a display representing the optimum speech
tone. The subject then tries to adjust his speech to match the model.
(Photo Caption) Joseph A. Resnick, president of Dynamed Audio Inc.,
demonstrates his Speech Teacher. The device uses visual cues to help deaf and
hearing-impaired people improve their speech.
(Photo Caption) The Resnick Tone Emitter 1, which can be implanted in a
denture, can take the place of a person's natural larynx. The miniature
electronic device emits a tone that is shaped into words by the tongue, teeth,
lips, and palate.
The Speech Teacher is available in a desk model, intended for use by
clinicians, as well as a wrist-mounted version to wear in everyday social
situations. The Speech Teacher is one of several devices invented by Resnick in
which a NASA Regional Technology Transfer Center (RTTC) has played a part.
NASA's six RTTCs nationwide perform computer search and retrieval services for
industrial clients such as Resnick, who begins his technology development with a
visit to the RTTC at the University of Pittsburgh.
Among other inventions for which the Pittsburgh RTTC provided assistance is
the Resnick Tone Emitter ITM, a miniature electronic device for people who have
lost their natural larynx to injury, cancer, or other diseases. Built into a
denture, the device‹like a human voice box‹produces a tone that can be shaped
into words by the tongue, teeth, lips, and palate. The system includes a
microchip, microcircuitry, a power switch, a speaker covered with an impervious
membrane, and a rechargeable battery. These components are so small that they
fit like fillings into three or more artificial teeth within a partial or full
denture.
Cool Suit
The system can eliminate 40-60 percent of stored body heat
Young Stevie Roper could only watch from the sidelines while other children
played schoolyard games. Victim to a rare skin disease called hypohydrotic
ectodermal dysplasia (HED), Stevie was born without the sweat glands needed to
eliminate excess body heat. As a result, any physical exertion or exposure to
warm temperatures could induce heat stroke.
Years ago, during a visit to his aunt, Sara Moody, Stevie became overheated
while riding in a non-air-conditioned car. He was saved by a quick-thinking
cousin who spotted a lawn hose, stopped the car, and doused him with cold water.
The incident prompted Ms. Moody to seek the help of NASA's Langley Research
Center, which put her in touch with Life Support Systems Inc. (LSSI) of Mountain
View, California. A manufacturer of personal cooling gear, LSSI fabricated a
child-size version of its Mark VII Microclimate Cooling Suit. The outfit
consists of a helmet liner and vest that fit comfortably beneath the boy's
clothes. An antifreeze solution cooled by a portable, battery-powered
refrigeration unit is pumped through tubes to the garments. The system can
eliminate 4O-6O percent of Stevie's stored body heat while lowering his
heart rate by 5O-8O beats per minute.
(Photo Caption) Born without sweat glands, Stevie Roper lives a
closer-to-norma life by wearing a space-derived cool suit. Coolant circulates
through tubes in the vest and headpiece to prevent overheating.
(Photo Caption) The lack of sweat glands in Krystal Sharrett's feet had
caused serious sores ond threatened amputation. Presented a cool suit in April
1989, Toby improved dramatically and by June the sores had completely healed.
(Photo Caption) Gary Rodne of Life Support Systems, Inc. displays a HED cool
suit‹headcap and torso vest‹that is a child-size version of the company's
MicroClimate line of protective garments for workers whose jobs subject them to
heat stress.
The Mark VII suit originated in a 196Os NASA program that produced a
channeled cooling suit for astronauts. While now used mainly in industrial
settings that require heavy protective clothing, such as nuclear power plants
and steel mills, the suit also has found numerous military applications. other
uses include relieving cockpit heat stress for race car drivers and cooling
firefighters. In 1988, LSSI released the ThermoAire Splint*, based on the same
technology, to replace ice packs and elastic bandages for sports injuries.
Following media coverage of Stevie's story, LSSI began receiving requests
from around the world for suits to help people with HED and other diseases and
conditions‹including multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, severe bums, and some
forms of cancer‹that can make a person prone to overheating. The suits can be
custom-made for particular body parts or problems, and have enabled many people
to participate in sports and other strenuous activities from which they were
previously barred.
Advanced Wheelchair
They constructed the chair using aerospace composite materials
For those who must rely on wheelchairs for mobility, more than one million in
the U.S. alone, clearly the ideal chair would be lightweight and easy to
maneuver. However, most commercially-available wheelchairs are heavy and
awkward, break down frequently, and don't last very long. Recognizing these
problems, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institute of
Handicapped Research have sponsored several wheelchair research projects.
Most projects have focused on improving parts rather than on developing an
entirely new chair. One cooperative effort, however, undertook full-scale
development‹from analysis of requirements to prototype fabrication and
evaluation‹of an advanced wheelchair based on aerospace technology. NASA's
Langley Research Center teamed with the University of Virginia (UVA)
Rehabilitation Engineering Center, Charlottesville, Virginia to develop the
prototype shown below. NASA funded Langley's part of the program, while UVA
received support from the National Institute of Handicapped Research. Also
participating in the program was the NASA-sponsored Research Triangle Institute
(RTI) Application Team, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
The Langley/UVA engineers first employed aerospace computerized structural
analysis techniques to arrive at the optimum design. Then they constructed a
prototype using aerospace composite materials, which are generally lighter but
stronger than metals. The resulting chair weighs only 25 pounds but has the same
strength and weight-bearing capability as a 5O-pound stainless steel wheelchair.
It can be collapsed for auto stowage, and features a solid seat, wheel guards,
dynamic brakes, shaped hand rims, and a footrest with smooth contours to aid in
opening doors. The RTI Application Team is discussing commercial production of
the advanced wheelchair with several interested manufacturers.
Vehicle Controller
Lunar Rover technology enables quadriplegics
In 1972, a paraplegic named Tom Wertz saw Apollo astronauts driving the Lunar
Rover with just one hand - using a T-bar. After test-driving a rover himself, he
realized that if such technology could be adapted to automobiles, it would help
handicapped people become more independent. NASA and the Department of Veterans
Affairs agreed, and contracted with Johnson Engineering, Boulder, Colorado to
implement Wertz' idea. Roughly ten years after Wertz witnessed Apollo's lunar
exploration, Johnson installed a prototype Unistik* vehicle control in a Ford
van.
Johnson designed a two-axis joystick that controls the vehicle's steering
wheel, brake, and accelerator pedal. It allows the driver to control the vehicle
through small, low-force hand motions, from any position.
The Unistik Controller was designed for C-5 quadriplegics, such as Wertz, who
have spinal cord lesions at the fifth cervical vertebra. People with such severe
injuries have very limited use of their upper extremities; they are able to move
their hand only a few inches to either side. The joystick is ideal because it
has a very low control resistance.
Unistik driving is simple. Moving the stick forward accelerates the vehicle,
to the rear slows it down, and left or right tums the steering wheel in the
proper direction. Moving the joystick to the two o'clock position, for example,
will yield an accelerating turn to the right. Another joystick controls tum
signals and headlights. A push of a button deactivates the Unistik, returning
the van to normal operation. Thus, both handicapped and able-bodied people can
use the same vehicle.
Unistik also provides a platform for the evaluation of intelligent vehicle
systems. The computer that controls its driving functions can receive input
through a human-operated joystick, or from radar, laser, radio, and other sensor
technologies. Unistik thereby enables research that will help all of us drive
more safely on tomorrow's highways.
Human Tissue Stimulator
The HTS can send electrical pulses tbrough wire leads to targeted nerve
centers or to particular areas of the brain
Chronic pain and involuntary motion disorders can be treated by electrical
stimulation from a device implanted in the body. Called the Human Tissue
Stimulator (HTS), the device was developed by Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar,
Califomia, in cooperation with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins
University, Howard County, Maryland, and with the sponsorship of NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center.
The HTS is based on Goddard-developed technology employed in NASA's Astronomy
Satellite-3. It incorporates the same nickel cadmium battery, telemetry, and
command systems used in the satellite, but reduced to microminiature proportions
so that the implantable element is the size of a deck of cards (shown above,
lower left-hand corner of photo). In contrast to earlier stimulating
devices‹which require cumbersome, extemally-carried power packs or have very
limited lifetimes‹ the HTS is totally implantable.
The HTS includes a tiny re-chargeable battery, an antenna, and electronics to
receive and process commands. It reports on its own condition via telemetry, a
wireless process wherein instrument data is converted to electrical signals and
sent to a receiver where the signals are translated into usable information.
Once implanted, the HTS can send electrical pulses through wire leads to
targeted nerve centers or to particular areas of the brain. A control console
(shown above) allows a physician to monitor and program the HTS, for example to
alter the character and strength of the electrical impulses to address
particular conditions such as intractable pain. The implant's nickel cadmium
battery can be recharged through the skin, eliminating the need for frequent
surgical replacement.
The benefits of the HTS can be swift and remarkable. The first implant, in
1983, involved a female patient who had severe involuntary movement disorders
associated with multiple schlerosis. Several hours after surgery, the stimulator
was applied to a part of the thalamus, a small region of the brain. The
patient's tremors vanished‹even though moments earlier she had been unable to
guide a cup of coffee to her lips.
Another implant was used to treat a man who for several years had suffered
excruciating pain in his left arm, caused by a wrist injury in a fall. Implanted
under his left amm, the HTS was connected by wire leads to electrodes on the
brachial plexus, a group of nerves that link the spinal cord with the injured
arm. When the stimulator was activated, the patient reported immediate relief
from the pain.
Although the initial implants were successful, extensive testing is required
before the HTS can be made available for general use. Within the next few years,
Pacesetter Systems expects to produce commercial programmable neural stimulators
based on the HTS.
Blood Analyzer
A versatile, economical assembly for rapid separation of specific blood
proteins in very small quantities
After a person's blood is drawn for a routine blood test, a biochemist must
sort out its complex mixture of particles and organic molecules. A widely-used
method of determining the presence and amount of specific blood constituents is
electrophoresis, which employs an electrical current to separate fluid
componetns and prevent interference from other compounds in the solution.
In the mid-196Os, NASA's Ames Research Center sponsored development of an
automated electrophoresis device for the weightless environment of space.
Designed for use on a monkey- carrying spacecraft to provide information on
blood behavior in zero gravity, it never reached flight status. In 1972, a
modified system was planned for use in the Skylab space station to study
possible changes in astronauts' blood during long-term weightlessness. Although
it did not fly in space, it was used in simulated weightlessness studies at
Ames. Because the project had produced considerable advanced technology, the
device was revived once more in the mid-197Os, this time as a technology
utilization project aimed at producing an automated system for Earth use.
(Photo Caption) A researcher at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee,
uses the Sartophor system to study protein function
Ames contracted with the device's original developer, Dr. Benjamin W.
Grunbaum of the University of California at Berkeley, for what later became
known as the Grunbaum System for Electrophoresis. It is a versatile, economical
assembly for rapid separation of specific blood proteins in very small
quantities, permitting their subsequent identification and quantification. The
system can handle lO to 2O samples simultaneously.
Grunbaum's innovation became a commercial product in 1982, produced under
NASA license by Sartorius Filters Inc., Hayward, California. Known commercially
as the Sartophor* System for Electrophoresis, it is both a research instrument
and a diagnostic aid, with many applications in medicine, law enforcement
science, pathology, biochemistry, and other biological sciences. Capable of
analyzing a range of substances other than blood, it can also be used in the
food, agriculture, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries.
(Photo Caption) The Sartophor System for Electrophoresis is both a research
instrument and a diagnostic tool.
(Photo Caption) The Sartophor System for Electrophoresis is both a research
instrument and a diagnostic tool.
Microbe Detector
A device that incorporates space technology to signficantly reduce body fluid
analysis time
The traditional method of testing for disease-producing microorganisms, or
pathogens, to involves three steps. First, specimens of body fluid‹urine or
sputum, for example‹are prepared in cultures. Then, the cultures are incubated
for two to four days, after which time microbiologists study the cell growth to
determine the presence of and identify pathogens.
Speeding up this process can reduce hospital stays by allowing quicker
identification and earlier treatment of infection. Merieux Vitek Inc. (formerly
Vitek Systems, a subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas), Hazelwood, Missouri,
manufactures a device that incorporates space technology to significantly reduce
body fluid analysis time. The technology dates back to McDonnell Douglas'
Microbial Load Monitor (MLM), developed for NASA's Voyager interplanetary
exploration program to detect bacterial contamination aboard the spacecraft. The
company later studied an enhanced MLM capable of detecting and identifying
bacterial infections among an astronaut crew. Recognizing the MLM's commercial
potential, McDonnell Douglas converted the technology into a time-saving system
for medical analysis called the AutoMicrobic System (AMS).
Instead of the petri dish customarily used to prepare cultures, AMS employs
test kits‹disposable, plastic cards approximately the size of a playing card,
with each card containing from 16 to 3O wells that each hold a different
chemical substance. There are two types of cards: identification cards and
susceptibility cards. A body fluid sample is injected into the identification
card and organisms in the sample react with the chemicals in the wells. Mounted
in trays, the cards are placed in the AMS' incubator/ reader module. Scanning
each well once an hour, the system "reads" the reactions taking place, compares
them with information in the computer, and identifies the organism‹or gives a
negative report when no organism is present. This data is reported on a display
screen and printout.
Once an organism is identified, the body sample goes into the susceptibility
card‹whose wells contain a number of different antibiotics. This card is
similarly inserted into the system for computer examination, to determine which
antibiotic is most effective against the organism. The entire process takes from
four to 13 hours, compared with two to four days for culture preparations. AMS
can handle up to 24O specimens at one time.
(Photo Caption) The AutoMitrobic System for identification and analysis of
bacterial infections in humon body fluids uses disposable test kits instead of
the traditional petri dish to prepare cultures.
In addition to enabling microbiology laboratories to fumish guidelines for
antimicrobial treatment within one day of specimen collection, the AMS also
minimizes human error, reduces technician time, and increases lab output. Beyond
its medical uses, the AMS can serve in food processing and other industry
laboratories for such applications as detection and identification of organisms
during incoming, in-process, and finished goods inspections; identification of
biological indicators in sterilization processes; and in-plant environmental
testing.
Space Technology for Firefighting
Lightweight air cylinders patterned on technology originally developed for
rocket motor casings
Firefighters, like astronauts, often brave dangerous, hostile environments
protected mainly by the technology on their backs. In fact, a variety of
technologies first developed for space exploration beneficial for fire fighting
and prevention. Spinoffs include a portable firefighting module, protective
clothing for workers in hazardous environments, fire-retardant paints and foams,
fireblocking coatings for outdoor structures, and flame-resistant fabrics.
Perhaps the farthest-reaching is the breathing apparatus worn by firefighters
throughout the U.S. for protection from smoke inhalation injury.
In 1971, in response to concerns expressed by many of the nation's fire
chiefs, NASA began the first concerted effort to improve firefighter breathing
systems, which had not changed appreciably since the 194Os. The traditional
breathing system was heavy, cumbersome, and so physically taxing that it often
induced extreme fatigue. Many firefighters decided not to use the equipment,
electing to brave the smoke rather than risk collapse from heat and exhaustion.
As a result, smoke inhalation injuries increased.
(Photo Caption) Researchers at Johnson Space Center incorporated materials
and technology from the space program into the design of a lighter, less bulky
breathing apparatus for firefighters.
In concert with the National Bureau of Standards' Fire Technology Division,
NASA established a public interest project directed by Johnson Space Center
(JSC). JSC embarked on a four-year design and development effort that applied
technology from the portable life support systems Apollo astronauts used on the
moon. A committee of fire chiefs and city managers helped JSC establish the
system specifications, and such organizations as the National Fire Protection
Association periodically reviewed the program. Martin Marietta Corporation and
Structural Composites Industries, Inc. were awarded contracts to build
lightweight air cylinders patterned on technology originally developed for
rocket motor casings, while Scott Aviation received the contract to build the
remaining components. The resultant breathing system weighed approximately 2O
pounds, one-third less than past systems, and improved wearer mobility. It
consisted of a face mask, frame and hamess, a waming device, and an air bottle.
The basic air cylinder offered the same 3O-minute operating time as its
predecessor, but was lighter and slimmer by virtue of using aluminum/composite
materials and doubling pressurization to 45OO pounds per square inch. Inverting
the air cylinder shifted the valve to the underside, reducing risk of damage
from falling debris. The frame and harness were easier to put on and take off,
and the system's weight shifted from shoulders to hips, greatly improving wearer
comfort. Further, the new face mask offered better visibility and closer fit,
and the beep of the air depletion warning device could be heard only by the
wearer, reducing confusion in the hectic environment of a fire scene. JSC
conducted extensive testing of the improved system, which was followed by a
series of field tests in 1974-75 by the fire departments of New York (the
nation's largest), Houston, and Los Angeles. After completion of the tests, the
New York City Fire Department became one of the first Qre services to adopt the
new technology. Use of the lightweight apparatus spread quickly across the
country. The result: a drastic reduction in the number of inhalation injuries to
firefighters, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Though they have made
many design modifications and refinements, manufacturers of breathing apparatus
to this day still incorporate in some way the original NASA technology.
(Photo Caption) At the NYFD Randall's Island Training facility, firefighters
undergo "mask confidence training," carrying out such fire operations as probing
building interiors and squeezing through tight confines. Their NASA-developed
breathing system features a reduced profile to improve mobility.
(Photo Caption) Protected by a "hazmat" suit, a New York City firefighter
disposes of hazardous material, while below, one firefighter helps another to
adjusthis breathing system.
Food Processing Control
Pillsbury developed the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point concept,
designed to prevent food safety problems
When NASA started planning for manned space travel in 1959, the myriad
challenges of sustaining life in space included a seemingly mundane but vitally
important problem: How and what do you feed an astronaut? There were two main
concerns: safety problems preventing food crumbs from contaminating the
spacecraft's atmosphere or floating into sensitive instruments, and assuring
complete freedom from potentially catastrophic disease-producing bacteria,
viruses, and toxins. To solve these problems, NASA enlisted the help of the
Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the next decade, Pillsbury
designed some of the first space foods and produced astronaut meals for the
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo manned spaceflight programs.
Pillsbury quickly solved the first problem by coating bite-size foods to
prevent crumbling. Assurance against bacterial contamination proved a more
difficult task. Investigators found that standard quality control methods could
not bring such guarantees. Answering the challenge, Pillsbury developed the
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) concept, potentially one of
the farthest-reaching space spinoffs. HACCP is designed to prevent food safety
problems rather than to catch them after they have occurred. The first step,
hazard analysis, is a systematic study of a product, its ingredients, processing
conditions, handling, storage, packaging, distribution, and directions for
consumer use to identify sensitive areas that might prove hazardous. Hazard
analysis provides a basis for blueprinting the Critical Control Points (CCPs) to
be monitored. CCPs are points in the chain from raw materials to finished
product where loss of control could result in unacceptable food safety risks.
(Photo Caption) Examples of food and drink products carried aboard early
manned spacecraft. Measures developed by Pillsbury to assure astronaut
protection from food poisoning evolved into a comprehensive food safety system.
Consider, for example, the production of cooked and vacuum- packed turkey
breast. CCPs could include cooking, chilling, rehydrating, pasteurizing,
chilling again, and storing. Once determined, criteria can be set that must be
met for each CCP. In the example, the cooking CCP under current regulations
would require the turkey to be cooked to a 16O degree F internal temperature.
Plant personnel would be required to check and record the cooking temperature
regularly; the inspector would check the plant's records for authenticity and
accuracy, verifying that the thermometer measured the temperature accurately and
periodically double-checking the product's intemal temperature. This illustrates
the simplicity of HACCP. Yet, when the CCPs are determined, monitored, and
verified on an ongoing basis, the result is a sophisticated process control
system highly unlikely to produce an unsafe or otherwise contaminated product.
Pillsbury used the HACCP system to manufacture the food that went to the moon
aboard Apollo spacecraft. Within two years of the first lunar landing in 1969,
Pillsbury plants were following HACCP in production of food for Earth-bound
consumers. Pillsbury's subsequent training courses for Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) personnel led to the incorporation of HACCP in the FDA's
Low Acid Canned Foods Regulations, set down in the mid-197Os to ensure the
safety of all canned food products in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service
(FSIS), the public health agency responsible for inspecting meat and poultry, is
conducting an extensive study to determine how HACCP can best be employed in its
meat and poultry inspection program. In another government project, the FDA and
the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration are planning an HACCP-based voluntary inspection service for
seafood.
(Photo Caption) At left and below is a sampling of Pills bury consumer
products manufactured under a spinoff system for improved food processing
control.
(Photo Caption) A food inspector inspects the internal temperature of
sausages to ensure the product is safe to eat.
Radiation-Blocking lenses
Suntiger eyeglass lenses bar 99 percent of the potentially harmful
wavelengths
Taking a tip from nature and technology from NASA, Suntiger Inc. Biomedical
optics, North Hollywood, Califomia, produced a line of sunlight-filtering
glasses that protect human vision by blocking blue, violet, and ultraviolet
light which, research has shown, can cause eye disorders such as cataracts and
senile macular degeneration. The Suntiger PST* (Polarized Selective
Transmission) lenses (shown at right) bar 99 percent of the potentially harmful
wavelengths.
Suntiger lenses are similar in principle to the natural filters in the eyes
of hawks and eagles. They block out the intense glints of reflected sunlight
that cause areas of the retina to receive high doses of light, or glare, and
improve night vision and visual acuity through smog or fog. The lenses are
available in various tints for sunglasses, visors, ski goggles, and prescription
eyeglasses. Introduced in the early 198Os, the PST lens is a "spinoff from a
spinoff," a secondary product that emerged from research focused on fabricating
welding curtains to protect people exposed to welding arcs from blue and
ultraviolet radiation. James B. Stephens and the late Charles G. Miller, both
employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratoly, spent three years of their own time
applying JPL problem-solving techniques to development of a dye formula for a
welding curtain. Success led to further research by Stephens and others in the
field of protective glasses.
Suntiger has advanced the technology to encompass many new applications,
among them industrial inspection glasses to protect plant workers from impact
and splash hazards as well as harmful levels of ultraviolet and blue light.
Suntiger also has designed safety lenses for dentists who use ultraviolet curing
systems. Yet another advance is the Fluorotech* lens specifically developed to
block the hazardous radiation peaks emitted by fluorescent lights and unfiltered
CRT screens, which have roused complaints of eye irritation and headaches.
Safety Grooving
Reduces accidents on wet runways and highways
Below right, a machine equipped with diamond blades is cutting grooves in the
concrete holding pen of a cattle ranch. Concrete floors, regularly employed for
sanitary purposes in pens and feeding areas, wear smooth and become slippery
with time, hazarding injury or death to valuable cattle should they slip and
fall. Ranchers worldwide have found grooving an effective remedy. This unusual
use of safety grooving exemplifies an expanding list of applications for a
technique developed more than two decades ago.
Safety grooving to improve human and animal footing on slick or smooth
surfaces is another "spinoff from a spinoff." The technique was pioneered in the
early 196Os at NASA's Langley Research Center to reduce aircraft accidents on
wet runways. Investigators sought to curb tire hydroplaning, a condition that
occurs during rainstomms when tires roll or slide along water-covered pavement.
The tires are lifted away from the surface by the action of water pressure and
ride on a thin and treacherous film of water. Grooves, cut transversely across
the runway, create channels through which excess water is forced, thereby
reducing the skid hazard and improving an airplane's ability to brake.
After demonstrating the technique's effectiveness, Langley assisted the
Federal Aviation Administration in testing various groove configurations. This
led to the first runway grooving at a U.S. commercial airport, National Airport
in Washington, D.C., in 1967. Since then hundreds of airports have been
safety-grooved in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Langley scientists also brought the technique to the attention of highway
safety engineers. Grooving is now widely used on highways (below left) to reduce
skidding, decrease stopping distances, and improve a vehicle's comering ability
on curves. A report by the Califomia Division of Highways, which conducted
before-and-after grooving studies at 14 locations, showed a wet-weather accident
reduction of approximately 85 percent after grooving.
The success of safety grooving on runways and highways has spurred a growing
industry and a wide range of innovative applications. Grooving has improved
pedestrian safety on sidewalks, railroad station platfomms, and swimming pool
decks, and in playgrounds, parking lots, service stations, and car washes.
Indoor uses include working areas in refineries, factories, warehouses, meat
packing facilities, and food processing plants.
Lightning Protection
Research has enhanced understanding of lightning's effects
In the complex evolution of aerospace technology, advances that solve one
problem may exacerbate another, in turn steering researchers toward further
advances. Two recent innovations in aircraft design provide good examples: the
use of composite materials to gain strength while reducing weight, and
implementing digital electronic systems to improve efficiency in flight and
engine control. Both technologies tend to make aircraft more susceptible to
lightning damage. Research at NASA and elsewhere, undertaken to address the new
dangers, has both enhanced understanding of lightning's effects and produced
countermeasures to allow safe use of these technologies.
NASA's Langley Research Center played a leading role in lightning
investigations with its seven-year (198O-1986) Storm Hazards Research Program,
undertaken at Congressional direction to determine the threat of thunderstorms
to commercial aviation. Serving as a supporting contractor to the program was
Lightning Technologies, Inc., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a small engineering and
testing firm that designs and verifies protection against lightning and other
electrical hazards. Lightning Technologies is a spinoff company founded in 1977
by J. Anderson Plumer, formerly an employee of General Electric Company's High
Voltage Laboratory, a NASA contractor. Plumer is an example of a "personnel
spinoff," wherein NASA technology is transferred to the private sector by the
job shift of a scientist or engineer formerly engaged in NASA research.
(Photo Caption) Research at Lightning Technologies includes evaluation of a
simulated strike on an F-106 model similar to the one used in the NASA program.
The project used a specially-equipped, protected F-lO6B research airplane
that sought out thunderstorms in the hope of being struck by lightning. Data
gathered from more than 8OO strikes advanced knowledge of lightning hazards and
contributed to protective technology. Lightning Technologies assisted NASA in
planning the program, improving and verifying the lightning protection data.
The researchers learned that multiple-burst lightning injects many
randomly-occurring electric currents into the airplane. This creates magnetic
fields that can induce errors, faulty commands, or other upsets in a plane's
electronic systems. This finding led the FAA to require, beginning in 1987, that
aircraft electronics systems performing flight-critical functions be protected
from damage or upset due to multiple-burst lightning. The standards apply to all
new planes with the technologically advanced systems as well as older planes
that have such systems installed.
The NASA research also determined that lightning strikes can hit almost any
spot on an airplane surface, not just‹as previously believed‹the plane's
extremities, such as wings and propeller tips. This alerted aircraft designers
to the compounded hazards of employing composite materials, which are less
conductive and therefore more vulnerable to lightning damage than the aluminum
alloys they replace.
Lightning Technologies has used its NASA-acquired experience and technology
to develop protective measures for both electronic systems and composite
structures. These include better electrical bonding and shielding techniques for
wiring, and methods of increasing system immunity to lightning with improved
computer software and surge-suppression devices.
X-Ray Imaging System
Low-intensity imaging has yielded three generations of practical spinoffs
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is a leader in the development ofimaging
technology for x-ray astronomy, the study of celestial bodies by measuring the
x-rays they emit. The center's work in low intensity imaging has yielded three
generations of spinoffs with practical payoffs in reducing radiation levels and
enhancing public safety. Goddard itself produced the first: a small, portable,
isotopic, low-radiation x-ray instrument known as the Low Intensity X-ray
Imaging Scope, designed for medical emergencies such as on-site examination of
injuries at an accident scene or a sporting event.
Subsequently, NASA licensed the technology to several companies, among them
HealthMate, which developed the FluoroScan* Imaging System (above right), a
high-resolution, low-radiation device for medical applications, that enables
continuous real-time viewing of stationary or moving objects. The company
replaced the isotopic penetrating source with a variable-power x-ray tube and
made other enhancements while retaining the small size, light weight, and
maneuverability of Goddard's system.
Because it emits minimal radiation, the Food and Drug Administration allows
use of the FluoroScan without the lead aprons, film badges, or lead-lined walls
required with other x-ray systems. FluoroScan occupies only two square feet of
space, weighs about 2O pounds, and can be plugged into an electrical outlet or
operated from a rechargeable battery. Approximately 5OO hospitals have replaced
their high-intensity imaging systems with the FluoroScan, according to the
manufacturer.
The system is particularly useful for examination of fractures, dislocations,
and foreign objects, and in the placement of catheters. In surgery, its
real-time imaging capability enables continuous monitoring; for example, an
orthopedic surgeon can set a fracture while simultaneously viewing the insertion
of pins. In attending newborns, especially those requiring intensive care, it
offers the dual benefits of lower radiation for tiny patients and higher
resolution of the area being viewed. In veterinary medicine, FluoroScan permits
animals to be examined without sedation as it does not require a still patient
to produce a quality image.
The latest application of the Goddard technology is the InnerView Realtime
X-ray Imaging System, a direct spinoff of FluoroScan produced by National
Imaging Systems, a division of HealthMate, Inc. InnerView offers low cost and
safety for industrial x-ray applications such as airport and building security
(inspection of luggage, containers, boxes, etc.), nondestructive testing,
quality control inspection, and production inspection.
Electro-Expulsive Aircraft Deicer
The Electro-Expulsive Separation System uses one-thousandth the power of
existing electro-thermal deicers
Ice buildup on aircraft wings can cause accidents and engine damage. A
dynamic new deicing system developed at NASA promises to improve flight safety
while offering bonuses in airplane performance and cost savings. The deicer,
dubbed the Electro-Expulsive Separation System (EESS), earned its inventor, Ames
Research Center engineer Leonard A. Haslim, the 1988 NASA Inventor of the Year
award.
EESS uses one-thousandth the power of existing electro-thermal deicers and
weighs one-tenth as much. It can be used on aircraft wings, as well as
helicopter rotors and jet engine inlet ducts, and can be installed on new
aircraft or easily retrofitted to planes already in service.
EESS consists of an elastic, rubber-like boot on the wing's leading edge. The
boot is embedded with flexible, conducting copper ribbons separated by slits.
Capacitors in an onboard power supply discharge a strong direct current pulse
into the ribbons, creating an electromagnetic field that forces adjacent
conductors violently apart. The conductors flex into the slits, causing the boot
surface to jump and pulverize ice build-up on the wing.
(Photo Caption) The photo at right shows a wind tunnel test of the
Electro-Expulsive Separation System (EESS) on an ice covered aircraft wing
segment. A millisecond after the EESS is activated, most of the ice is gone,
pulverized and ejected by electromagnetic force. At left is EESS inventor
Leonard A. Haslim.
The technique overcomes many of the limitations of other deicers. Jet
transport aircraft, for example, frequently use systems that bleed hot air from
the engines to melt wing ice. The bleed, however, reduces engine thrust and
increases fuel consumption. Further, the melted ice may refreeze on other
aircraft parts. EESS adds no boots, another common remedy, operate slowly and
will not break ice until it becomes one-quarter to one-half inch thick; when it
does, big chunks may damage engines or airfoils. EESS, on the other hand,
instantly ejects ice of any thickness from mere frost to an inch-thick glaze,
vaporizing the ice so that no shard is large enough to damage the plane. EESS
also is smaller and easier to maintain and repair in the field than conventional
systems.
The invention has captured the attention of the military, airline operators,
aircraft manufacturers, and public safety agencies. In November 1988, following
a series of successful evaluation tests, including wind tunnel and flight
testing at Lewis Research Center, NASA awarded a patent license to Dataproducts
New England, Inc. (DNE), Wallingford, Connecticut. The license granted DNE
exclusive rights to market EESS for large turbine-powered airplanes. NASA may
award other licenses for small turbine-powered aircraft and for propeller-driven
craft.
Although developed as an aircraft system, EESS has application elsewhere. Big
ships also can accumulate large ice accretions that degrade performance. A
deicing system for ships would be a boon to the nation's fishing fleets,
particularly those operating off the coast of Alaska, where harsh icing
conditions are common. If applied to the treacherous ice on road bridges, EESS
could replace chemical ice removal methods that cause structural and surface
damage. The electro-expulsion technique may extend beyond ice removal, providing
a mold release for the bakery and plastics industries, a self-pumping fluid tube
for hydraulic systems, or even a synthetic artery to improve blood flow to the
heart.
Collision Avoidance System
Intended to complement ground-based air traffic control, TCAS II alerts
pilots to the presence of other aircraft in their vicinity
In the mid-195Os, when increasing air traffic congested skies over the U.S.,
government and aviation industry groups began searching for an airborne system
to warn pilots of collision threats. It wasn't until the 198Os, however, that
advancing technology permitted development of the Traffic Alert and Collision
Avoidance System (TCAS II). Intended to complement ground-based air traffic
control, TCAS II alerts pilots to the presence of other aircraft in their
vicinity, identifies and tracks air space "intruders" whose course and speed
make them.safety threats, and recommends immediate action to avoid collision.
Display warnings are backed by automatic voice messages delivered through a
cockpit speaker.
In the upper right screen, an intruder has come close enough to trigger a
"traffic advisory." The intruder's display symbol changes from a white diamond
(non-threat) to a yellow circle (potential threat) and the pilot hears the vocal
advisory "traffic, traffic."
In the middle screen, the intruder has moved even closer to become a definite
collision threat. TCAS II issues a "resolution advisory," changing the
intruder's symbol to red. The cockpit speaker announces the required evasive
action: "descend, descend, descend." To find out how rapidly to descend, the
pilot consults the vertical speed indicator on his display, on which TCAS II has
colored a portion of the dial red and green. The pilot must maneuver the
airplane so that the needle moves out of the red area and into the green target
area.
The screen at lower left shows the maneuver was successful. TCAS II
indicates, by changing the intruder's symbol back to a yellow circle, that the
crisis has passed and the voice message confirms "clear of conflict."
NASA's Ames Research Center played a key role in the airlines' in-service
evaluation of TCAS II, teaming with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to
study the associated human-performance factors. Using ground-based flight
simulators flown by airline crews, Ames researchers verified that pilots could
use TCAS II correctly within the allowable five-second response time, and that
the system reduced the severity of simulated traffic conflicts. The NASA program
enhanced the TCAS II displays to increase both the speed and accuracy of pilots'
responses and validated a set of pilot performance parameters coded in the
system's logic for effective collision-evading maneuvers. Ames' work also
contributed to development of airline pilot training procedures.
In 1989, the FAA ruled that TCAS would be required on all passenger aircraft,
including planes operated by U.S. Flag airlines and those of foreign registry
serving U.S. cities. Commercial aircraft with more than 3O seats must have a
TCAS II installed and operating by the end of 1993; passenger aircraft with l0
to 3O seats must be equipped with one by 1995.
Self-Righting life Raft
Saving over 500 lives in the last decade
Shown at right is a novel survival craft called the Givens Buoy Life Raft,
designed and manufactured by inventor Jim Givens (below).
The rafts have demonstrated the ability to protect lives during extremely
adverse weather conditions, saving over 5OO lives in the last decade. Often
safer than the boats that carry them, the rafts have even transported people
safely through the eyes of hurricanes.
The raft consists of a canopied topside and an underwater hemispheric ballast
chamber. A "flapper valve" admits large amounts of water to the chamber,
providing ballast to keep the raft's center of gravity constant. The
stabilization system compensates for changes in wave angle and for
weight-shifting as raft occupants board and move about, and assures the raft
won't blow away in high winds. The raft cannot overturn even if all the
occupants shift to one side. Should an exceptionally strong wave overturn the
raft, it will somersault and right itself automatically.
The Givens raft is based in part on NASA technology. During the Apollo
program, astronauts left their Command Modules after ocean landings to wait in
inflatable rafts for helicopter pickup. NASA found that flat-bottom rafts tended
to overturn under the force of the helicopter's downwash. So Johnson Space
Center developed a new method of raft stabilization for which NASA secured a
patent. Working independently, Jim Givens produced a similar system. He patented
his invention and obtained an exclusive license to use the NASA. technology.
Produced in various sizes, the Givens Buoy Life Raft offers capacities
ranging from six to 2O people. It is housed in a canister for compact stowage.
When the raft is needed, a pull on a line triggers automatic inflation, which
snaps the canister's bands. In just 12 seconds, the dual buoyancy chambers
inflate, the canopy covers the raft's topside, and it's ready for use.
Landsat legacy
Landsat has provided resource management benefits to thousands of government
and private sector users worldwide
For two decades, the Landsat resources survey satellites have orbited Earth,
recording information about the planet's surface conditions. The crafts'
spaceborne sensors detect various types of radiation emitted or reflected from
surface objects. The data generated by this NASA-developed system is
computer-processed into images and tapes used by researchers to differentiate
between a broad range of Earth features and monitor processes over time. The
data can be interpreted to distinguish, for example, between two types of
vegetation, between densely populated urban areas and lightly populated
farmland, or between clear and polluted water.
Now operated commercially by the Earth observation Satellite Company, Landsat
has provided resource management benefits to thousands of govemment and private
sector users worldwide. The remote sensing data serves in such areas as
agricultural inventory, oil and mineral prospecting, weather forecasting,
charting sources of fresh water, wildlife preservation, air and water pollution
monitoring, delineating urban growth pattems, improving map accuracy, and
studying floods to reduce the potential for devastation.
(Photo Caption) This multilayer magnetic data image was generated by an I2S
system for use in geophysical research.
(Photo Caption) This three dimensional image of a hurricane produced by I2S
includes an overlay showing latitude and longitude of storm features.
Landsat also has fostered a small but flourishing industry devoted to
commercial applications of remote sensing technology. Some of this industry's
companies manufacture sensor systems for aircraft or spacecraft scanning, others
produce hardware or software for image processing, while still others offer
specialized services related to analysis and interpretation of remotely sensed
data.
Representative of these spinoff companies is Intemational Imaging Systems
(I2S), Milpitas, Califomia, a manufacturer of equipment and software for image
processing applications. In 1975, with advice and support from NASA, I2S
developed its initial equipment to process Landsat data for Earth resources
management. Since then, I2S has continued to work under contract with six NASA
centers, and has sold nearly a thousand systems in 42 countries for processing
Landsat data.
Through continuing research, I2S has expanded both its product line and range
of applications. Research hospitals are employing I2S systems to develop
software for presenting cross-sectional and three-dimensional body images useful
in diagnostics, while the U.S. Bureau of Engraving uses a high- resolution
scanner and an I2S system for quality control of paper money printing. A major
lumber company uses I2S equipment to check log grades prior to mill operations,
and Lockheed Missiles and Spacem Company uses it for quality assurance of the
space shuttle heat-shielding tiles.
Weather Information Processing
METPRO is a complete meteorological data acquisition and processing system
The key to surviving a typhoon is getting a head start. When Typhoon Sarah,
packing winds of 125 miles per hour, hit the east coast of Taiwan on September
11, 1989, the vital forewarning was provided with the help of the new METPRO
Weather Satellite Reception and Processing Ground Station. METPRO collected data
from a meteorological satellite positioned over the Equator near Australia and
converted it into images showing the size, center, and path of the storm as it
approached Taiwan. As a result, the island's Central Weather Bureau was able to
issue timely advisories to its inhabitants. Produced by General Sciences
Corporation (GSC), Laurel, Maryland, the METPRO system is a complete
meteorological data acquisition and processing system. It collects raw data from
remote ground-based observation systems, radio broadcasts, and satellites, then
generates weather maps for use in both forecasting and research.
(Photo Caption) Drs. Lily and Jeffrey Ghen, founders of General Sciences
Corporation, consult with a programmer regarding the METPRO image of Typhoon
Sarah shown on the monitor.
METPRO is a direct descendant of a research system GSC developed for Goddard
Space Flight Center's Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences. Called METPAK, it was
designed to analyze weather satellite data. Later, GSC produced an enhanced
version of METPAK that could process weather observations from radar surface,
and satellite sensors, as well as oceanographic data. This version served as the
basis for the commercial METPRO system, introduced in 1989. In addition to
Taiwan, the system currently is used in Korea and Thailand.
(Photo Caption) An example of another METPRO product: a sea surface
temperature map of the waters off the coasts of south Ghino and Korea, created
by processing data from the TIROS satellite's Advanced Very High Resolution
Radiometer
Document Monitor
Imaging technology is helping to preserve some of America's most treasured
documents
NASA imaging technology, first used to create pictures of the planets and
moons in our solar system, is helping to preserve some of America's most
treasured documents‹including the U.S. Constitution, the treasured Declaration
of Independence, documents and the Bill of Rights‹for future generations.
A hardware/software system based on NASA technology and known as the Charters
of Freedom Monitoring System periodically assesses the documents' physical
condition, allowing National Archives conservators to take early and swift
action to halt deterioration. Although protected in helium-filled glass casings,
these documents still can be damaged by light, vibration, and humidity; their
parchment pages may stretch or split and the ink may fade, flake, or wear off.
The effort began in 1982 when the National Archives asked NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to develop a systematic method of assessing the
condition of historic documents. JPL conducted studies of space imaging
technology, in particular a highly-sensitive charge-coupled device (CCD)
employed in the Galileo Jupiter explorer and the Hubble Space Telescope. JPL, in
turn, asked the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Norwalk, Connecticut, optical systems
prime contractor for Hubble, to apply its expertise to the development of a
precise photometer and then to integrate it into a complete document monitoring
system. Perkin-Elmer started work in 1984 and installed the system at the
National Archives in 1987.
The monitoring system employs a CCD detector as the electronic "film" for its
scanning camera, which can only "see" one narrow line at a time. A linear motion
system developed by the Anorad Corporation moves the camera over the document
line by line to acquire a series of images, each representing a one-square-inch
area. The photometer can detect changes in contrast, shape, or other indicators
of degradation with five to ten times the sensitivity of the human eye. Images
are captured at precise intervals and compared to previous ones, with special
attention to changes in readability due to ink flaking or fading, changes in
document dimensions resulting from shrinkage, and enlargement of existing tears
and holes.
The National Archives is exploring other uses for the electronic camera,
including methods of measuring the effects of conversion treatments on
historical documents and authentication of artwork.
(Photo Caption) A segment of the U.S. constitution is shown in this false
color image generated by the Charters of Freedom Monitoring System. Red areas
indicate ink flaking that probably occurred before the document was encased in
its protective shield.
(Photo Caption) The Charters of Freedom Monitoring System is designed for
early detection of damage to documents in the National Archives.
Corrosion-Resistant Coating
IC531 has demonstrated exceptional performance in single-coat applications
The Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge have in common both their
status as important U.S. landmarks and their coastal locations, where they face
constant exposure to the corrosive forces of salt spray, wind, and fog. Both are
protected by an innovative coating developed by NASA in the early 197Os to
reduce maintenance costs at its principal space launch base, Kennedy Space
Center (KSC), located on Florida's Atlantic Coast.
Goddard Space Flight Center initiated a research program to provide the KSC
launch structures long-term resistance to salt corrosion while also protecting
them from hot rocket exhaust and the thermal shock created by rapid temperature
changec during the first seconds of a launch. The effort yielded breakthrough
silicate chemistry and a new coating that dries in about 3O minutes and gives
long-term protection in a single application. Easy to mix and apply, the
zinc-rich formula offers cost advantages in materials, labor hours per
application, and fewer applications over a given time span.
To encourage private sector use of the coating technology, NASA licensed it
to Shane Associates, Inc., Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, in 1981. The following year,
Inorganic Coatings, Inc. (IC), Malvern, Pennsylvania, signed an agreement with
Shane to become the sole manufacturer and sales agent of the compound, dubbed IC
531.
In ten years of commercial use, IC 531 has demonstrated exceptional
performance in single-coat applications and as a primer in multi-coat systems
where it is combined with epoxy, acrylic, and other topcoat formulations.
Because IC 531 is water-based, it is nontoxic, nonflammable, and generates no
volatile organic compounds or hazardous chemical, waste.
(Photo Caption) The coating was applied to a girder panel on the Columbia
River Bridge in Astoria., Oregon.
IC S31 came to public attention in 1984 when, after a seven-month study of
various coatings, it was selected by the National Parks Service and the Statue
of Liberty Foundation to coat the iron skeleton of the Statue of Liberty during
its renovation. It also was chosen as the protective system for Panama Canal
rehabilitation. More recently, the coating was applied to the interior structure
of an enormous Buddha, roughly the size of Miss Liberty, at Po Lin Temple on
Hong Kong's Lantau Island. other applications include offshore drilling rigs;
laboratory salt spray chambers; bridges such as California's Golden Gate and
Oregon's Astoria River; and antenna installations in California, Hawaii, and the
Canton Island in the South Pacific.
(Photo Caption) Obscured by scaffolding, the Statue of Liberty is shown
undergoing extensive renovation and refurbishment after discovery of
deterioration. Corrosion-resistant IC 531 was applied to the interior structure
to prolong the statue's life.
Air/Wastewater Purification Systems
Aquaculture‹ the use of aquatic plants to remove pollutants from wastewater
The occupants of future interplanetary spacecraft, space stations, and space
colonies will be protected from the airlessness and extreme temperatures of
space by an artificial atmosphere within an airtight vessel. No craft, however,
could carry enough oxygen and water to support a large crew for months, let
alone years. The initial supply of oxygen and water will have to be cleansed,
detoxified, and used again and again.
For the past two decades, scientists at the Environmental Research Laboratory
of NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC) have been investigating natural biological
processes for air and water purification. Their long-range goal is development
of a bioregenerative life support system for long-duration spacecraft, but their
research has already yielded methods for purifying air and water on Earth.
Efforts at SSC began with aquaculture, the use of aquatic plants to remove
pollutants from wastewater at relatively little cost. The water hyacinth, a
free-floating fresh-water plant, was found to thrive on sewage, absorbing
astonishing amounts of pollutant.
Hyacinths also can be harvested for use as a fuel, fertilizer, or protein
additive to cattle feed. Subsequently, a number of U.S. towns adopted
hyacinth-based aquaculture as their primary way to treat wastewater.
(Photo Caption) Exterior and interior views of the Bio-Home at Stennis Space
Center, where NASA researcers are exploring the capabilities of plants to
absorbe gases and reduce pollution in long duration spacecraft or in
superinsulated homes and offices.
Hyacinths, however, are warm climate plants and have limited potential for
space use. The SSC team developed a more effective techniquev for in-space water
reclamation and toxic chemical removal: the artificial marsh filtering system.
It employs a combination of sewage-digesting microbes living in a rock bed and
pollutant-absorbing plants such as bulrushes, reeds, and canna lilies. Both
cold- and salt-tolerant, the marshes can be used in northern climates and have
been adopted successfully by several communities.
Branching off from aquaculture, SSC began exploring the use of foliage plants
for air filtration and purification. Although intended for space use, the
resulting systems had obvious application to air pollution reduction in
superinsulated homes and offices.
While energy-efficient, sealed buildings have less exchange of fresh outdoor
air for stale indoor air, increasing concentrations of toxic chemicals. These
typically consist of emissions from such building constituents as synthetic
wallboard, fibers, and glues; cleaning products; insecticides; and gas or
woodburning appliances. Researchers evaluated the ability of certain plants to
remove the three most common pollutants in tightly insulated buildings:
formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide. They found that philodendrons,
golden pothos, the common spider plant, and Chinese evergreens were particularly
effective.
(Photo Caption) A research at Stennis' Environmental Research Laboratory
conducs an absorption test. A plant is placed in a sealed chamber into which a
gas is injected and then the amount of gas absorbed by the plant is measured.
(Photo Caption) The Bio-Safe system being assembled here employs a layer of
charcoal to help the plant absorb contaminants. The system includes an air pump
that pulls in room air, routes it through the charcoal and the plant's roots
where the pollutants are trapped and digested, and then sends the cleansed air
back into the room.
Further studies indicated that a carbon plant filter system, in which a bed
of charcoal helps plant roots absorb pollutants, can remove high levels of toxic
chemicals and tobacco smoke. Two companies began marketing such filtering
systems as commercial products in 1988:
Bio-Safe, Inc., New Braunfels, Texas, designed a system consisting of a pot,
a plant (such as a philodendron), charcoal, and an air pump or fan installed
near the plant's root system. The pump draws air into the plant-microbe system,
pulling it through the charcoal and over the plant roots. Pollutants are trapped
by the charcoal and digested by the roots or broken down by microorganisms
living in the roots. The pump then directs purified air back into the room.
The Applied Indoor Resource Company, Tampa, Florida, developed the Bio-Pure
system, which includes a foliage filter plant in a planter and, beneath the
plant, a layer of patented soil medium‹called Dandy Dirt‹ with charcoal,
legumes, and mosses serving as filtering agents. A mechanical blower moves air
through the filtering system for cleansing by microorganisms.
(Photo Caption) Not a floral display but a practical wastewater treatment
facility - a field of floating water hyacinths that absorb and digest pollutants
in wastewater. The technology stems from NASA studies of water reclamation
systems for long-duration spacecraft.
Plant Research
Hydroponics uses liquid nutrient solutions instead of soil to support plant
growth
Future pioneers setting up bases on the moon, Mars, and elsewhere in the
solar system will enter environments without food, air, or water to support
human life. In hopes of allowing such bases a degree of self-sufficiency, NASA
is conducting research to develop modules that will recycle human and industrial
waste and provide the essential ingredients for growing plants. The plants, in
turn, will provide food, oxygen, and water and eliminate the need to supply
resources from outside the bases. One such module, the Controlled Ecological
Life Support System (CELSS), is under development at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
(KSC). In a novel govemment/industry research partnership, scientists at Walt
Disney World's EPCOT Center in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, are joining in the
CELSS project. EPCoT's participants are members of an agricultural research team
at The Land, an entertainment, research, and educational facility sponsored by
Kraft General Foods.
The cooperative effort, both a research program and.a technology
demonstration, offers the.public an unusual opportunity to see high technology
at work. Commercial spinoffs are a potential bonus: the CELSS work may generate
information useful in hydroponic vegetable production on Earth. Hydroponics uses
liquid nutrient solutions instead of soil to support plant growth. The KSC Walt
Disney project is under way in a greenhouse near the end of The Land's boat ride
(bottom), on which visitors travel through five greenhouses displaying more than
3O crops from around the world. Within the experimental greenhouse, plants are
grown on A- frame structures (top) that make it possible to spray the roots from
the inside with nutrient solution. The Land researchers are testing software and
hardware subsystems to control conditions on these special growth racks. other
studies will look at how microbial contaminants such as fungi and bacteria
affect plant growth, and determine which plants can be grown together in a
hydroponic environment without interfering with each other's growth patterns.
This information is critical to developing a reliable CELSS.
Gas Analyzer
A way to separate gases into components, identify them, and measure their
concentrations
Hazardous gas leaks, posing grave threats to human health, can elude
detection until too late. Often colorless and odorless, these gases can be
dangerous even in minute concentrations. At bottom is a miniaturized
chromatography system derived from space technology that provides a convenient
way to separate gases into components, identify them, and measure their
concentrations.
The system is contained in an instrument called the M2OO, a second-
generation NASA spinoff developed by Microsensor Technology, Inc. (MTI),
Fremont, Califomia, featuring dual gas chromatographs. Chromatographs are used
to monitor work areas for gas leaks or volatile chemical spills, identify gases
produced during energy explorations, and monitor stack gases for compliance with
pollution laws. Police use them for breath alcohol analysis and arson
investigations, while doctors apply them to respiratory and anesthesiology
analysis.
The M2OO traces its origin to work performed in the early 197Os by NASA's
Ames Research Center, which sought to develop a gas analyzer for the Viking
Landers, two unmanned spacecraft that explored Mars. Ames wanted an extremely
sensitive gas chromatograph for detection of possible life forms and analysis of
Martian soil and atmosphere. The landers' tight quarters required that the
chromatograph be very small and lightweight, unlike the bulky models then in
use. Ames designed a miniature chromatograph and contracted with Stanford
University for the hardware.
Although the unit was not developed in time for use aboard the Viking
Landers, the technology attracted the interest of the National Institute for
occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Seeking a portable device to detect gas
leaks in industrial environments, NIOSH funded further development of the
Ames/Stanford chromatograph. Subsequently, three of the Stanford researchers
left to form MTI and produce a portable gas analyzer for the commercial market.
They introduced the original version, called Michromonitor M5OO, in 1982 and the
M2OO. in 1988.
The M2OO incorporates innovative micromachining technology that enabled MTI
to fabricate a gas chromatograph on a silicon wafer and to overcome design
limitations previously inhibiting production of a high-speed, high-resolution
chromatograph. Intended for use in the plant, field, or laboratory, the M2OO
weighs only 12 pounds and completes most analyses in less than 3O seconds. It
can analyze a wide range of mixtures and measure concentrations as small as one
part per million.
(Photo Caption) U.S. Coast Guard workers employ the portable chromatography
system to identify unknown subtances in public areas that might be hazardous.
Microspheres
The first commercial products manufactured in orbit
The plastic beads at right represent the first commercial products
manufactured in orbit, part of a production run of millions made during space
shuttle flights in the early 198Os. These tiny spheres are of identical
diameter, perfect because they were produced in the absence of gravity. The
microspheres' precise dimensions permit their use as reference standards for
extremely accurate calibration of instruments in research and industrial
laboratories. They are sold for applications in environmental control, medical
research, and manufacturing.
In a representative application, TSI, Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota, uses the
spheres to calibrate an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer designated the APS 33B. TSI
purchased the microspheres from the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, which had certified their exact size. Designed to count and weigh
submicron-size particles, the APS 33B can be applied in evaluating air pollution
control devices, meteorological research, testing filters, inhalation
toxicology, and other fields where analysis of small airbome particles is
needed.
The APS 33B sensor operates on the basic physics principle that a particle's
"true aerodynamic size" can be determined by measuring its speed through a known
flow field. Aerodynamic size is important in all of the applications previously
listed because particles of equal aerodynamic diameter share similar
characteristics. For example, they have similar chances of penetrating a filter
and similar airborne lifetimes. As a medical consideration, they tend to deposit
in similar parts of the human respiratory system.
The APS 33B draws particles through a flow nozzle, producing a
precisely-controlled, accelerating high- speed jet of air. The velocity within
the flow field remains constant; therefore, when particles accelerate at varying
rates, it is due to size difference. Small particles accelerate more rapidly,
large ones more slowly. The system measures the time it takes a particle to pass
between two laser beam markers; computer analysis of the time interval yields
the particle's velocity and thereby its aerodynamic size.
Power Factor Controller
The Power Factor Controller matches voltage to actual need, sauing energy
The electricity fed by power companies to outlets in homes and businesses
arrives at a fixed voltage‹the level needed by AC motors to handle their
heaviest loads. The motors, however, use power unevenly: sometimes they do run
high, but sometimes they idle, and most of the time they run somewhere in
between. In the mid-197Os, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center began
investigating ways to curb the power wastage that occurs when motors operate at
less than full load but still receive full load power. Cumulative power wastage,
considering the millions of electric motors in service, is enormous.
Marshall engineer Frank Nola invented a device called the Power Factor
Controller (PFC) that matches voltage to actual need. Plugged into a motor, the
PFC continuously determines motor load by sensing shifts between the voltage and
current flow. When it detects a light load, it cuts the voltage to the minimum
required, which in turn reduces needless current flow and heat loss. Early
laboratory tests showed that the PFC could trim power usage by six to eight
percent under normal motor load conditions, and by as much as 65 percent when
the motor was idling.
(Photo Caption) A motor control center incorporating PF0 technology was
designed by Intellinet Oorporation for Baltimore's Fort Howard Veterans
Administration Hospital to protect kidney dialysis and other critical systems
from power outages.
With such tremendous energy saving potential, the PFC quickly became one of
NASA's most widely-adopted technologies. More than 15O companies sought and were
granted licenses for commercial use of the invention. Scores of commercial
products incorporating the PFC have been applied to machines ranging from
household refrigerators to industrial drilling machines.
Controlling voltage lowers engine heat, thus extending the useful life of
electrical insulation and bearing lubricants. one of the resultant spinoffs, a
motor starter from Intellinet Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland, controls the
voltage applied at startup so that the motor accelerates gradually and smoothly.
This protects the motor, gears, and belts from mechanical stresses caused by
cold starts.
(Photo Caption) The Electra-Miser* is one of hundreds of products that
incorporate the Power Factor Controller Concept.
(Photo Caption) Shown here in close up, the Electra-MiserTM is designed to
cut power up to 40 percent in typewriters, washing maahines, refrigerators, and
similar equipment.
Stirling Engine
The Stirling powerplant has the potential for high reliability and long life
The free-piston Stirling engine, a strong candidate to fulfill space power
needs in the late 199Os and into the next century, also holds promise for
reliable and efficient power generation to support a variety of Earth
applications. The power plant is currently under development at the Lewis
Research Center as part of NASA's Civil Space Technology Initiative.
Invented in 1962, the Stirling is an integrated unit consisting of a
free-piston engine to convert heat into linear motion and an altemator to
convert the linear motion into electric power. It has the potential for high
reliability and long life‹features critical for space use‹because it has few
moving parts, can use noncontacting gas bearings, and can be hermetically
sealed.
These characteristics also make the Stirling attractive for use on Earth.
Potential spinoff applications include hybrid electric vehicles, domestic and
military generator sets, and remote electric power generation. When run in
reverse, the Stirling can be used for cooling applications such as cryocoolers,
domestic and commercial refrigeration systems, and heat pumps.
Industrial research teams, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy,
are completing designs of solar power systems featuring the free-piston Stirling
convertor. Two current systems are capable of converting the sun's heat into
approximately 25 kW of electricity, which can then be supplied to a utility
grid. Researchers anticipate the use of dish Stirling systems for remote power
applications worldwide, and the technology may be incorporated into a line of
solar thermal products.
(Photo Caption) The Cummins Engine Company Solar/Stirling Converter turns the
sun's heat into approximately 25 kW of electricity.
Solar Energy
A viable alternative energy source in areas where no conventional source
exists
When sunlight strikes certain materials, such as silicon, electrons are set
in motion. These mobile electrons can be drawn off as electricity. This basic
principle of photovoltaic conversion, or PV, is used to provide power to nearly
all man-made satellites.
NASA pioneered PV power for spacecraft and has supported U.S. Department of
Energy programs to expand terrestrial applications. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) is the group primarily responsible for developing advanced PV
technology while cutting its costs.
Although PV power is still too expensive for widespread use on Earth, it has
proven a viable alternative energy source in areas where no conventional source
exists, such as remote automated weather stations, sea-based navigational buoys,
forest stations, and third world villages. PV arrays are routinely used at
remote communications installations to operate large microwave repeaters, TV and
radio repeaters, rural telephones, and small telemetry systems that monitor
environmental conditions. Siemens Solar Industries, Camarillo, Califomia, has PV
installations on five continents. They power agricultural water pumping systems,
provide electricity for isolated villages and medical clinics, and power
railroad signals and air/sea navigational aids. The company also has introduced
solar-powered outdoor lighting for the consumer market.
(Photo Caption) Installed in 1991, this PV array in Mont Soleil, Switzerland,
provides 500 kW of voltage support to the area's utility grid.
In the last decade, Siemens Solar has been developing large-scale PV power
generation for utilities. A JPL contractor since the early development of
Earth-use solar arrays, Siemens has produced and implemented some of the world's
largest PV systems. The company recently began work on the first commercial PV
power plant for utility grid support in Kerman, California, and will participate
in a rural electrification project to install lOOO PV-powered residential
lighting systems in the interior region of northeast Brazil.
Heat Pipes for the Alaska Pipeline
Keeping the ground continually frozen reduces the risk of pipeline damage
On June 2O, 1977, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company shipped the first
barrel of crude oil down the newly- constructed trans- Alaska pipeline. As the
company celebrated its fifteenth anniversary this summer, the nine billionth
barrel of oil arrived safely at Alyeska's Valdez Marine Terminal.
(Photo Caption) NASA heat pipe technology plays a vital role in protecting
Alaska's environment from possible pipeline oil spills.
Four feet in diameter and 8OO miles long, the pipeline carries oil across
three mountain ranges, floodplains, hundreds of rivers and streams, and, perhaps
most challenging, the vast Alaskan permafrost. This permafrost soil alternately
freezes and thaws as temperatures rise and fall with the seasons, and the ground
shifts and swells unpredictably. Winter frost-heaves uplift the soil in much the
same way as rainwater freezing below a highway creates potholes, but with far
greater force. In summer, thawing frost causes the soil to settle unevenly. Only
keeping the ground continually frozen can prevent these seasonal ground shifts
and protect against the natural forces that might otherwise weaken supporting
structures, rupture the pipeline, and spill large amounts of oil over the land.
Recognizing this, engineers at McDonnell Douglas incorporated into the
pipeline's structure NASA technology commonly used to cool electronic equipment
on spacecraft. The vertical supports holding up the line are heat pipes that
keep the arctic ground frozen, minimizing the risk of pipeline damage. In
building the pipeline, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company used roughly 76,OOO
McDonnell Douglas heat pipes, varying in size from two to three inches in
diameter and from 31 to 66 feet long, to ensure safe transport of the oil.
Riblets for Stars & Stripes
The hull's underside was coated with a "riblet" skin that helped the craft
slide through the sea more smoothly.
On February 4, 1987, skipper Dennis Conner and his ten-man crew guided the
Stars & Stripes racing yacht past the finish line at Fremantle, Australia to
recapture sailing's most coveted prize, the America's Cup. Representing the San
Diego Yacht Club, Conner and Stars & Stripes scored a 4-O sweep in the
best-of-seven finals over Australia's Kookaburra IIL Factors contributing to the
yacht's outstanding performance in a variety of wind and wave conditions
included boat design, tactics, sail selection, and a key piece of NASA
technology.
In a Fremantle press conference, Stars & Stripes design coordinator John
Marshall disclosed the boat's "secret weapon": the hull's underside was coated
with a "riblet" skin that helped the craft slide through the sea more smoothly.
Riblets originated at Langley Research Center as part of NASA's continuing
efforts to improve aircraft fuel efficiency. In aeronautical research, they are
minute grooves on an aircraft's surface that reduce skin friction by smoothing
the turbulent airllow next to the skin. V-shaped and angled in the direction of
the airflow, the grooves are no deeper than a scratch but have a pronounced
effect on air turbulence.
The first riblets were machined on flat aluminum sheets and tested in a
Langley wind tunnel. When engineers of the 3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
learned of the tests, they suggested molding the riblets into a light weight
plastic film with an adhesive backing. The film could be pressed into place on
an airplane, eliminating the need for welding and allowing relatively
inexpensive retrofitting to existing planes. Langley accepted 3M's offer to
produce riblet tapes for research and used them in 1986 tests on a Learjet. In
flight tests, the film riblets demonstrated a drag reduction capability of about
eight percent, similar to the results of wind tunnel tests using metal sheets.
The technology also helps reduce hull friction for vessels moving through
water, which increases speed. The Boeing Company, 3M, and the Flight Research
Institute of Seattle, Washington collaborated on the development and first water
tests of riblet film in 1984. Among several boats fitted with riblet tapes was a
U.S. rowing shell that competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles in
the four-oar-with-coxswain category. The shell's crew won a silver medal, the
first U.S. medal in the event in many years.
More important than its contributions to racing is the technology's potential
benefits to air transportation. Langley's long-range reduction capability to
15-16 percent would translate into a five percent reduction in fuel costs, a
savings in the hundreds of millions annually for U.S. commercial airlines.
Riblets also could be used in oil, gas, and water transmission lines, and on
submarines and jet engine turbine blades.
ICEMAT Ice Making System
Reduces rink setup time while easing transport
The touring troupes of Intemational Ice Shows, Palos Heights, Illinois,
perform on portable ice rinks at amusement parks, sports arenas, dinner
theaters, shopping malls, and even the White House. The key to rink portability,
fast freezing, and ice consistency is a mat of flexible tubing called ICEMAT~.
The tubing is an offshoot of a solar heating system developed by Calmac
Manufacturing Corporation, Englewood, New Jersey, under contract to NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, as part of a Department of Energy solar energy
research program.
Most solar collectors distribute heat via a network of metal pipes through
which sun-heated water flows. Calmac president Calvin McCracken devised an
innovative energy absorber using flexible tubing rather than pipes. The tubing
is made of a synthetic, rubber-like material called EPDM. Delivered in rolls
four and a half inches wide, it can be cut to any length and zipped together,
which allows tailoring of a solar collector to any size or shape. The tubing is
easily spliced for repairs and resistant to cracking due to ozone attack or the
stress of repeated expansion and contraction.
Called SUNMAT~, the flexible tube system originally was designed as a solar
collector for home, pool, or hot water heating. It also can be used as a radiant
floor heating unit in homes or offices and can help prevent buildup of snow and
ice on outdoor driveways, patios, and parking lots.
(Photo Caption) An International Ice Shows troupe performs on a temporary
rink built atop a theater stage by means of a spinoff icemaking system derived
from NASA solar heating research.
Calmac sold the SUNMAT line to the Besicorp Group, Ellenville, New York,
which markets the system in two variations: SUNMAT for solar energy collection
and SolaRoll for radiant heating applications. Calmac, meanwhile, developed the
ICEMAT system, based in part on the Marshall/DoE work, now produced under
license by ITI' Marlow Division, Midland Park, New Jersey. Like SUNMAT, ICEMAT
is a mat of tubing used to distribute a working fluid, but instead of hot water
the fluid is an antifreeze, such as glycol, refrigerated to a temperature of
zero degrees Fahrenheit. The rink builder lays a floor of plastic tubing, covers
it with water, then pumps chilled glycol through the tubes. It works in a way
similar to a home refrigerator: the cold glycol draws warmth from the water,
thereby freezing it. Using ICEMAT, International Ice Shows offers rental ice
rinks‹ portable indoor and outdoor units ranging in size from a large room to a
hockey rink. ICEMAT's advantages include rink setup in less than half the time
it would take if metal pipes were used; corrosion- and temperature- resistant
tubing; and, perhaps most important, ease of transport. The tubing comes in
compact spools containing hundreds of linear feet, as opposed to lengths of
rigid metal tubing. This is a big factor when you consider that a 2OO-foot rink
requires more than 32 miles of tubing.
Cordless Products
Cordless tools and appliances based on technology from the Apollo era
One of the most successful commercial spinoffs of space- based technology is
a line of cordless products dating back to the Apollo era. Among the tasks
required of Apollo astronauts was to gather rock and soil samples from the
moon's surface and below it. For the latter, they needed a special drill. The
drill had to cut through the sometimes hard lunar surface layer, extract core
samples from a depth of up to ten feet, and, like everything else that went to
the moon, it had to be lightweight and compact. Further, it had to have its own
power source. Although the tool could have operated on power from the Lunar
Module, the astronauts' home and operating base, scientific requirements
dictated sampling at diverse locations, sometimes far from the base.
The drill's development was entrusted to the Black & Decker Corporation,
Towson, Maryland, which responded with a successful battery-powered,
permanent-magnet motor device. In the course of the drill's development, Black
& Decker used a unique computer program to optimize the design of the
drill's motor and ensure minimal power consumption. That computer program, along
with the general knowledge and experience gained in developing the drill,
provided a strong technology base for the development of battery-powered
implements.
Black & Decker has continued to refine this technology and now produces a
line of consumer and professional cordless tools and appliances. These include
the Dustbuster*, a handheld vacuum cleaner for the home or auto, and cordless,
rechargeable drills, shrub trimmers, and grass shears. Worldwide sales of Black
& Decker's cordless, rechargeable products are approximately $4OO million
annually.
(Photo Caption) Among Black & Decker's cordless products are the
Dustbuster miniature vacuum. at left. and a handheld drill applicable in
construction tasks (above)
Metallized Materials
Through space use, a once commercially-obscure product has become a booming
commodity
Metallization is the coating of a material with a fine mist of vaporized
metal to create a foil-like effect. It's not a space-age invendon; in fact, the
concept dates back to the 19th century. Metallization is, however, a prime
example of how space use of an existing product or process sometimes triggers a
chain reaction: the space need creates a market, the new market inspires further
development, which expands the range of applications. Eventually, the once
commercially-obscure product becomes a booming commodity. In the case of
metallization, space use helped transform a small-scale manufacturing operation
producing decorative metallized plastics into a flourishing industry marketing
materials for scores of applications.
It started in the early days of the space program when NASA was experimenting
with large balloon- satellites as orbital relay stations to reflect
communications signals from one Earth location to another. The material for the
balloon skin had to be highly reflective to ³bounce" the radio signals. It also
had to inflate in orbit to a diameter roughly equivalent to the height of a
ten-story building, but be exceptionally thin and lightweight to fold into a
beachball-size canister for launch from Earth. The solution was a new type of
plastic film coated with a superfine mist of vacuum- vaporized aluminum.
NASA subsequendy used the material as a reflective insulator to protect
astronauts from solar radiation and sensitive spacecraft instruments from
extreme temperatures. The widening field of applications spurred R&D by
manufacturers to improve vacuum metallizing techniques. This, in turn, led to
development of diverse commercial products, including insulated outdoor
garments, life rafts, reflective blankets, wall coverings, window shades, food
packaging, candy wrappings, and photographic reflectors.
Metallized Products, Inc. (MPI), Winchester, Massachusetts, was one of the
companies that worked with NASA on dhe original space materials. MPI continues
to supply metallized materials for space use and has developed lines of
industrial and consumer-oriented metallized film, fabric, paper, and foam. one
of the most successful MPI products is TXG laminate, once employed by NASA as a
reflective canopy for visual and radar detection of the rafts in which returning
Apollo astronauts awaited pickup by ships or helicopters. TXG not only is
superreflective, but nonporous, waterproof, and rot-proof. Subsequently, Winslow
Company Marine Products, osprey, Florida, obtained a license for commercial
production of the survival raft. In cooperation with MPI, Winslow improved the
strength and thermal characteristics of TXG so that its survival rafts would
provide maximum protection from heat, cold, wind, and rain.
A reflective kite of gold TXG produced by Solar Reflections, Inc., Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, serves as a highly conspicuous distress indicator in an
emergency. The sos Signal Kite can be flown as high as 2OO feet to enhance radar
and visual detectability. It provides campers, hikers, and mountain climbers
with a lightweight, easily portable emergency signaling device, and boaters with
a convenient substitute for bulky dish devices. Made of metallized nylon, the
kite spans six feet but weight only six ounces.
Connecticut Advanced Products, Glastonbury, Connecticut, has adopted lXG for
its Thermoguard heat shields, custom-tailored reflective curtains that cover the
windshield and windows of parked aircraft to protect avionics equipment from
heat buildup and ultraviolet radiation. In a similar application, the Starshade~
from Star Technology Corporation, Carbondale, Colorado, is a multilayered
automatic shade system for large windows in commercial or residential buildings.
Among MPI's own products are various protective fabrics that retain up to 8O
percent of the user's body heat, helping to keep a person warm for hours in cold
weather crises or to prevent post-accident shock. All are remarkably compact.
The Space* Emergency Bag, for instance, opens into a three-by-seven-foot
personal tent/blanket and then folds into a three-ounce package the side of a
deck of playing cards.
(Photo Caption) Thermoguard heat shields, windshields, and window curtains
custom-tailored by Connecticut Advanced Products from TXG metallized fabric
reflect the sun¹s rays and protect long-parked aircraft from heat buildup and
ultraviolet radiation that could damage its sensitive and expensive avionics
equipment.
(Photo Caption) Fishing boat captain Kurt Barlow deploys an SOS Signal Kite,
a highly-reflective distress signal made of metallize nylon that can be elevated
to 200 feet for best visibility. Barlow also is wearing a reflective cap for
protection from the sun.
(Photo Caption) Among the Applications of reflective TXG is the Emergency
Blanket manufactured by Metallized Products, here used by a ski patrol to
protect a skier shaken by a fall. The blanket, which folds into a package no
bigger than a deck of cards (bottom left), retains up to 80 percent of the
user¹s body heat.
(Photo Caption) The Winslow Radar Feflector Life Raft features a canopy made
of TXG that reflects the sun¹s ray¹s like a mirror, enabling radar or satellite
sensors to spot it, and also provides thermal insulation to occupants.
Memory Metals
Shape memory effect devices can be made to expand when cooled or contract
when heated
Certain metal alloys are able to change from one shape to another in response
to temperature variations. This ³shape memory effect," or SME, is caused by a
transformation in the alloy's crystal structure. SME devices can be made to
expand when cooled or contract when heated; they have either one-way or two-way
"memories." A one-way SME alloy can be deformed and then resume its original
shape when heated to a specific temperature. Two-way alloys hold their original
shape at one temperature and another shape at a different temperature.
Interest in SME, a 196Os technology, was rekindled by NASA in the 198Os.
Arnong the companies awarded NASA contracts for advanced SME investigations was
Memry Technologies, Inc., Norwalk, Connecticut. Since 198S, the company has
worked on SME alloys for composite structures and space station applications,
producing alloys over a wide range of transforrnation temperatures in sheet,
wire, rod, and tube form.
Adapting its SME expertise acquired under NASA contract, Memry Technologies
has applied two-way SME alloys to comrnercial safety products known as
MEMRYSAFE* and FIRECHEK*. MEMRYSAFE products protect against scalding in the
home by instantly restricting the flow of water in the shower, bath, and sink
before scalding temperatures are reached. A related product, ULTRAVALVETM, is a
computer- controlled shower and bath valve (shown above) that allows the user to
preselect a preferred bathing temperature. The temperature is maintained by an
automatic electronic control and confirmed by a digital readout.
FIRECHEK, a fire control safety valve for semiconductor industrial process
lines containing hazardous gases or fluids, detects unsafe temperatures and
automatically shuts off the pneumatic pressure operating the control valve. The
SME element accomplishes detection and actuation simultaneously and requires no
outside power source.
Another firm - Marchon* Eyewear, Inc., Melville, New York‹has applied NASA's
memory metal technology to a "smart" eyeglass frame (shown at left) that
remembers its shape and wearer's fit. Frames made with Flexon* can snap back to
their original shape after being wrapped around a finger, bent in half, or
twisted like a pretzel. Flexon works at room temperature and does not need heat
to retum to its original shape.
Marchon's advancement on the NASA technology, a boon to the more than 115
million U.S. eyeglass wearers, is a patented "memory encoding process" that
gives the special titanium alloy used in the frames its flexible memory. Flexon
frames are marketed under two brands: Autoflex~ by Marchon and Accuflex* by an
affiliated company, Marconin* S.p.A.
Stratch-Resistant Sunglass Coating
Scratch-resistant lenses lasted, with normal wear, ten times longer than the
most widely- used plastic optical lenses
For decades, ground and polished glass had been the preferred lens in the
eyeglass industry. That changed in 1972, when the Food and Drug Administration
issued a regulation that all sunglass and prescription lenses must be
shatter-resistant The one disadvantage to glass is its brittleness, so eyeglass
manufacturers turned to plastics. Plastic lenses offered resistance to
shattering, lower manufacturing costs, excellent optics, and far better
absorption of ultraviolet radiation. In addition, they were lightweight and
easier to shape to facial contours. The one disadvantage was that, unlike glass,
plastics were highly susceptible to scratching.
Foster Grant Corporation, Leominster, Massachusetts, devoted a decade of
research to the search for a coating that would give plastic lenses glass-like
scratch resistance without compromising any of plastic's attributes. The answer
was a highly abrasion-resistant coating and deposition process developed at
NASA's Ames Research Center by researcher Dr. Ted Wydeven (at top). Initially
intended to protect the plastic surfaces of aerospace equipment in harsh
environments, the coating increases lens hardness and, thereby, scratch
resistance.
Foster Grant acquired an exclusive license for the process from NASA and
began manufacturing sunglasses. Their scratchresistant lenses lasted, with
normal wear, ten times longer than the most widely- used plastic optical lenses,
surpassing even glass (shown at left). Today, the majority of sunglass,
corrective, and safety lenses sold in the United States are made of plastic.
In 1991, Fosta-Tek assumed the license for the NASA process from Foster Grant
and currently uses it on eyewear, industrial face shields, and flat-sheet
plastic for industrial applications. The coating is one of the most pervasive
space technology spinoffs.
Heart Rate Monitor
An insulated device made of a thin dielectric film
In the mid-197Os, looking ahead to the era of long-duration space missions,
NASA saw a need for a new type of sensing electrode for astronaut health
monitoring. The conventional conducting electrode, which made contact with the
skin through a paste electrolyte, had disadvantages for long-term use. The paste
can irritate skin, for example, and it eventually dries, causing data
distortion. other electrodes that directly contact the skin without paste pose
problems of "motion artifact," in which the subject's movements cause electrode
movement and signal-distorting noise.
Under a NASA grant, researchers at Texas Technical University designed a new
type of electrocardiographic electrode, an insulated device made of a thin
dielectric film. The dry, reusable electrode works upon contact with the skin
and is not affected by heat, cold, or light, nor by perspiration or rough or
oily skin. Further, the film prevents motion artifact during exercise.
NASA patented and then licensed the electrode technology to Richard
Charnitski, inventor of the VersaClimber and founder of Heart Rate, Inc., Costa
Mesa, CA. Charnitski incorporated the technology into advanced personal heart
monitors and exercise machines for the physical fitness, medical, and home
markets.
At bottom left is Heart Rate's Home Model VersaClimber lO8H, a
stepping/full-body climbing exercise machine designed to make use of all the
major skeletal muscle groups during aerobic and strength conditioning. The
VersaClimber is available in a multiple-user health club model and therapy
models with built-in seats for cardiac rehabilitation and
orthopedically-impaired patients. Additional models are designed for
professional sports teams, schools, hotels, firefighters, and the military
services. The Versa-Climber's display module, shown at left, provides such
information as calorie burn rate, exercise time, climbing speed, and distance
climbed.
On the home version, an infrared heart beat transmitter is worn under
exercise clothing. The transmitted heart rate is used as a speedometer to
control the intensity of the exercise. The ability to accurately read heart rate
and set work intensity levels offers advantages to a full range of users from
the cardiac rehab patient to the highly-trained professional athlete.
Athletic Shoes
The Compression Chamber midsole was* subjected to stresses equivalent to 400
miles of running and showed no visible signs of wear or structural fatigue
Athletic shoe manufacturers spend millions annually searching for innovations
that will give them an edge in a lucrative and extremely competitive industry.
One company, AVIA Group Intemational, Inc., Portland, Oregon, a subsidiary of
Reebok International, Ltd., applied space technology in a major shoe advancement
known as the AVIA Compression Chamber* midsole, introduced to the market in
october 199O.
In the late 198Os, AVIA began a project to eliminate the unwanted compression
or breakdown that causes loss of cushioning in athletic shoes. The company
contracted with Alexander L. "Al" Gross of Lunar Tech, Inc., Aspen, Colorado, to
design an advanced shoe that would retain its shock absorption, stability, and
flexibility properties over a longer lifetime.
Al Gross, an aerospace engineer who has won several awards for his work in
space suit design, turned to NASA technology. His basic approach to the shoe
design was to eliminate foam materials from the midsole because they are subject
to cushioning loss from the repeated vertical force of body weight and as a
result become rigid.
A task force led by Gross chose a rigid/flexible" system similar to that in a
space suit. Being pressurized, the space suit is rigid but permits astronaut
mobility with the "convolute system," a series of bellows in the joint areas
that expand and contract with every motion. By layering or combining materials
and varying the shape, size, and number of bellows, space suit designers can
vary joint flexibility.
For the AVIA shoe project, the task force created an external pressurized
shell with horizontal bellows for cushioning and vertical columns for stability.
By varying the shape, number, and thicknesses of shell materials and the styling
lines within the shell, the designers were able to "tune" the stiffness and
cushioning properties of the midsole.
Creating a stress-free environment to ensure durability demanded a single
part without weld lines or cement seams. To meet that requirement, AVIA and
Gross adopted another NASA technology‹a stress- free "blow molding" process
originally employed to get superior impact resistance for the Apollo lunar
helmet and visor. Blow molding, never before used in the footwear industry,
allows AVIA to reconfigure the Compression Chamber for different sports.
In durability tests at Penn State Center, the Compression Chamber midsole was
subjected to stresses equivalent to 4OO miles of running and showed no visible
signs of wear or structural fatigue. The midsole, AVIA officials say, is the
''first step" towards a completely foamless, non-fatiguing midsole that will not
wear out.
(Photo Caption) National Basketball Association star Clyde Drexler puts AVIA
Compression Chamber shoes through a workout. The shoe, designed to retain its
performance properties over a longer life span, is an adaptation of NASA space
suit technology.
Water Filter/Conditioner
Technology developed to purify space shuttle water
At right is the General Ionics Model IQ Bacteriostatic Water Softener, a home
product that not only softens municipally treated water but also inhibits the
growth of bacteria within the filtering unit. It was developed by Ionics, Inc.,
Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, manufacturer of water treatment equipment for
municipal, industrial, and consumer use.
The IQ's ability to arrest bacterial growth is based on NASA silver ion
technology developed to purify water aboard the space shuttle. In space use, an
electrolytic water filter generates silver ions in concentration~ of SO to lOO
parts per billion into the water flow. The silver serves as an effective
bactericide/deodorizer.
The NASA innovation has been applied in several water purification products,
among them a line of home and portable water filters developed by Ray Ward,
president of Ambassador Marketing, National City, Califomia. Ward was assisted
in his equipment design by Ionics, which helped him make the most efficient use
of silver-impregnated carbon. Activated carbon helps remove objectionable tastes
and odors caused by the addition of chlorine and other chemicals to municipal
water supplies.
Ionics vice president Walter J. Poulens later leamed that some European
countries were considering a ban on water softeners that breed bacteria. It
occurred to Poulens that the silver ion technology he had worked on with Ward
might provide the key element to a water softener that also arrests bacterial
growth.
Ionics used the NASA technology as a springboard for development of a silver
carbon so dense that it would remain on top of the water-softening resin bed
where, company research indicated, the greatest bacterial growth occurs. After
extensive testing, the Environmental Protection Agency evaluated the IQ's silver
carbon process and confimmed its ability to effectively inhibit bacterial
growth.
Pool Purification
Space-based system yeilds pool and spa water that exceeds EPA standards for
drinking water
Shown at right is a Florida pond cluttered with algae. At far right is the
same pond 48 hours after treatment by the Caribbean Clear Automatic Pool
Purifier, which utilizes NASA technology developed to sterilize the water supply
on long-duration spacecraft. The absence of algae and the very clear water,
evidenced by the clouds reflected on the pond's mirror-like surface, demonstrate
the system's efficacy.
In the 196Os and early 197Os, Johnson Space Center conducted a research
program to develop a small, lightweight water purifier for Apollo spacecraft
requiring minimal power and no astronaut monitoring. The program produced an
electrolytic silver ion generator only slightly larger than a cigarette pack and
weighing only nine ounces. Units mounted at various locations in a spacecraft's
potable water supply and wastewater system would dispense silver ion
concentrations of lOO to 3OO parts per billion, sufficient to eliminate bacteria
in the water within hours.
Caribbean Clear, Inc., a Leesville, South Carolina manufacturer of electronic
products, used this invention as the basis for its Automatic Pool Purifier, an
alternative to conventional pool cleaning chemicals. Caribbean Clear's main
customers are swimming pool owners who want to eliminate chlorine and bromine.
The purifiers in the Caribbean Clear product are the same silver ions used in
the Apollo system to kill bacteria, with copper ions added to kill algae. They
yield pool and spa water that exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's
standards for drinking water.
At right is a residential swimming pool with a built-in hot tub, both
serviced by the Automatic Pool Purifier. The system is effective in both units
despite the difference in temperature. Shown below is the key element of the
system: two silver-copper alloy electrodes that generate silver and copper ions
when an electric current is passed through them. The rest of the system includes
a microcomputer that monitors water condition, temperature, and electrode wear;
and a controller that automatically introduces the correct amount of ions into
the water.
According to Caribbean Clear, purifying a pool widh its system costs less
dhan treating the same pool with chlorine and algaecides. It requires only a
once-weekly test to measure the level of copper ions in the pool; a twist of a
knob in dhe control unit increases or decreases output as required.
The system is available in the U.S. and 42 other countries. The company makes
models for purifying everything from residential hot tubs to a
six-million-gallon commercial pool. In addition to private pool owners,
Caribbean Clear numbers among its customers the U.S. Navy; Holiday Inn,
Marriott, and Sheraton hotels; YMCA facilities; and many healdh clubs. The
system also can be employed to kill algae and bacteria in fish ponds, fountains,
and cooling towers.
Heat Pipes
A low-cost, high-efficiency alternative to complex dehumidification systems
used in supermarkets
To keep food fresh and prevent frost formation in freezer cases, require
high-capacity air conditioning and dehumidifying. Any innovation that improves
air conditioning efficiency can result in significant cost and energy savings
for the supermarket industry. The Phoenix 2OOO rooftop refrigeration/air
conditioning system at right, manufactured by Phoenix Refrigeration Systems,
Inc. (PRS), Conyers, Georgia, incorporates heat pipes derived from NASA
technology to both control humidity and conserve energy.
The addition of heat pipes to the Phoenix 2OOO stemmed from PRS'
participation in an ongoing, large-scale field test evaluating the heat pipe as
a low-cost, high-efficiency alternative to the complex and expensive mechanical
dehumidification systems used in many supermarkets. Georgia Power Company, which
is spearheading the program, is joined by the Alabama Power Company, Florida
Power Corporation, Mississippi Power Company, and Wisconsin Electric Power
Company, along with a number of supermarket chains. The sponsors will share
results with supermarkets, equipment designers, and manufacturers.
Originally developed by NASA for temperature control of sensitive electronic
systems used in space, the heat pipe is a simple but highly effective heat
transfer system. The individual heat pipe is a sealed tube containing a small
amount of liquid refrigerant. The tube is inclined so that the refrigerant can
flow to the lower end by gravity.
The low end is an evaporator, the high end a condenser. When the refrigerant
flows to the low end, it evaporates and absorbs heat in the process. The
low-density vapor then rises to the other end, where it releases heat and
condenses into a liquid to repeat the cycle. The system thereby alternately
cools and heats without significant use of energy or any moving parts. Applied
successfully in such diverse places as libraries and candy storage facilities,
heat pipes also have proven effective for moisture control in indoor spa and
pool buildings and in homes in humid climates.
Georgia Power kicked off the performance verification program in July 1989
with an installation at a Winn Dixie supermarket in Lithonia, Georgia. PRS
supplied a standard rooftop refrigeration/air conditioning system modified to
include a 144-tube heat pipe system. The pipes ease the load on the air
conditioner while providing effective humidity control. The project has since
expanded to include supermarkets in Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia, Texas, New
York, and Maryland. An interim report on findings at the Winn Dixie indicated
that the system performed well and did indeed reduce energy consumption.
Additional data will be gathered to precisely quantify the energy savings and
impact of the heat pipes on supermarket air conditioning systems.
Virtual Reality
Environment-hopping may one day be as commonplace as a dnve in the family car
Imagine having the power to instantly change your environment; to be
transported at will to the surface of the moon or, with a wave of your hand, to
be transformed into a single molecule speeding through the human circulatory
system. Though it sounds like science fiction, environment-hopping may one day
be as commonplace as a drive in the family car, thanks to an exciting new
technology called virtual reality (VR).
Virtual reality combines three-dimensional graphics and sound to create
highly-realistic simulations. In the mid-198Os, NASA's Ames Research Center
developed for life sciences research one of the first practical VR systems‹the
Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW), a head-mounted stereoscopic
display that allows the operator to virtually "step into" a scene and interact
with it. The display can be an artificial computer-generated environment or a
real environment relayed from remote video cameras.
VIEW's headset contains two small television screens, one for each eye so the
image appears three-dimensional. A sensor mounted on the headset tracks head
position and orientation, enabling the computer to shift the image in
correlation with the wearer's head movements. Headphones provide
three-dimensional audio, enhancing the illusion of being inside the display.
Ames is developing a library of software for different scenes and the operator
can select a menu option using voice or gesture commands. one example of a
practical application: a design engineer can virtually become part of a rocket
engine's fuel flow and travel with the flow, noting places where it slows,
speeds up, or becomes turbulent; he can leam much more about the system design
than by relying only on two-dimensional simulation.
The operator can interact with the display and control the action by wearing
a DataGloveTM that converts hand gestures and positions into computer-readable
form. Developed for Ames by VPL Research, Inc., Redwood City, Califomia, the
Iycra glove is lined with fiber optic cables and sensors that detect finger
movements and transmit the infommation to a host computer; a computer-created
image of the hand will move exactly as the operator is moving his gloved hand.
With appropriate software, the operator can use the glove to grasp a virtual
object, for example, moving a chair within a simulated room; the computer will
dutifully move the chair in the TV display. Moreover, the operator can "feel"
the chair through tiny vibrators in the glove's fingertips.
The DataGlove can be used to control conventional computer screens, replacing
mice and joysticks. "It provides a natural, intuitive way to interact with your
computer," says Ann Lasko, VPL's director of product design. Mattel, Inc. has
introduced a plastic glove based on VPL's technology as an accessory for
Nintendo video games. The "Power Glove" lets players manipulate onscreen
graphics.
(Photo Caption) A NASA scientist tests a virtual reality headset. She sees a
computer generated 3D scene or a real environment remotely relayed by video
cameras. The stereo imagery suggests that she is actually part of the scene.
(Photo Caption) The DataGlove allows a computer user to handle onscreen
images as if they are real three dimensional objects. Sensors lining the glove
communicate hand movements to a graphics computer.
The VPL glove also offers applications in telerobotics and biomedicine. New
York University researchers use the device to remotely control a dexterous robot
hand, while Greenleaf Medical Systems of Palo Alto, California employs the glove
in a system that measures how much the joints of the human hand can bend,
helping doctors to accurately determine hand impairments. Greenleaf recently
hooked up a speech synthesizer to the DataGlove to demonstrate the capability
for turning hand gestures into audible words. They hope to develop a low- cost
system that would translate sign language into speech.
Taking the technology a step further, VPL developed the DataSuitTM, a
sensor-equipped full body garment that reports to the computer the motions,
bends, gestures, and spatial orientations of the wearer, enabling full body
interaction with the virtual world. The DataSuit's first commercial application
is an unusual one: it is worn by film actors to give fluid, realistic motion to
animated characters in computer-generated movie special effects.
After the DataSuit, VPL created its own version of the eyewear in NASA's VIEW
system, called the EyePhoneTM. The company offers a complete/ package, the RB2
Virtual Environment, that includes a DataGlove; the EyePhone, a design control
workstation, and associated software, cables, and connections for $45,OOO. With
the computers, made by Silicon Graphics, the system costs $2OO,OOO for a single
user, $4OO,OOO for two users. The price has severely limited use of the
technology, but VR enthusiasts are counting on a continuance of the dramatic
drop in computer costs that made personal computers widely available to
similarly broaden VR applications.
With improvements over the next few years, VPL anticipates such new uses for
the RB2 system as allowing an architect's clients to inspect and perhaps alter a
building's design before the structure is built by virtually walking through a
graphic replication of it; similarly, the system makes it possible to tour
dynamic models of communication networks, large databases, and traffic control
systems. VR permits three-dimensional scientific visualization, particularly
useful in chemistry, geology, and aerodynamics. As a training tool, it would
enable medical students to operate on virtual patients in a simulated hospital.
VR could revolutionize education, for it allows virtual time travel; a student
can virtually be a pharaoh in ancient Egypt, a tyrannosaurus hobnobbing with
other dinosaurs, or an astronaut exploring a vast canyon on Mars. And
entertainment? Says VPL: "We leave that to your imagination." VR is "composable
as a work of art and as unlimited and harmless as a dream," states company
literature. "When VR becomes widely available, it will not be seen as a medium
used within a physical reality, but rather as an additional reality. VR opens up
a new continent of ideas and possibilities."
(Photo Caption) An EyePhone wearer sees a 3D image of his hand while the same
image is displayed on the monitor.
(Photo Caption) A VR user goes for a "virtual" bike ride across terrains
computer-generated in the headset.
Digital Image Processing
Aided by NASA, digital imaging technology began to spin offin new directions
Before the Apollo 11 lunar landing and Neil Armstrong's historic moon walk,
NASA flew a series of unmanned spacecraft called Ranger designed to make a
comprehensive photographic reconnaissance of Earth's moon. Although the first
six Ranger spacecraft were unsuccessful, Rangers 7, 8, and 9, flown in 1964-65,
achieved their objectives and returned some 17,OOO high-resolution images.
Ranger's camera systems, though the best available at the time, were subject
to many distortions‹ lopsided, stretched, too dark, too light images‹and to
contamination by the noise of the craft's electronic equipment. These problems
could have been corrected by conventional photographic techniques, but Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineer Dr. Robert Nathan had a better idea:
convert Ranger's analog signals to digital signals and use a computer to enhance
the images. Accordingly, he began developing the first operational digital image
processing software. There also was a need for hardware to record both analog
video and digital images on film. No suitabl commercial hardware existed, so
JPL's Fred Billingsley designed a system called the Video Film Converter (VFC).
Built for JPL by Link General Precision, the VFC was used in the 197Os for image
playback of the striking pictures retumed by the planetary missions of the
unmanned Mariner spacecraft.
(Photo Caption) When the Voyager spacecraft passed near Jupiter, its thermal
mapping data revealed a heat source on the surface of the moon Io. Advanced
image processing techniques developed by 3M Comtol enabled analysts to assemble
this picture of the heat source and its "halo," a volcanic eruption spewing
matter several miles.
Over the years, there has been a steady stream of advances in digital image
processing, spurred by the advent of ever-more sophisticated spacecraft
transmitting immense volumes of image data from distances farther and farther
from Earth. When the sheer mass of incoming data threatened to overwhelm
computer capacity, JPL developed a method of performing simultaneous‹rather than
step-by-step‹image processing operations through the application of VLSI (Very
Large Scale Integrated) circuitry. This "pipeline filter," first used to process
Voyager 2's Uranus images in 1986, enhances images up to 2OO times faster than
previous systems.
Aided by the efforts of JPL and other NASA centers, digital imaging
technology began to spin off in new directions: the medical field, the new art
of Earth resources survey by remote sensing, enhancement of motion pictures,
industrial quality control, and a variety of other uses.
In the 196Os, JPL's Drs. Robert Nathan, Robert Selzer, and Kenneth Castleman
pioneered use of digital processing techniques to enhance electron microscope,
x-ray, and light microscope images. This work sparked experimental medical
applications by other organizations and emergence of a growing industry
providing image processing systems for health care. Among medical applications
are computed tomography (CAT) scanning, diagnostic radiography, brain or cardiac
angiography, sonar body imaging, surgery monitoring, and nuclear magnetic
resonance, a relatively new body scanning technique.
(Photo Caption) Shown here is Perceptive Systems' PSIC0M 327, a general
purpose image processing system for medical, scientific, and industrial
applications.
NASA also provided the initial technology base for application of image
processing to remote sensing of the Earth and its resources. The exceptional
utility of this technology stems from the ability of advanced sensors aboard
satellites and aircraft to detect radiations‹light and heat waves‹emanating from
Earth objects. Since each object has its own "signature," it is possible to
distinguish between surface features and to generate computer-processed imagery
identifying specific features important to resource managers. This capability
offers applications in such areas as crop forecasting, rangeland and forest
management, land use planning, mineral and petroleum exploration, mapmaking,
water quality evaluation, and disaster assessment. The primary users of the
technology have been federal, state, and local govemments, but it is making its
way into commercial operations‹for example, resource exploration companies
looking for oil, gas, and mineral sources and timber production fimms seeking
more efficient treeland management.
Many of the companies working in digital image processing are direct
offspring of NASA's work. An example is 3M Comtal, Pasadena, Califomia, which
traces its lineage to image processing research conducted for National Space
Technology Laboratories‹later renamed the Stennis Space Center‹in the 196Os. 3M
Comtal's equipment processed the amazing views of Viking on Mars and the Voyager
transmissions from Jupiter; today the company remains a leader in the field.
In other cases, individual products rather than whole companies have been
derived from the NASA technology. For example, Unisys Defense Systems,
Camarillo, Califomia, developed image processing software called SDCIPSTM that
has been applied in such diverse areas as military command and control, document
image processing, geographic infommation systems, and U.S. Postal Service video
encoding research. Capable of such operations as digital filtering, contrast
enhancement, and surface illumination and contouring, SDCIPS is a spinoff of
techniques developed by JPL for medical image processing.
(Photo Caption) The satellite view of a hurricane at top gave meteorologists
information about the storm's size, strength, and direction. But temperatures
within the storm, obtained by processing infrared photography data to create the
color-coded image in the lower photo, provided a clearer understanding of the
storm.
(Photo Caption) Visionlab II from 3M Comtal provides image processing
technology for use with personal computers.
(Photo Caption) A spinoff software package called SDCIPS combined satellite
radar data with digital terrain data through a color-space transformation to
produce this compositeaimage in which the circular area highlights topographic
contours.
Structural Analysis
stress analysis; defining high stress points and vibrational characteristics
of sheet metal components in car and truck bodies; and static analyses of
suspension components.
Another industrial user of NASTRAN is DeVlieg-Sundstrand, Belvidere,
Illinois, a manufacturer of machine tools that produce parts for other machines.
These machine tools must be able to maintain a certain rigidity during
temperature and load changes associated with the manufacturing process; their
rigidity determines their accuracy and prevents production errors in the machine
parts. NASTRAN is applied in the design process to predict rigidity.
Texas Instruments (Tl), Temple, Texas, uses the program to design impact and
non-impact printers. Dot matrix impact printers form characters by means of a
series of actuator mechanisms that fire needles at an ink ribbon to transfer ink
dots to paper. Each mechanism has a tiny magnetic core and an actuator coil, an
armature, and a print needle. The printhead is a circular arrangement of a large
group of such assemblies; in operation, the printhead moves across the paper to
produce characters.
Generation of a magnetic field causes the armature to propel the needle
toward the ribbon. To optimize the design of the printhead, it is necessary to
maximize the magnetic force propelling the armature, which requires extremely
accurate calculations of the magnetic field. Tl used NASTRAN for that purpose
and was able to develop the optimum geometry for a new printhead entirely by
NASTRAN simulation.
TI's Central Research Laboratories also employed NASTRAN in designing a
deformable mirror device (DMD) that has several applications in non- impact
printing, where it can replace the laser and the rotating mirror of conventional
laser printers. Tl was unable to accurately predict the DMD's behavior, which
was dependent upon the electric field and mechanical properties. Researchers
employed NASTRAN to model the DMD and, with the combined results of various
analyses, were able to predict the voltages required for operation and indicate
ways in which efficiency might be increased.
(Photo Caption) DeVlieg-Sundstrand uses the machining center at left to
manufatture machine tools that produce parts for other machines. The company
uses NASTRAN (see images below) to predict how a tool will maintain its rigidity
during the temperature and load changes associated with the manufacturing
process.
NASTRAN is available to industry through.NASA's Computer Software Management
and Information Center (COSMIC). Located at the University of Georgia, CoSMIC
maintains a library of computer programs from NASA and other government agencies
and offers them for sale at a fraction of the cost of developing a new program.
(Photo Caption) The Honda Acura Legend Coupe was designed with the aid of
NASTRAN.
Data Acquisition Systems
KineticSystems created a fiber optic highway that provided data transmission
between the simulators and the host computers at a rate of 24 million bits per
second
KineticSystems Corporation, Lockport, Illinois, produces high- speed CAMAC
Automated Measurement and Control) data systems for scientific and industrial
applications. Some of the company's most advanced products resulted from a joint
R&D program with NASA's Langley Research Center in the mid-198Os. The
program sought to determine the feasibility of using CAMAC equipment to provide
a distributed input/output system for Langley's Advanced Real Time Simulation
(ARTS) system, which supports flight simulation research in such areas as
automated control, navigation and guidance, air combat, and workload analysis
for pilots and astronauts.
It found CAMAC an ideal approach that would allow up to 32 high-performance
simulators situated throughout the Langley complex to be controlled by
centrally-located host computers. With Langley input, KineticSystems developed
the hardware for ARTS. Much of the CAMAC equipment was off-the-shelf, but the
project required development of an enhanced performance data highway and modules
with higher resolution converters. KineticSystems created a fiber optic highway
that provided data transmission between the simulators and the host computers at
a rate of 24 million bits per second, enabling simulators in several locations
to interact in real time. The company also developed a series of 16-bit analog
to digital, digital to analog, and digital to synchro converter modules.
(Photo Caption) CAMAC chassis and sampling of data acquisition and control
modules.
(Photo Caption) The CAMAC system monitors steelmaking operations.
The technology created in the ARTS project significantly boosted
KineticSystems' technical capability and fostered a wide variety of new
applications in both the public and private sectors, such as fusion research,
power grid analysis, process automation, turbine testing, petroleum
distribution, chemical processing, and steelmaking. As cooperative marketing
partners, KineticSystems and Digital Equipment Corporation, Marlborough,
Massachusetts, have delivered equipment derived from the ARTS work to hundreds
of users in the U.S. and abroad.
Parallel Processing System
Simultaneous processing of image picture elements rather than step-by-step
serial processing
In the late 197Os, NASA saw a need for greatly increased computing power to
handle the voluminous information being transmitted to Earth by orbiting
satellites such as the Landsat Earth-scanner, which was sending digital data to
ground stations at the rate of 15 million bits per second.
To provide the capability to process very-high-resolution image data from
spacecraft sensors, Goddard Space Flight Center commissioned development of a
unique type of computer based on the concept of mparallel processing, which
involves picture elements (pixels) rather than step-by-step serial processing.
Designed and built by Goodyear Aerospace Corporation, the resulting prototype
was known as the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP). It was delivered to Goddard
in 1983 and was soon found to have utility in a far broader range of
applications than just image processing.
In massively parallel processing, an entire image is processed at once, while
in serial processing an image is processed one pixel at a time; the latter takes
hours to analyze and classify an image, MPP about 2O seconds.
The MPP architecture‹known as SIMD for single instruction stream, multiple
data stream‹offers enormous computational power at a lower cost than other
architectures. The speed of the prototype was derived from a network of 16,384
simple processors, which allowed dividing up a task so that each processor
performed the same operation on different pieces of data at the same time.
To measure and document the advantages and disadvantages of parallel
processing, and to understand the capabilities and limitations of the MPP, NASA
organized a working group of 4O scientists who were provided opportunities to
test their computational algorithms on the MPP beginning in the fall of 1985.
A year later, sufficient results had been generated to warrant convening ‹at
Goddard‹the first symposium on massively parallel scientific computation. The
MPP investigators described a broad range of applications, including signal and
image processing, Earth science, and computer science and graphics. The
performance of many of these applications was found to be in the supercomputer
range, and for certain tasks MPP was found to be faster than traditional vector
supercomputers. Subsequently, Goddard funded the development of a
second-generation MPP called the Blitzen Project to demonstrate that the size
and weight of the MPP could be reduced enough to allow its use in spacecraft.
Based in part on technology developed in the two MPP projects, MasPar
Computer Corporation, Sunnyvale, California, produced a new generation of
massively parallel computing systems: the MasPar MP-1 product family, ranging
from a unit with lO24 processors that can deliver 16OO MIPS (millions of
instructions per second) and 82 MFLoPS (millions of floating operations per
second) to one with 16,384 processors that can deliver 26,OOO MIPS and 13OO
MFLOPS. MP-1 users, including NASA, are attacking computationally-intensive
problems in such areas as image and signal processing, database management query
systems, neural network algorithms, computational fluid dynamics, and seismic
data reduction.
Portable Computer
GRiD Compass, the first true portable laptop computer
In November 1983, NASA flew a nine-day space shuttle mission that marked the
space debut of a remarkable high-performance navigation monitoring computer
dubbed SPOC, for Shuttle Portable Onboard Computer.
SPOC was an adaptation of the GRiD Compass (shown at right), the first true
portable laptop computer, produced by GRiD Systems Corporation, Fremont,
California. Hardware had to be modified and new software developed to meet space
requirements, which led to changes in commercial models that benefited the
company's competitive position.
Since the shuttle's main computers must handle a multitude of processing
functions, NASA wanted a separate computer to provide reliable monitoring of the
craft's orbital path and a visual display of its position at any time. Since
weight and space are vital considerations in space operations, the computer had
to be small and lightweight; nonetheless, it had to have graphic display
capability, a large memory storage capacity, high processing speed, and
sufficient ruggedness to withstand launch vibration. After evaluating a number
of small computers, NASA selected GRiD Compass.
The principal modification needed was a fan to cool the computer; GRiD
computers norrnally were cooled by convection, or heat transfer by circulation,
but that process does not work in the weightless environment of space. NASA also
wanted a larger electroluminescent screen and Velcro strips to keep SPOC from
floating. The fan later was incorporated into the larger-screen models of the
Compass II line; likewise, Velcro strips have been used on subsequent products,
including the new PalmPADTM PC, the first wearable pen computer, shown in use
above. Designed for data collection applications, the PalmPAD also features a
rugged magnesium case for added protection‹an innovation first developed for the
Compass line.
Shuttle operations required a sophisticated operating and control system, one
of the major considerations in NASA's selection of the GRiD Compass.
Nonetheless, NASA and GRiD software engineers spent many hours writing, testing,
and rewriting source code. This process, the company reports, ultimately
benefited GRiD and its commercial clients because it helped fine-tune the GRiD
operating System and common code documentation. over the past decade, GRiD
Systems' annual sales have grown from less than $1 million to over $25O million.
The company's computers are still used by NASA; the GRiD Model 153O, a more
powerful 386 SL-based laptop that replaced sPoC, helps space shuttle astronauts
to keep track of the craft's position in orbit and enables them to control
payload experiments, collect data, and instantly transmit research results to
investigators on Earth.
Fabric Structures
Space suit material now part of American landscape
What to wear to the moon is the question that spurred the development of a
strong and lightweight fabric that has since landscape become part of the
American landscape.
During the Apollo program, NASA sought to improve upon the fabrics it had
used in fashioning space suits for the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, and began
its search for a durable, noncombustible material that was also thin,
lightweight, and flexible. At the time, owens-Corning was developing a glass
fiber yarn could be woven into a fabric. The fabric was then coated with Teflon*
for added strength, durability, and hydrophobicity‹the ability to repel
moisture. The material met NASA specifications and was used in space suits
throughout the Apollo era.
The technology soon found additional applications. The health care market
required flame-resistant draperies and the Fiberglass fabric was adapted for
that use. A more recent application is in the construction field, where a
heavier version of the fabric is used as a permanent covering for shopping
centers nationwide, for sports stadiums such as the new Georgia Dome in Atlanta
and the olympic Stadium in Rome, and for airport terminals in Denver, Colorado
and Saudi Arabia.
Architects, engineers, and building owners are turning increasingly to fabric
structures because of their aesthetic appeal, relatively low cost, low
maintenance outlays, energy efficiency, and good space utilization. Typically,
fabric structures are built in one of two ways. Either they're tension
structures that are supported by a network of cables and pylons, or
air-supported structures that consist of an outer membrane and an inner liner.
The area between these two layers is inflated to maintain the pressure
differential necessary for roof rigidity.
(Photo Caption) This air-supported stadium at B.C. Plate, Vancouver, British
Columbia, is Canada's first covered stadium. It seats up to 60,000 and has a ten
acre fabric roof that weighs only l/30th as much as a conventional roof of that
size. Sixteen giant fans blow air into the balloon-like envelope between the
roof's outer membrane and its inner liner maintaining the pressure differential
necessary for roof rigidity.
The space-based fabric is marketed by Birdair, Inc., Amherst, NY. Its
translucency value, which ranges from 4 to 18 percent, reduces lighting needs
and its reflectivity lowers cooling costs. The Teflon coating reduces
maintenance costs by increasing the fabric's resistance to moisture, temperature
extremes, and deterioration. Pound for pound, the material is stronger than
steel and weighs less than five ounces per square foot. These factors combine to
lower initial costs and speed construction.
Flat Cable
The flat cable can be mounted on walls and floors instead of in them
In the never-ending quest to make aircraft and spacecraft more compact, NASA
engineers have devised a multitude of ingenious space-saving, weight-shaving
measures. one such measure is the use of extremely thin flat wire‹ known as flat
conductor cable (FCC) ‹instead of the relatively thick and protrusive round
cable. only as thick as a credit card, FCC dramatically reduces the space
occupied by the many miles of power lines in aerospace vehicles.
NASA recognized that commercial buildings, which also have miles of wiring,
would benefit by adopting FCC technology. In the late 196Os, NASA funded a
program in which Marshall Space Flight Center developed prototypes for several
FCC applications, including a baseboard- mounted system.
(Photo Caption) An undercarpet flat cable installation is shown in the
foreground in this view of the Sun Refining and Marketing Company's office in
Philadelphia. Flat conductor cable offers cost savings in simplified building
construction, reduced installation time, and ease of alteration.
Since industry participation was essential to large-scale application of FCC,
NASA sponsored formation of a consortium composed of a dozen firms engaged in
electrical hardware and associated manufacturing activities. Using Marshall's
early work as a departure point, the member companies pooled their resources to
develop complete FCC systems which encompass not only the cable but the
sheathing, connectors, tools, and other equipment needed to facilitate FCC use
by designers and builders. Subsequently, the use of FCC covered by carpet tiles
in commercial buildings gained approval from Underwriters Laboratory and was
listed in the National Electrical Code established by the National Fire
Protection Association.
The flat cable can be mounted on walls and floors instead of in them; it can
be installed beneath a carpet or along a baseboard, its essential sheathing
designed to look like decor rather than plumbing. This enables elimination of
the traditional ducting, under floors and elsewhere, necessary to accommodate
conventional wiring. And when electrification needs changing, as they frequently
do in commercial buildings, the surface- mounted FCC system is readily
accessible.
In short, FCC offers simplified building construction, reduced installation
time, and ease of alteration, all of which translate into substantial cost
savings. Because of these multiple advantages, FCC has gained wide acceptance
among builders, interior designers, and building managers.
Bolt Stress Monitor
Precise measurement of stress on a tightened bolt is critical
Pictured at right is the Pulse Phase Locked Loop Bolt Stress Monitor, or
P2L2, an important safety advance for the construction industry. Developed at
NASA's Langley Research Center, the P2L2 uses sound waves to accurately
determine whether a bolt is properly tightened. Precise measurement of stress on
a tightened bolt is critical in building and maintaining such structures as
pressure vessels, bridges, and power plants, where overtightened or
undertightened bolts can fail and cause serious accidents or costly equipment
breakdowns.
The most common and least costly method of gauging bolt stress is the torque
wrench, which is inherently inaccurate; it does not account for the friction
between nut and bolt, which has an influence on stress. At the other end of the
spectrum, there are accurate stress measurement systems, but typically they are
expensive and bulky.
The battely-powered P2L2 bridges the gap: it is inexpensive, lightweight,
portable, and extremely accurate‹to within one percent‹because it is not subject
to friction error. The microprocessor-based instrument transmits a sound wave
pulse to the bolt being tightened and receives a return signal indicating
changes in resonance due to stress, akin to the tone changes in a violin string
as it is tightened. The monitor measures the changes in resonance and produces a
digital reading of stress on the bolt.
NASA has used the invention for bolting applications ranging from space
shuttle landing gear wheels to wind tunnel fan blades, and is now transfering
the technology to commercial markets.
Last June, the Langley Center held a Bolt Tension Monitor Workshop for
industry that generated significant private sector interest in licensing the
P2L2 and resulted in Langley's selection of the StressTel Corporation, Scotts
Valley, California, as its commercial partner for further development of the
system. StressTel, a leading manufacturer of ultrasonic testing equipment, plans
to incorporate the NASA technology in its new Bolt-Mike SMIITM, a portable
bolting control system offering simple operation, self-calibration, and data
upload and download capabilities.
Quality ControI System
D Sight reveals tiny flaws previously difficult or impossible to observe
Manufacturers across a wide range of industries are employing machine vision
systems to improve quality standards in the fit and finish of their products.
Most of these systems do not have the sensitivity, however, to detect all of the
imperfections their users would like to catch and correct.
Diffracto Ltd., Windsor, Ontario, offers an innovative system called D Sight
(TradeMark) that reveals tiny flaws previously difficult or impossible to
observe. D Sight can be used to inspect both flat and curved surfaces to locate
such imperfections as dents, dings, wrinkles, and blisters. It detects and
magnifies defects measuring less than one thousandth of an inch.
Industry tests have shown that D Sight can identify 94 percent of the defects
when inspecting stamped sheet metal, as compared with only 5O percent for
traditional flaw detection methods such as visual inspection.
D Sight is a spinoff from the space shuttle program. Diffracto was licensed
to develop commercial applications for the vision guidance system of the
shuttle's remote manipulator arm. While experimenting with the vision system,
Diffracto engineers noticed the phenomerlon of reflected light from the target
material. This led to a research and development effort that produced the first
commercial D Sight model.
The basic system consists of a solid-state camera equipped with a quartz
halogen lamp, a retroreflective screen, and an image processing computer. The
camera photographs the part being studied while the screen bounces light off the
surface to highlight defects. The resulting image is computer-analyzed and the
discovered defects projected onto a video monitor for comparison with a stored
master image of an acceptable part. Also included is a hard copy printer that
provides documented evidence of product quality and proof of inspection.
For the D Sight technique to work, the target surface must be reflective.
Since some surfaces‹such as unpainted sheet metal‹are not reflective enough,
Diffracto created a reflectivity enhancing process that involves wiping an oil-
or water-based compound on the surface.
The company has sold units to Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, and other auto
suppliers who employ D Sight to inspect body panels and windshields, and to
check "first articles" for die-related defects. Plastics manufacturers use the
system to determine what temperatures, pressures, and materials will produce the
best quality surfaces. Moreover, several aircraft manufacturers have bought
units to inspect aircraft composite skins.
Diffracto has installed more than 6O systems worldwide. In cooperation with
the Canadian National Research Council's Institute for Aerospace Research, they
have developed a portable unit to perform nondestructive tests on in-service
aircraft. The DAIS (D Sight Aircraft Inspection System) enables fast detection
of impact damage and other flaws that often go undetected with current visual
methods.
(Caption)The upper photo shows a carr door viewed under normal light, while
the lower photo shows the some door viewed with the D Sight system.
Nondestructive Testing Tool
X-rays can penetrate manufactured parts and structures to help pinpoint
defects
Just as x-rays can scan the human body to aid doctors in diagnosing disease,
they can penetrate manufactured parts and structures to help pinpoint defects.
In both instances, the x-ray images are digitally processed using techniques
that originated in NASA R&D programs of the 1960s.
This technology, called computed tomography (CT) or CATScan, is gaining
acceptance by industry as a tool for nondestructive inspection. And NASA is once
again leading the way: the Marshall Space Flight Center sponsored development of
a versatile CT device‹dubbed the Advanced Computed Tomography Inspection System
(ACTIS)‹that is finding a variety of nondestructive testing applications.
Developed for Marshall by Bio-Imaging Research, Lincolnshire, Illinois, ACTIS
can evaluate components ranging in diameter from four inches to four feet and
materials ranging from steel to rubber. It provides results superior to
conventional techniques in contrast sensitivity, spatial resolution, and
visualization.
Marshall is using ACTIS to test rocket motor assemblies and other critical
components. Boeing Aerospace & Electronics, Kent, Washington, purchased the
first industrial model and has used it to learn more about materials and
processes, particularly high-strength composite materials.
ACTIS can help diagnose design problems early in the product development
cycle, saving time and expense. The system identified anomalies in the space
shuttle main engine turbopumps at an early development phase, prompting changes
in the casting process. It has been used by the U.S. Department of Energy to
inspect sealed barrels of nuclear waste and by automobile manufacturers to
inspect prototype steering wheels, engine blocks, and gear boxes. Studies
indicate that it could grade lumber and assist in optimizing the lumber
industry's cutting plans.
(Caption) In this CT image of a crosssection of a rocket motor gas generator,
the bright yellow spots in the orange background (near the perimeter) are small
voids that indicate anomalies.
(Caption) Applications of ACTIS at Boeing include nondestructive evaluation
of aircraft components.
Pressure Measurement Systems
The basic system was able to make 1000 measurements a second, a hundredfold
improvement
Pressure Systems, Inc. (PSI), Hampton, Virginia is a thriving company whose
business evolved from a single spinoff development.
PSI began life in 1977, its "plant" a single room in the home of founder and
president Douglas B. Juanarena, its sole product an innovative pressure sensing
device developed at NASA's Langley Research Center. Today, PSI manufactures 2O
products within four basic product lines and has annual sales exceeding $8
million, exports accounting for about 25 percent of its total business.
The PSI success story began in the early 197Os when Langley Research Center
was looking for a way to obtain better accuracy and higher data rates in
measuring airflow pressure at many points around a wind tunnel model. Mechanical
systems then in use could only perform ten measurements a second. To get the
hundreds of measurements needed in a typical test, it was necessary to conduct
many repetitive tunnel runs. This bred inaccuracies because test conditions
changed over the lengthy period required to make the measurements.
There was a corollary need to cut energy costs, which then were soaring as a
result of the world energy crisis. Since wind tunnels consume enormous amounts
of energy, it became imperative to find ways to shorten tunnel operating times
without compromising data accuracy or quantity.
Langley found a solution to both problems in a new technology called
electronically scanned pressure (ESP), developed by an engineering team that
included Douglas Juanarena. The Langley ESP measurement system was based on
miniature integrated circuit pressure-sensing transducers that communicated
pressure data to a minicomputer; these sensors could be calibrated while in use,
an innovation that greatly improved accuracy. High data rates were achieved by
using one transducer for each pressure port in a wind tunnel, which would have
been impractical with mechanical systems. Inherent errors in the transducers
were automatically computer- corrected. The basic system was able to make lOOO
measurements a second, a hundredfold improvement, and was small, relatively
low-cost, and highly accurate and reliable.
Juanarena formed PSI in 1977 to exploit the NASA invention. A year later he
left Langley, obtained a license for the technology, and introduced the first
commercial product, the 78OB pressure measurement system, which quickly captured
a large part of the pressure scanning market among U.S. government and
industrial wind tunnel users. Subsequently, the French and West German
governments standardized on PSI instrumentation for their wind tunnels. PSI
systems also are used for pressure measurements in flight; at top an engineer is
adjusting a wing-mounted unit that gathers data from a dozen sensors along the
wing's leading edge.
Looking to the broader potential of ESP technology, PSI developed a pressure
scanner for automating industrial processes where there is a need for making
multiple pressure measurements quickly and with high accuracy. PSI continued to
refine the technology and now produces ESP modules and accessories in 16, 32,
and 48 channel configurations, with data rates up to 4OO,OOO measurements a
second.
Laser Technology
The beams can be used to transmit communications signals; to drill, cut, or
melt hard materials; or in medical applications
At right is a green microlaser introduced in 1988 by Amoco Laser Company,
Naperville, Illinois. At bottom is Amoco's breakthrough infrared diode-pumped
microlaser. Both are spinoffs of a laser concept developed at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for optical communications over interplanetary
distances.
Lasers emit a narrow and very intense beam of light or other radiation. The
beams can be used, for example, to transmit communications signals; to drill,
cut, or melt hard materials; or, in medical applications, to remove diseased
body tissue.
Microlasers are revolutionary miniaturized all-solid-state lasers that cover
a broad part of the wavelength spectrum and offer dramatically improved
performance over traditional lasers. Amoco offers 2O microlaser products for an
expanding range of applications that includes medical instrumentation and
therapy, color separation equipment for graphics and printing, film reading and
writing, projection TV, telecommunications, optical memory storage, plus a
variety of industrial R&D/production uses such as micromaterials processing,
spectroscopic and analytical measurement, and semiconductor processing. In
addition to producing technology in-house, Amoco has acquired other patents
relating to solid-state lasers pumped by tiny diodes. This includes the NASA
technology in the infrared and green microlasers, which was developed at JPL by
Donald L. Sipes, Jr. of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech).
Subsequently, NASA waived the patent rights to CalTech, which lecensed the
technology to Amoco Laser. According to Sipes, the patent centers on the
discovery that a diverging, elliptically-shaped laser beam, such as that emitted
by a laser diode, can be used to pump a solid- state laser very efficiently and
also produce an extremely narrow, ideal beam.
Induction Heating Systems
Induction products enable fast spot and seam bonding of many plastics,
composites, and metals
Over a decade ago, NASA's Langley Research Center began searching for a new
way to join plastic and composite parts of space structures in orbit. These
materials are difficult to join in the airliess environment of space by
conventional methods. Adhensive bonding, for example, is not reliable in a
vacuum, riveting techniques often deform the material, and mechanical fasteners
require hole preparation and special tools.
Langley researchers decided the best approach was induction‹or
magnetic‹heating, which causes little or no deformation and can be used with any
type of thermoplastic material. They developed and patented a prototype system
that offered advantages not only in space structure assembly but also in the
automotive, appliance manufacturing, aerospace, and construction industries.
In 1981, Inductron Corporation, Grafton, Virginia, obtained an exclusive NASA
license to commercialize the induction heating technology. The company produced
a series of induction heating systems and associated equipment‹such as heating
heads and joining tools‹ suited for aircraft, industrial, and military use.
Inductron products enable spot and seam bonding of many plastics, composites,
and metals in a fraction of the time required by standard methods, according to
the company. Applications include battlefield repair of aircraft windscreens,
skins, hydraulic lines, and rotor blades; rapid attachment of strain gauges;
laboratory testing of adhesives; and manufacture and repair of composite
assemblies.
Inductron markets several models of the Torobonder low-powered, portable
induction bonding systems. Similar in size and weight (24-27 pounds), they
differ primarily in output wattage. In the above leJ~ photo, an engineer is
using a Torobonder to repair a damaged helicopter windshield.
Another Inductron development is the Toroid Joining Gun pictured above right,
which is used to heat a variety of conductive materials. one version of the gun
is used in the military and industry to heat metal heat-to-shrink couplings and
fittings, typically for repair of hydraulic, air, or plumbing lines. The
fittings are heated to a high temperature at which they shrink and bond to the
line. Inductron's device offers advantages over earlier heat-to-shrink methods
in that it has no open flame and is nonhazardous, generates focused and
controllable heat, does not adversely affect surrounding objects such as wire
harnesses or fuel lines, and has a long shelf life.
Shown at top right is yet another Inductron innovation, the Torobrazer, which
provides a new way to braze and anneal sawblade joints using the induction
heating process. Advantages include portability, low cost, low power, and ease
of operation, even for inexperienced personnel.
In 199O, Inductron entered into an agreement with NASA to patent all
induction-heating-related inventions in NASA's name, with Inductron granted
exclusive rights to practice the technology.
High Pressure Waterstripping
Paint literally can be removed one layer at a time, at waterjet pressures of
24,000 psi, with no damage
Today's focus on environmental concerns brings with it ever-tightening
restrictions on the use and disposal of chemical stripping agents. Offering a
viable solution to this dilemma, Pratt & Whitney's USBI Co., a whooly owned
subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, Huntsville, Alabama, has
successfully transferred its waterjet processing technology from the manned
space program to aviation and other industries.
USBI and NASA began waterjet processing work in 1977 with the development of
the Waterblast Research Cell at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Under
NASA's guidance, USBI developed automated high-pressure waterjet systems that
were brought on- line in 1985 and 1986 at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and that
have resulted in a 96% reduction in man-hours. USBI currently operates NASA's
high-pressure waterjet facility at KSC, removing the themmal protective coatings
from the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters. Recognizing the technology's
broad potential, USBI began developing spinoffs of the waterjet technology to
address environmental challenges facing the commercial airline industry and U.S.
govemment. Current stripping methods require use of many hazardous and toxic
chemicals such as methylene chloride. USBI's Automated Robotic Maintenance
System (ARMSTM) integrates the benefits of high- or ultra-high-pressure
waterjetting with the precision of robotics to provide an efficient coating
removal system whose only residuals are water and the coating itself. The water
is then filtered and reused, reducing waste and leaving only the dry coating
residue for disposal.
USBI's first waterjet spinoff is the U.S. Air Force's Large Aircraft Robotic
Paint Stripping (LARPS) system, which will consist of high-pressure waterjet
equipment coupled with a mobile robot that follows preprogrammed paths for
stripping paint from big aircraft such as KC-135s and B-52s. Using special end
effectors (robot hands) developed by USBI, the process is so precisely
controlled that paint literally can be removed one layer at a time, at waterjet
pressures of 24,OOO psi, with no damage to the aircraft skin. The technology is
now available to the aircraft industry for engine maintenance. USBI already has
begun installation of an Engine ARMSTM for Delta Airlines at its Hartsfield
Intemational Airport facilities in Atlanta, Georgia. The system can strip
tenacious plasma-sprayed coatings such as ceramics and magnesium zirconate using
only water at ultra- high pressures up to 55,OOO psi. USBI has demonstrated that
waterjet processing can reduce coating removal time for engine parts by as much
as 9OO/O, while increasing service life compared to current chemical or
mechanical methods.
Other applications include stripping of paint and coatings from helicopter
blades, transmission housings, gearboxes, and other parts; and removal of paint
from ships, submarines, and railway equipment. Economic benefits are derived
from reduced processing time, virtual elimination of hazardous chemicals, and
reduced waste disposal costs‹all while enhancing worker safety and protecting
the environment. Due to the high level of interest from a wide range of
industries, Pratt & Whitney currently is structuring a new division around
the waterjet work begun by USBI that will be called Pratt & Whitney‹Waterjet
Systems.
(Caption) The USBI-operoted waterjet system at Kennedy Space Center removes
thermal protective toafings from the space shuttle's solid rocket booster.
Composites For lighter Structures
PMR-15 allows fabrication of high-quality fiber-reinforced composites
Pictured at right is the General Electric Company's F404, power plant for the
Navy's F/A-18 fighter aircraft. The engines's outer duct is made not of metal
but of a strong and light weight composite material - the first application of a
fiber-reinforced composite as a primary structu~al member in a jet engine.
Composites previously had been limited to applications where they encountered
only low to moderate temperatures.
The duct material is a fabric woven of carbon fiber impregnated with a
high-temperature polyimide resin. Called PMR-15, the resin was developed by Dr.
Tito T. Serafini and other investigators at NASA's Lewis Research Center in
response to a need for a resin that could withstand higher temperatures and
thereby expand the range of composite applications. Epoxy resins, the type most
widely used as composite matrix materials, have excellent mechanical properties
and can be processed easily, but they are limited to applications where
temperatures do not exceed 3SO degrees Fahrenheit. To produce a higher
temperature polymer, researchers had to overcome extraordinary processing
difficulties.
More than a decade ago, the Lewis team started research toward a polyimide
resin that could withstand greater temperatures and be readily processed. After
lengthly experimentation involving alteration of the chemical nature of the
resin and methods of processing it, they successfully developed PMR-15, which
offers good processing characteristics and allows fabrication of high-quality
fiber-reinforced composites that can operate in an environment of 6OO degrees
Fahrenheit.
But laboratory development of the polyimide was only a start; it then had to
be converted to a manufacturing material for cost- effective production use. In
1979, General Electric's Aircraft Engine Business Group, looking for a
lightweight, low-cost substitute for titanium in the F4O4 engine duct, became
interested in PMR-15. There ensued a four-year processing technology effort,
jointly funded by NASA and the Navy, followed by a Navy-sponsored project that
resulted in a manufacturing process for use of the graphite polyimide composite.
Initially clothlike in appearance, the material is cut, layered, and shaped
to a desired configuration, then cured in an autoclave, where the fibers and
resin are molded under pressure into a component that looks metallic but weighs
about 15 percent less than the predecessor titanium duct. Fabricated by GE
Aircraft Engines (GEAE), the F4O4 composite duct was ground- and flight-tested
in 1984-85 and introduced into production in 1988. A variety of PMR- 15
composite parts have been introduced into other GEAE products, including the
FllO engine family.
PMR-15 was selected for the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 1991. The PMR
formulation has been made available to commercial suppliers of composite
materials, and is currently offered by various sources including Fiberite, Inc.
and SP Systems (formerly Ferro Corporation). Composite fabrics and tapes based
on PMR-15 are being produced for a rapidly growing range of applications.
Dry lubricant Coating
The coating binds instantly to any metal or resin substrate with a thickness
of 20 millionths of an inch
The Mariner missions of the 196Os.and 197Os produced a wealth of information
about Earth's neighboring planets‹Venus, Mars, and Mercury. The Mariner family
of unmanned spacecraft incorporated a great deal of what was then considered
leading-edge technology ‹advances in onboard power, scientific instrumentation,
communications, and imaging/data transmission systems. Among these innovations
was an unsung technology: a dry film lubricant developed for NASA by Stanford
University. It offered markedly reduced friction and extended wearlife of mating
parts operating in harsh interplanetary environments, where temperatures ranged
from well below zero to 5OO degrees Fahrenheit.
The technology subsequently was acquired and refined by Micro Surface
Corporation, Morris, Illinois, which markets the lubricant as the WS2 modified
tungsten disulfide coating. A pressurized refrigerated air application process
impinges a dry metallic WS2 coating without heat, curing, binders, or adhesives.
The coating binds instantly to any metal or resin substrate with a thickness of
2O millionths of an inch.
In the aftermath of the Mariner missions, the dry lubricant found its way
into industry use, but only by aerospace and defense contractors. In 1984, Micro
Surface introduced WS2 to general use and it has since compiled an excellent
track record in an ever-widening range of applications across the automotive,
medical equipment, plastics, tool and die, and robotics industries. It has been
employed, for example, to coat machine tools, industrial gears and bearings,
electric motors, compressors, cryogenic pumps, and small firearms. WS2 can help
improve product quality, extend equipment service life, and eliminate or reduce
costly maintenance problems.
In the plastics industry, WS2 users have found that in operations such as
blow molding, injection molding, and extrusions the coating increases production
by reducing the drag between tool steel and resin. In the automotive field, it
is used by Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler Corporation to
reduce friction and wear in auto bearings, transmissions, and engine internal
parts.
(Caption) In the manufacture of plastic parts such as the ones shown here,
companies coat injection molds to reduce sticking and increase production.
(Caption) Ed Fabiszak, gneral manager of Micro Surface Corporation, displays
a tool for making plastic parts that has been coated with WS2, a dry lubricant
originally developed for space use.
Micro Surface's growing list of WS2 customers reads like a Who's Who of
American Industry. In addition to the U.S. automotive Big Three, a random
selection includes American Can Corporation, Kimberly Clark Company, Dow Corning
Corporation, Ethyl Corporation, General Electric Company, Phillips Petroleum,
Whirlpool Corporation, and, of course, NASA.
Diamond Coatings
Diamond films offer tremendous potential in such advances as chemically-inert
protective coatings and machine tools and parts that are ten times more
wear-resistant
The hardest substance on Earth, diamond is resistant to wear, an outstanding
thermal conductor and electric insulator, immune to attack from most chemicals,
transparent, and relatively friction-free. These attributes would make diamond
the ideal material for a wide range of industrial applications were it not for
its extremely high cost.
A new technique, however, makes it possible to get the advantages of diamond
in a number of applications without the cost penalty‹by coating and chemically
bonding an inexpensive substrate (supporting material) with a thin film of
diamond-like carbon (DLC). Diamond films offer tremendous potential in such
advances as chemically-inert protective coatings; machine tools and parts that
are ten times more wear- resistant; and consumer products ranging from
wristwatch crystals to eyeglasses. In the U.S., Japan, and Europe, growing
diamond-coating industries are vying to get a foothold in a new market that is
predicted to reach up to $1 billion in this decade and far beyond that in the
21st century.
Among the American companies engaged in DLC commercialization is Diamonex,
Inc., a diamond coating spinoff of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown,
Pennsylvania. Along with its own proprietary technology for both polycrystalline
diamond and DLC coatings, Diamonex is using, under an exclusive license, NASA
technology for depositing DLC on a substrate.
NASA's Lewis Research Center, interested in the aerospace potential of
synthetic diamond coatings, has investigated a variety of ways to deposit DLCs
on different types of substrates. Among the coating methods studied is a
technique called direct ion beam deposition, in which an ion generator creates a
stream of ions from a hydrocarbon gas source; the carbon ions impinge directly
on the target substrate and "grow" into a thin DLC film. Lewis' research has
generated patents related to a dual ion approach. This low-pressure, low-
temperature technique allows coating plastics and other substrates that cannot
tolerate extreme heat.
Lewis is providing technical assistance to Diamonex on a major step that
would significantly expand the DLC market: scratch-resistant coatings for
plastic prescription eyeglasses. The trick is to make the hard DLC coating thick
enough to provide scratch resistance yet maintain optical clarity. Diamonex is
working with a lens manufacturer to commercialize this technology.
The photos illustrate some of the applications of diamond coatings. Above are
a magnetic data storage disk and several read/write head sliders that are coated
to reduce friction and increase disk life. on the oppos~te page are some typical
uses of non-optically-transparent DLC coatings: at top center is a speaker
diaphragm that is coated to provide a higher frequency response from the
speaker; moving clockwise in the photo are needles used in weaving cottoncloth,
coated to reduce friction and snagging; at bottom is a diamond- coated ball for
an artificial hip joint, whose wear resistance and durability is increased by
coating; and at left are surgical needles coated to reduce patient recovery time
by minimizing needle puncture damage. The photo below shows several optics
applications: at top, prescription eyeglasses; at the three o'clock position, a
polycarbonate blank for sunwear; at four o'clock, two coated polycarbonate
lenses; at bottom, a lens with iridescent diamond coating for fashion; and at
upper left, sunglasses.
Diamonex is developing and marketing‹under the trade name Diamond Aegis
(TradeMark)‹a line of polycrystalline diamond-coated products that can be
custom-tailored for optical, electronic, and engineering applications. The
company's initial focus is on optical products. other target applications
include electronic heat sink substrates, x-ray lithography masks, metal cutting
tools, and bearings.
Ion Generators
An ion engine theoretically could accelerate a spacecraft to a velocity
approaching the speed of light
In 1959-60, the first.electron bombardment thruster was developed by NASA
Lewis Research Center engineer Dr. Harold R. Kaufman. This and later "Kaufman
thrusters," as they came to be known, were designed for use in a spacecraft
electric propulsion technique called ion propulsion.
Ions are atoms or molecules that have lost one or more of their electrons and
therefore are electrically charged. one way of generating ions for propulsion is
by electron bombardment of a gas in a discharge chamber, which causes atoms to
lose electrons. The ions thus created are accelerated and ejected from the
chamber as ion beams. Mixed with an equal number of electrons, the ion beam
becomes a thrusting force similar in function to the hot gas exhaust of a
chemical rocket, but with a major difference: where the chemical rocket creates
high thrust for short periods, the ion propulsion system generates very low
thrust for extremely long periods with high exhaust velocity.
As a primary space propulsion system, an ion engine theoretically could
accelerate a spacecraft to a velocity approaching the speed of light for voyages
beyond the solar system. It also offers utility as an auxiliary propulsion
system for spacecraft stationkeeping and attitude control.
Dr. Kaufman's ion propulsion devices were used in some space projects
beginning in the mid-196Os, but their potendal as a primary propulsion system
lies in the future. The technology created for space use resulted, however, in
development of a variety of industrial ion beam sources. other techniques for
ion generation have been developed in the U.S. and abroad, but most broad- beam
electron bombardment ion sources now in use trace their origins to Dr. Kaufman's
work.
The main industrial applications of ion beam technology are in etching
microcircuits for electronic systems and in deposition of thin films used, for
example, as coatings on solar cells or optical equipment. Recently, there has
been growing use of ion sources for modifying or controlling the properties of
thin films (see article on page 11O). In this application, the target material
is bombarded by an ion beam before, during, or after the film deposition process
to improve certain properties of the end products, such as adhesion or corrosion
resistance.
A company whose product line derives largely from Dr. Kaufman's work is
Commonwealth Scientific Corporation (CSC), Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Kaufman
serves as a vice president of research and a member of the board; CSC's
president is George R. Thompson, shown in the top photo on theprevious page. In
the photo beneath that, an engineer is assembling a CSC ion source. At top is a
closeup view of a CSC Mark II Gridless lon Source. The photos at left show a
complete CSC etching deposition system and a closeup of the chamber.
Founded in 1966, CSC is a leader in engineering research for the ion beam
industry and a top producer of ion beam equipment. The company's product line
includes more than a dozen types of ion sources, power supplies for the sources,
surface analysis equipment, and thin film coating equipment.
Magnetic Liquids
The ferrofluidic seal solved a persistent problem - contamination due to
leaking seals
One of the earliest spinoffs to emerge from NASA research was a unique class
of liquids possessing magnetic properties. Called ferrofluids, these synthetic
fluids can be positioned and controlled by magnetic force - offering advantages
in manufacture of electronic products, industrial processes, medical equipment,
visual displays, automated machine tools, and many other applications.
The ferrofluid concept had its genesis at NASA's Lewis Research Center more
than 30 year ago. Looking for a way to feed weightless fuel to the engine of an
orbiting spacecraft, a Lewis scientist conceived the idea of magnietizing the
fuel by dispersing within it finely ground iron oxide particles; the fuel could
then be drawn into the engine by a magnetic source. NASA never appied the
concept to at problem but it surfaced again in the mid-1960s - at Avco Space
Systems Division - as a possible method of controlling a spacecraft's
temperature. Again ferrofluids were bypassed in favor of another solution.
However, two Avco scientists - Dr. Ronald Moskowitz and Dr. Ronald Rosensweig
- saw great commercial potential in ferrofluids, obtained a NASA license for the
technology, and formed the Ferrofluids (Registered TradeMark) Corporation,
Nashua, New Hampshire. They found an initial application in a zero-leakage,
nonwearing seal for the rotating shaft of a system used to make semiconductor
chips. The ferrofluidic seal solved a persistent problem - contamination due to
leaking seals - and sparked widespread interest in the new technology. Use of
ferrofluids in rotary shaft seals has increased rapidly and the majority of
computer memory disk drives also employ magnetic fluid exclusion seals.
In the photo below left are fluid film bearings in a variety of sizes and
configurations; examples of ferrofluid bearings used in disk drives are shown
below right. Ferrofluids also are being applied in robotic, fiber optic, and
laser systems. From a sales volume of $65,000 in its first year of operation,
Ferrofluids has grown to a $60 million a year company operating in 25 countries.
Flexible Circuits
They are attractive in dynamic applications that involve continuous or
periodic movement of the circuitry
Flexible circuitry is an arrangement of printed wiring used to interconnect
the parts of an electronic system. First applied on military aircraft and
missiles, where size, weight, and reliability are primary design considerations,
the flexible circuitry can be molded to the shape of a chassis for marked
reduction in bulk. Although flex circuits generally cost more than conventional
connectors, they nonetheless offer savings in some applications because they are
less expensive to install. They are attractive in dynamic applications that
involve continuous or periodic movement of the circuitry; in such applications,
where reliability must be maintained over millions of flexing cycles, flexible
circuits have demonstrated outstanding performance.
Now used in a broad range of civil applications, flexible circuits are
produced by combining three materials: an insulating plastic film; a metallic
conductor, typically copper foil; and an adhesive to bind the insulator and the
conductor into a laminated circuit. The adhesive is crucial to the circuit's
performance and is selected with care, taking into consideration such factors as
bond strength, temperature resistance, and the flexible lifetime of the printed
circuit.
NASA's Langley Research Center developed an adhesive called LARC- TPI that is
being used to produce laminates under an exclusive license by Rogers
Corporation's Circuit Materials Division, Chandler, Arizona, one of the nation's
largest manufacturers of flexible circuits. LARC-TPI belongs to a family of
linear polyimides that generally are tough, flexible, and have excellent
mechanical and electrical characteristics over a wide temperature range. Hence,
they have been used‹and are being considered for broader us‹as structural
adhesives for bonding parts of aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft subjected to
high temperatures, for example, engine nacelles and cowls, or the
friction-heated leading edge of a high- speed airplane.
The problem with linear polyimides is that they have been difficult to
process. Special requirements for bonding components of a proposed space system
led Langley Research Center to create an advanced structural adhesive by
chemically altering the structure of the polyimide to improve its
characteristics and eliminate processing problems. The resulting LARC-TPI can be
processed at lower temperatures and has good moisture resistance‹both of which
help prevent formation of voids‹and it has excellent adherence to a large number
of plastics and metals.
(Caption) Rogers Corporation's flexible circuits are easy to install and
useful in applications that involve continuous or periodic movement of the
circuitry.
In its first commerical application, Rogers Corporation used LARC-TPI to bind
the insulation film KaptonX to copper foil conductor material in the manufacture
of flexible circuits. The product line of Rogers' Circuit Materials Division
includes flexible circuits for such consumer products as electronic watches,
cameras, TV games, calculators, and burglar alarms; industrial applications such
as display panels, medical instruments, test instrumentation, and electrostatic
copiers; computer jumpers, memories, terminals, and printers; aerospace systems
such as missiles, transponders, and avionics; automotive applications such as
dashboard clusters and fuel, engine, and pollution controls; and, in
communications, CB radios, telephor.f receivers, pagers, and antennas.
Robot Hand
The Salisbury Hand can move objects about, twist them, and otherwise
manipulate them by finger motion alone
Although manufacturers have long been interested in robotics technology as a
means to automate industrial processes, technical limitations have slowed broad
commercial use of robots. A major limitation has been the dexterity of the
"hand," technically known as the end effector. Most of the current hands have
shortcomings in grasping objects; they are limited in the range of
configurations the hand can assume and must be fitted with special fingers for
each object being handled. Robots also are limited in effecting precise position
and force control. Attaining true robot dexterity requires improvements in robot
mechanisms coupled with advancements in robot control techniques.
In 1982, NASA began developing a test bed for research on control and use of
dexterous robot hands. In cooperation with Stanford University and the
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
initiated work on an articulated hand capable of adapting its grasping posture
to a wide variety of object shapes and of performing rapid, small motions
required for delicate manipulation without need for moving the more massive arm
joints. Initial specifications were drawn up by Carl Ruoff of JPL and Dr.
Kenneth Salisbury of Stanford. Later, Salisbury developed the final design.
(Caption) Capable of grasping and manipulating a wide variety of shapes, the
Salisbury Hand was developed ot the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Stanford
University.
The Stanford/JPL Hand, which has come to be known as the Salisbury Hand, has
three human-like fingers, each with three joints. The rounded tips of the
fingers are covered with a resilient material that provides friction for
gripping. Like the fingers on a human hand, the robot fingers can provide more
than three contact areas since more than one segment of each finger can touch an
object. Thus, the robot hand can move objects about, twist them, and otherwise
manipulate them by finger motion alone. Moreover, the hand can be adapted to
different arms.
Salisbury continued his work on the robot hand at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, concentrating on advanced
software for commanding finger motion and interpreting information from
fingertip sensors. In response to requests from other research groups for copies
of the hand, Salisbury formed Salisbury Robotics, Inc., Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to reproduce the device. In addition to the prototype, still in
use in Stanford's Robotic Project, and another unit at MIT, copies have been
delivered to General Motors Research Laboratory, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst.
According to Salisbury, the invention has provided the basis for numerous
dexterous hand research projects around the world and has proved to be a robust
and flexible platform for a broad range of control and sensory investigations.
Clean Room Apparel
An ofshoot of NASA contamination control technology
A tiny speck of dust could trigger a malfunction in a sensitive spacecraft
system, so NASA developed contamination control technology for assembly of
flight equipment in hospital-like "clean rooms." one of several offshoots of
that technology base is a line of contamination control garments used by
hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers, aerospace and
electronic plants, and other industrial facilities where extreme cleanliness is
vital. They are produced and marketed by Baxter Healthcare Corporation,
Industrial Division, Valencia, California under the trade name Micro-Clean
(Registered Name) 212.
NASA spearheaded contaminatic. control technology in the 196Os, building an
informational base with input from Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space
Center, Kennedy Space Center, Lewis Research Center, and Sandia National
Laboratories. The agency conducted special courses for clean room technicians
and supervisors and published a series of handbooks that represented the most
comprehensive body of contamination control information available at that time.
American Hospital Supply Corporation (AHSC), Baxter Healthcare's predecessor
company, used the NASA base as a departure point for research aimed at improving
industrial contamination control techniques. In 198O, AHSC researchers studied
the NASA handbooks, visited NASA centers, and investigated several contractor
clean room operations, acquiring a wealth of data on contamination control and
problem areas.
The project found that the greatest sources of clean room contamination were
the people who worked in such facilities; they generated microscopic body
particles that escaped through tiny "windows" in the woven garments they wore.
This conclusion led to AHSC's development of the original Micro- Clean line of
apparel, made of a non- woven material known as TyvekTM capable of filtering 99
percent of all particulate matter measuring half a micron (a millionth of a
meter) and larger.
Baxter Healthcare has continued to improve the line through advanced
technology. The key enhancement in the Micro-Clean 212 line is a proprietary
polyimide coating applied to the base fabric (Tyvek) to seal and tie down any
loose fibers, thereby minimizing fabric linting and particle generation from
abrasion. Further, the company redesigned its coverall (shown at left) to
minimize the stress points along the seams and make the garment virtually
tearproof.
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