NASA Magazine Highlights Inventions That Stemmed From JPL Research

The latest issue of NASA’s annual Spinoff magazine, which showcases inventions birthed from spaceflight that have potential applications here on Earth, features a series of inventions contributed by the researchers and scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

From camera phones and cellular networks to baby formula and memory foam, the pursuit of space travel has led to countless inventions and technological advancements that have become both useful and economically successful on the ground, according to JPL.

“Whether upgrading air traffic control software or honing the food safety practices that keep our dinner tables safe, NASA has worked for more than six decades to ensure its innovations benefit people on Earth,” according to a JPL statement. “One of the agency’s most important benefits is the way investment in NASA pays dividends throughout the U.S. economy.”

The 2021 Spinoff magazine. published by NASA’s Technology Transfer Program, included a series of accomplishments from JPL.

Highlights include a new technology developed by JPL for spectrometers that can also be used to improve 5G cellular networks; laser technology aboard JPL’s Perseverance Mars rover that can be used in pharmaceutical manufacturing; and “how JPL roboticists have imitated the gecko’s gravity-defying grip to create a manufacturing robot that can grapple smooth objects with ease,” the statement said.

Jim Reuter, who serves as associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said NASA is a driving force behind innovation.

“Whether working to send the first woman and next man to the Moon or helping improve the technology that carries passengers from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, NASA innovators are constantly creating new technology,” he said. “Often these advances have wide-ranging benefits well beyond the need they were first imagined to meet. Telling the public that story is one way we fulfill our mission to find homes for the technology beyond the agency for maximum benefit.”

In addition to technologies that resulted directly from spaceflight, the magazine also delves into JPL’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included inventing a new type of respirator to treat ill patients in a matter of 37 days.

“Transferring NASA technology beyond the space agency is part of our culture and one of our longest-standing missions,” according to Reuter. “We’ve updated the look of the Spinoff publication, but the message is the same: We’re always working to ensure our innovations find the widest benefit, from space to you.”

A digital version of NASA’s 2021 issue of Spinoff can be accessed online at https://spinoff.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/NASA_Spinoff__2021.pdf.

See also:

JPL Engineers Develop COVID-19 Prototype Ventilator in 37 Days