Advancing Commercial Space

NASA has developed an innovative approach to improve the quality and convenience of medical diagnosis, and data transmission for immediate therapy. The new technology uses a network of nanochemical sensors on a silicon chip combined with a monitoring system composed of humidity, temperature, and pressure/flow sensors for real-time chemical and physical properties measurement of human breath for non-invasive and low-cost medical diagnosis. No such technology exists in the market today. Although many research activities are ongoing, NASAs technology is readily available for this application. With a detection range of parts per million (ppm) to parts per billion (ppb) this technology, called a nanosensor array chip, provides a highly-sensitive, low-power, and compact tool for in-situ and real time analysis. It changes the way and time decisions are made to help both patient and medical care provider to minimize their cost, optimize resources, reduce risk, and cut the amount of time needed for conducting a response.

NASA Ames had previously developed a nanosensor array that uses a sample of patient breath for medical diagnosis. (See TOP2-169.) However, the specific materials that can be used had not been previously identified. NASA Ames has made further developments to enhance the capabilities of the technology to detect a variety of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). A highly sensitive sensor array featuring 64 chemically sensitive nanomaterials can accurately identify various health and biological conditions, such as detection of Covid-19 in humans. The technology can also provide a non-invasive approach for sensing biological conditions in dairy and animal husbandry. 64 distinct sensing nanomaterials, including nanotubes, composite nanotubes, nanoparticle-decorated (doped) nanotubes, and polymer-coated nanotubes, having the greatest sensitivity to VOCs in concentrations as low as 2 to 5 ppb have been identified, and exemplary formulations for each identified nanomaterial have been developed.

This novel technology is a screening tool to screen for neurological disorders or injury detecting oculomotor signatures. The tool can be used to measure/monitor the severity and nature of such symptoms. Eye movements are the most frequent, shortest-latency, and biomechanically simplest voluntary motor behavior, and thus provide a model system to assess perceptual and sensory processing disturbances arising from trauma, fatigue, aging, environmental exposures, or disease states. Scientists at NASA have developed and validated a rapid, non-invasive, eye-movement-based testing system to evaluate neural health across a range of brain regions. The technology applies a 5-minute behavioral tracking task consisting of randomized step-ramp radial target motion to capture several aspects of neural responses to dynamic visual stimuli, including pursuit initiation, steady-state tracking, direction and speed tuning, pupillary responses, and eccentric gaze holding.

Injury and disease can cause localized impairment of the retina and visual cortex. However, standard functional clinical assessment of sub-regions of the visual field and retina employ a crude spatial measure, called perimetry, that is insensitive to milder localized defects and vulnerable to eye-movement artifacts. NASA Ames Research Center’s current patented suite of COBRA oculometrics (TOP2-268) provides assessment of general retinal/visual health and performance for the entire visual field or retina, and would not detect defects limited to a small specific location on the retina or in the visual field. NASA Ames has developed a novel Expanded COBRA Oculometrics (ECO), which enhances COBRA by systematically exploring “localized” impairment of specific portions of the retina or visual field that could be the result of patchy retinal or brain degenerative disease, brain tumors, strokes, etc., and by extending the range of retina or visual field tested using a set of concentric rings divided up into octants (or quadrants).

NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed the Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA) to provide highly precise real-time measurements of human metabolic functions. PUMA is a battery-powered, wearable device that measures concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen in inhaled and exhaled breath as well as heart rate, temperature, gas pressure, and inhalation and exhalation airflow rates. The device relays data wirelessly to a laptop computer for real-time analysis. Because the technology is packaged into a compact and wearable unit and can be used anywhere, a multitude of applications are possible, from ensuring the health and safety of astronauts, pilots, divers, and miners to monitoring patients with pulmonary disease and evaluating fitness levels of soldiers and athletes.

To train astronauts to live and work in the weightless environment on the International Space Station, NASA employs a number of techniques and facilities that simulate microgravity. Engineers at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have developed a new system called the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) that provides a simulated reduced gravity environment within a confined interior volume for astronauts to move about and/or equipment to be moved about as if they were in a different gravity field. Each astronaut/item is connected to an overhead crane system that senses their actions (walking or jumping, for example) and then lifts, moves, and descends them as if they had performed the action in a specified reduced gravity. This NASA Technology is available for your company to license and develop into a commercial product. NASA does not manufacture products for commercial sale.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have developed an earthbound robotic training system called “ARGOS” for short. It can actively simulate an astronaut’s weightlessness in space by using an overhead runway and bridge drive system to partially or fully offload their weight using attached cables, effectively suspending them off the ground. Although the test subject’s torso and legs are offloaded, their arms and any weighty hand tools are not. Enter “ARC ANGEL”. The Actuated Realtime Control for ARGOS Nega-tion of Gravitational Effects on the Limbs (ARC ANGEL) technology was developed to offload a space suited test subject’s arms and counteract fatigue realized while performing training activities using ARGOS. Like ARGOS, ARC ANGEL provides offloading via computer-controlled active cable tension. Cables are strung between arm cuffs located just above each elbow, and a motorized reel(s) mounted to the spacesuit’s backpack-like Primary Life Support System (PLSS). This active offloading technology could be used for a number of appli-cations in addition to simulating zero to one G environments. For exam-ple, a patient rehabilitating their shoulder could benefit from movement assistance that offloads arm weight or grasp load, a construction worker carrying a heavy tool could more easily manipulate it, or it could offset equipment weight for military personnel ultimately staving off limb fatigue that would otherwise occur.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have created an enhanced second-generation, robotically assisted extravehicular activity (EVA) glove. The SSRG has been engineered to further decrease the exertion required to do complex, hand-intensive EVA tasks and reduce the risk of astronaut hand injury. Originating from its predecessors, the NASA/General Motors RoboGlove, and the later first-generation Space Suit RoboGlove, the SSRG realizes improved sensing, control, interface, and avionics capabilities. Among these improvements is the implementation of a “power steering mode”, which allows the user to position his/her fingers in an arbitrarily chosen position and receive assistance in holding that position. The SSRG retains the ability to operate like a conventional space suit glove while the actuators are unpowered. The design intent for the SSRG is to enhance a user’s ability to perform human scale work, with considerations for speed, power, durability, dexterity, and ease of operation.

Innovators at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have developed a soft, wearable, robotic upper limb exoskeleton garment designed to actively control the shoulder and elbow, both positioning the limb in specific orientations and commanding the limb through desired motions. The invention was developed to provide effective upper extremity motor rehabilitation for patients with neurological impairments (e.g., traumatic brain injury, stroke). Due to its portable, battery-compatible design, NASA's garment allows for task-specific and intensive motor practice, an important part of rehabilitation for such patients, to be performed outside clinical environments (including in the home). In addition to upper extremity motor rehabilitation, the technology may also find applications in human performance augmentation, including in future spacesuit designs.

The innovators at the NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a new method and device for specialized digital to analog conversion (DAC) and reconstruction of multichannel electrocardiograms (ECGs), including 12-lead ECGs. Current devices do not have the functionality that allow for the transmission of stored digital ECG data collected from one manufacturer's ECG machine to another for an automated second opinion. With this technology the physician has the opportunity to compare results by transferring the ECG data to another ECG machine regardless of location when a patients results are difficult-to-interpret for a second opinion. The technology also allows for the use of less expensive 12-lead ECG front ends or analog to digital conversion (ADC) hardware which is advantageous when in remote locations or with patients who are mobile during research studies. The digital to analog transformation and reconstruction of ECG data technology is available for licensing.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have created a human-powered ventilator that utilizes hand-pump motions, rather than hand or wrist motions such as with a Bag Valve Mask (BVM), to help stabilize respiratory distress in a patient, without electricity. By using an arm-pumping motion to operate the accordion-like ventilator, minimally trained operators can provide respiration to a patient on space-based missions with greater endurance. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this device was reengineered for terrestrial applications in areas where electrically powered ventilators are nonexistent or in short supply. The ventilator is designed to be made of parts that are portable and inexpensive to manufacture as well as simple to assemble and use. This allows for rapid deployment to areas in need such as resource-poor localities or for use by minimally trained personnel, allowing for quick availability to areas in need.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed an adjustable thermal control ball valve (TCBV) assembly which utilizes a unique geometric ball valve design to facilitate precise thermal control within a spacesuit. The technology meters the coolant flow going to the cooling and ventilation garment, worn by an astronaut in the next generation space suit, that expels waste heat during extra vehicular activities (EVAs) or spacewalks. In testing, the TCBV demonstrated solutions to shortcomings of previous thermal control valve iterations such as internal leakage, valve mechanism sticking, and lack of linear flowrate control. The technology could have multiple commercial applications where precise fluid flow control is desired. Examples may be in food and beverage processing, water and chemical treatment, petroleum, energy, manufacturing, and medical industries. The thermal control ball valve has a technology readiness level (TRL) 5 (component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment) and is now available for patent licensing. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.

Innovators at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have developed a novel foot-pedal operated system and device to control movement of an object in three-dimensional (3D) space. The Foot Pedal Controller system enables operators to control movement of spacecraft, aircraft, and watercraft using only foot pedals. This design leaves the hands free for simultaneous operation of other equipment. The Foot Pedal Controller integrates six articulating mechanisms and motion sensors and provides continuous positional feedback to the operator. Motion control across six degrees-of-freedom is enabled by three-control motions for each foot. Specifically, the foot pedal controller moves the object forward/backward, up/down, left/right (translation in three perpendicular axes) combined with rotation about three perpendicular axes, often termed pitch, yaw, and roll. This NASA Technology is available for your company to license and develop into a commercial product. NASA does not manufacture products for commercial sale.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have designed a circumferential scissor spring mechanism, that when incorporated into a hand controller, improves the restorative force to a control stick’s neutral position. The design also provides for operation on a more linear portion of the spring's force deflection curve, yielding better feedback to the user. Physical hand controllers, such as translational and rotational controllers, use a non-circumferential scissor spring arrangement to return the control stick to a neutral position, but the linear response of a typical scissor spring arrangement can reduce a user’s sense of control by allowing slack between deflections. This innovation’s design is driven by a spring mechanism whereby an expansion spring is looped around the channeled circumference of two rounded pivoting blades whose setup can be tuned to allow varying spring tension. This allows the user enhanced control stick sensitivity while operating drive systems, industrial automation, measuring technology, mobile machinery, and gaming systems. This technology is currently implemented on NASA’s Orion Spacecraft training simulators using three-axis hand controllers.

NASA Langley Research Center has developed a novel laser vibrometer sensor for monitoring cardiac activities remotely and non-invasively, specifically heart functions of valve/chamber opening and closing cycles (cardiac cycles). The device provides precise magnitude and timing information, noninvasively and away from the heart region without interference by patient garments.

During the Apollo missions, lightly modified off-the-shelf cameras were used by astronauts to take imagery while performing extravehicular activities (EVAs). These cameras were cumbersome to operate in spacesuits that limit body mobility and pressurized gloves that limit finger dexterity and strength, making it difficult to interact with small camera buttons. Additionally, on the lunar surface, several environmental factors pose risks to continued camera operations (e.g., extreme temperatures, intrusive lunar regolith, radiation effects, vacuum conditions, etc.). To address these challenges, NASA has developed an adaptive camera assembly designed to enable astronauts dawning spacesuits to easily control all functions of a Nikon Z9 camera. Not only does this NASA invention address human factors considerations (i.e., ease-of-use), but also functions as an environmental protection system, defending the camera against the effects of extreme environments. NASA’s adaptive camera assembly may provide advantages for terrestrial photography and videography applications involving hazardous environments where thick gloves and other thermal protective equipment are required (e.g., industrial foundries, Arctic/Antarctic research, welding, etc.). Additionally, the camera assembly may enable individuals with disabilities or health conditions that limit hand control to participate in photography.