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Health Medicine and Biotechnology
Eureka Pod
Portable Science Enclosure Yields Useful Innovations
In the development of this technology for the ISS, engineers had to pay careful attention to electrical draw efficiency, ease-of-use, mass reduction, production cost, and safety, as conducting scientific research under spacecraft stressors is an important requirement. To create a controlled environment within the science enclosure, engineers designed a ventilation system incorporating an external fan/blower that pulls air across a HEPA filter and diffuses it in a manner that creates an even laminar flow within the enclosure before exiting through the exhaust filter. The glove seal forms an airtight and liquid impervious seal. This novel design also allows the user flexibility to choose their own task-specific glove material, facilitates easy tool-free assembly and quick glove changes, and may be transferable to other types of enclosures. Another key feature is that a through-port can be quickly fitted to an empty glove port. Due to the science enclosure system intended application aboard the ISS, its electrical draw does not exceed 24V, thereby making it feasible to power it from a battery for terrestrial field use or other applications where accessing power is a challenge. The combination of its performance, portability, BSL 2 capability, and inexpensive production costs could position the science enclosure system and accompanying innovations to be valuable in the fields of education, research, clean rooms, hospitals, and disaster relief efforts.
health medicine and biotechnology
Human-Powered Respirator
Human-Powered Ventilator
In space there are a limited number of care providers, and those providers are not always clinicians with extensive medical training. Space travel also has limited room to provide care and limited consumables. The Human-Powered Ventilator is compact, portable, and easy to assemble. It is designed so that users can implement hand and arm movements to pump the bellows between two hinged, clamshell-like panels back and forth to provide positive pressure ventilation to the patient. A light spring is incorporated into the design to assist in expanding the bellows, drawing air out of the patients lungs, and reducing the physical load on the operator without compromising the tactile feel necessary for proper usage. The airflow can be supplemented with prescribed medical vapors, oxygen, etc. via standard industry fittings. The Human-Powered Ventilator is TRL 6 (system/subsystem prototype has been demonstrated in a relevant environment) and it is now available for your company to license. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.
health medicine and biotechnology
Bio-Magnetic Device To Enhance Mammalian Tissue Repair
Most magnetic therapy research and resulting devices have centered around pulsed unidirectional bioelectric systems. The technology available here for licensing utilizes a square-wave time-varying electrical current, which generates an electromagnetic field, via a wound coil incorporated into a sleeve and encircles the affected appendage. An external and commercially available time-varying compact electrical generator connects to the wound coil within the sleeve and is powered by a 9-volt battery. Prior industry attempts to use electromagnetic therapy on mammalian tissue have historically applied higher than necessary levels of electromagnetism, typically at 50 gauss or more. Researchers found that by inducing a Fourier-curve, time-varying electromagnetic wave at levels within 0.05 0.5 gauss for a pre-determined time-period, was optimum to achieve successful mammalian tissue regeneration. It is theorized that magnetic fields can alter the flow of positively charged calcium ions that interact with the muscles around small blood vessels causing them to relax. This effect in turn, causes constricted blood vessels to dilate, and dilated blood vessels to constrict. Depending upon the type of injury, enhanced tissue repair may occur through the suppression of inflammation, or the increase in blood flow.
Electrical and Electronics
Highly secure all-printed Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) electronic device based on a nanomaterial network
The technology is an all-printed Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) electronic device based on a nanomaterial (such as single-walled carbon nanotube) network. The network may be a mixture of semiconducting and metallic nanotubes randomly tangled with each other through the printing process. The all-printed PUF electronic device comprises a nanomaterial ink that is inkjet deposited, dried, and randomly tangled on a substrate, creating a network. A plurality of electrode pairs is attached to the substrate around the substrate perimeter. Each nanotube in the network can be a conduction path between electrode pairs, with the resistance values varying among individual pairs and between networks due to inherent inter-device and intra-device variability. The unique resistance distribution pattern for each network may be visualized using a contour map based on the electrode information, providing a PUF key that is a 2D pattern of analog values. The PUF security keys remain stable and maintain robustness against security attacks. Although local resistance change may occur inside the network (e.g., due to environmental impact), such change has little effect on the overall pattern. In addition, when a network-wide resistance change occurs, all resistances are affected together, so that the unique pattern is maintained.
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