National Aeronautics and Administration

Spinoff 2000 National Aeronautics and Administration

Publisher Marketing: For the past 42 years, NASA has made special efforts to ensure the widest possible dissemination of its research and technology developments. We share the wealth of technology developed for our missions with the nation's industries to contribute to U. S. economic strength and quality of life. For the past 27 years, this publication has provided you with over 1,200 examples of products and services developed as a direct result of commercial partnerships between NASA and the business community. Examples have covered products from fire retardant materials and air pollution monitors to non-invasive cardiac monitors and sensors for environmental control. Research and development across a broad range of technology disciplines, such as micro-devices, fiber optics, lasers, enhanced imaging, and data communication, have generated technologies applicable to many commercial products we have used for our benefit. The NASA Commercial Technology Network is an excellent vehicle for easy access to use of these technologies. The application of NASA technologies by the private sector increases productivity by contributing to the development of new products and services that meet consumer demands, benefit the national economy, and enhance human health and quality of life. At the same time, application of NASA technology helps the U. S. meet international competitive challenges and stay at the leading edge of technical innovation. The return benefits-spinoffs-represent a significant dividend to the taxpayer and the nation's investment in aerospace research. Spinoff 2000 is an instrument of the NASA Commercial Technology program and documents the outcome of our spinoff successes. It is a true measurement of NASA's commitment to transfer as many technologies to the private sector as possible. In the Technology Transfer and Outreach section of Spinoff 2000, we highlight the activities of our Ames Research Center's Commercial Technology Office (CTO). Their efforts to facilitate and support technology commercialization are representative of the CTO at each field center. Increased activities to accelerate the dissemination of technologies, speed up the process of patent licensing, quicken the release of software for beta testing, support and manage incubators, and hasten the collaboration with commercial and academic organizations will continue to maximize the earliest potential commercial utilization of NASA's new inventions and technologies. Spinoff 2000 is organized into three sections: 1) Aerospace and Development highlights major research and development efforts currently carried out at the 10 NASA field centers; 2) Commercial Benefits-Spinoffs describes commercially available products and services resulting from the transfer of NASA technology; and 3) Technology Transfer and Outreach features this year's center spotlight, NASA's Ames Research Center, and its commercialization efforts, as well as the mechanisms in place nationwide to assist U. S. industry in obtaining, transferring, and applying NASA technology, expertise, and assistance. Contributor Bio:  Administration, National Aeronautics and Edward Clinton Ezell, born in Indianapolis, Indiana (1939), received his A. B. from Butler University (1961); M. A. from the University of Delaware (1963), where he was a Hagley Fellow; and Ph. D. in the history of science and technology from Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland (1969). He taught at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois, before contracting with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to write The Partnership (Linda N. Ezell, coauthor, 1978), a history of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. In 1980, Ezell became the historian at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. Also active in the field of military technology, Ezell had recently written Handguns of the World (1981), a companion volume to the 12th edition of Small Arms of the World (in press) (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books). He is now a curator of military history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington. Linda Neuman Ezell, born in Fulton County, Illinois (1951), graduated from Sangamon State University in 1974. Under contract to NASA Headquarters, she has also written NASA Historical Data Book, 1958-1968, vol. 2, Programs and Major Projects (in press) and is working on another volume that will describe NASA programs during the agency's second decade. Ms. Ezell, a part-time graduate student at George Washington University in Washington, is also an emergency medical technician and firefighter for a volunteer fire department in northern Virginia.