Keith’s note: Although NASA did not sponsor research wherein tardigrade proteins were tested in human cells to see if they work and possibly influence human metabolism – someone did -and it worked. This emerged as the result of prior work into extremophiles. Tardigrades are a favorite extremeohpile amongst astrobiologists. They have even been studied on the International Space Station. Drug companies scour the world – sifting through soils, undersea creatures, and toxic waste dumps for interesting organisms that can provide new industrial processes or biomedical applications. One would hope that the people at NASA who do the whole Spinoffs thing every year would pay attention to things like this. Perhaps a little funding might be worth considering. NASA loves to talk about all the things ISS biomedical research can do for people back on Earth. Who knows maybe the notion of hibernating astronauts on long space missions could benefit. Last week NASA was crowing about the Biden Cancer Moonshot thing. Well, NASA Astrobiology research might also have similar spinoff benefits. But NASA won’t know unless it starts to poke around. Full release.

Keith’s note: According to a Starlink tweet “Starlink is ideal for rural locations. Later this year @JohnDeere will begin equipping new and existing machines across the United States and Brazil with Starlink to help connect farmers with high-speed internet so they can fully leverage precision agriculture technologies”. Gee, how many people in America are engaged in farming? How often does NASA make specific efforts to engage with these communities which are often rural and somewhat isolated? Not very often. If NASA’s technology folks were actually paying attention to advances and applications of space technology with real world, everyday uses, they’d be thinking how this fits into the whole spinoff thing. Instead of focusing outreach on several zip codes they’d be seeking relevance to the rest of us – and not just U.S. taxpayers – but also to the rest the world where agriculture is the engine that feeds us all. FYI I touched upon similar issues recently in “Millions Of People Are Already Training To Fly Helicopters On Other Worlds. Has NASA Noticed? “ wherein the use of drones – along with satellite connected machinery – can offer great benefits to even small-scale farming operations – especially in rural/remote locations. And there is a clear overlap between their uses on farms and how we’ll be using them on other worlds. And yes, these are private companies doing this Starlink/tractor thing on their own dime. But this application of space technology is an emergent property – one that arises from of all of the technologies that NASA has nurtured and focused on for more than a half century – Starlink – Drones – GPS – remote sensing … You’d think someone at NASA would be chomping at the bit to make this connection. Guess again. Just sayin’.

Keith’s 13 Feb update I have spoken with some folks in the space biomedical community and seen some email chains about the use of FINDER tech in earthquake affected areas in Turkiye (Turkey). I am leaving names/organizations out of this so they can work un-hindered by my posting of their names. Shortly after/concurrent with my complaint last week on NASAWatch about NASA PAO ignoring this good news a bunch of people within NASA HQ, JPL and in the private sector were in motion to coordinate with one another. The utility of this NASA-developed spinoff technology was blatantly obvious to them – even if NASA PAO did not understand – or care that it was. Some FINDER units were already pre-positioned in Turkiye but more were needed. So this ad hoc network sprang into place and worked 24/7 such that and further pieces of hardware are now in place or enroute to Turkiye. I will update on this topic as I get additional information. It is heartwarming to see that a NASA inspired spinoff does exceed expectations and can actually help save lives. What is baffling – annoyingly so – is the continued indifference on the part of NASA Public Affairs. This is one instance where all of the NASA spinoff hype was utterly justified. It is also a stellar example of the potent soft power projection that NASA is capable of inspiring. Yet Marc Etkind et al just sit on their hands. Just sayin’. Keith’s 14 Feb update: Marc Etkind’s NASA PAO elite social media squad finally figured out how to tweet about this. Only took 5 days for a one paragraph update. It is not as if this tech is a secret – except to NASA PAO it would seem. Better late than never.

Keith’s 9 Feburary note: A few years ago NASA touted a tech transfer “spinoff” at JPL called “FINDER” – a device that uses microwave technology to detect heartbeats and other noises that could lead rescuers to victims buried by earthquakes. Cool stuff. In 2016 NASA held a demo down at Quantico, Virginia which I atteneded. I later wrote this piece describing how it all works. After a few mentions by NASA it essentially disappeared from the examples of spinoffs that NASA cites. With the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria one would think (hope) that new stories about this technology’s deployment would be posted – the hope being that NASA helped spread this technology for wider utilization. I seem to have found no examples of any recent mention. One would think that NASA would want to see this technology deployed as widely as possible for humanitarian reasons – as well as a potent method of soft power projection. NASA PAO no longer responds to inquiries about things like this – if they did I’d ask. Can anyone tell me if FINDER technology is still in use – and whether it is being deployed in the Middle East after this quake. Thanks. See “NASA FINDER Technology Aids Search Following Mexico Earthquake“ from 2017 and “Using Space Radar To Hear Human Heartbeats in Nepal“(2016).

Toyota Connected ‘Cabin Awareness’ Concept Uses New Tech to Detect Occupants, Toyota “Toyota Connected North America (TCNA), an independent software and innovation center of excellence, today introduced its Cabin Awareness concept technology that uses millimeter-wave, high-resolution 4D imaging radar to help detect occupants (including certain pets) in cars and has the potential to detect them if ever they’re left behind. … Inspiration for the Cabin Awareness concept came from microwave […]

NASA FINDER Technology Aids Search Following Mexico Earthquake, NASA JPL “Disaster relief workers on the ground in Mexico City were responding to this week’s 7.1-magnitude earthquake by using a suitcase-sized radar instrument capable of detecting human heartbeats under rubble. This technology was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate in Washington. FINDER, which stands for Finding Individuals for Disaster […]

Keith’s 7 July update: A week Two weeks Three weeks ago I sent NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan (and NASA HQ PAO) a simple question about her statement regarding NASA’s value to America’s economy i.e.“there was a report that showed that for ever $1.00 you spend on NASA you get $4.00 returned to the economy”. NASA has still not gotten back to me with an answer. Either NASA refuses to […]

NASA Technology Programs Looking To Create Economic Development, KRWG “The camera in your cell phone we invented that,” [NASA Technology Transfer Program Executive David] Lockney said. “It’s a lightweight, high resolution camera, doesn’t draw a lot of power, we used it for space applications on a satellite. That same exact camera on a chip, is the same is the same exact camera that you have in your cell phone today.” […]

Keith’s note: I received a hard copy of NASA Spinoff 2016 today. I have not actually held a hard copy of this publication in a long time. Having worked on portions of NASA Spinoff reports in the 80s and early 90s I have to say that this document is much more detailed and varied than what I worked on back in the day. That said, as hard as this office […]

.@NASASpinoff why don't @NASATechBriefs @NASA_Technology @NASATechgateway coordinate & retweet ALL #NASA tech news? Who's in charge? #NASA — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 25, 2013 NASA Technology That Can’t Link To Itself, earlier post Keith’s note: NASA Office of the Chief Technologist has no link to NASA Tech Briefs. NASA Tech Briefs does not link to NASA OCT. In fact, I did a search of the source HTML code on the […]

WCUI’s Psoria-Shield(R) Announces Sales Roll-Out of Psoria-Light(R) to Key Markets “The device was developed by Mr. Scot Johnson, President and CEO of Psoria-Shield, and his team of engineers who together have developed over 30 FDA-cleared, CE marked devices sold worldwide. The Deep UV LEDs utilized by Psoria-Light were created in parts by DARPA, NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency) for use in space. Psoria-Light’s adaptation of them for targeted […]