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NASA Spinoffs
NASA Spinoffs are dual-purpose technologies created by NASA that help day to day life on Earth. Many of these discoveries were made to deal with problems in space.

Cordless Power Tools
Utilizing NASA’s cordless innovations, Black & Decker created cordless, lightweight battery-powered precision instruments designed to give surgeons optimum freedom and versatility in the operating room. It also led to today’s electric screwdrivers, drills and other portable and chargeable devices. Cordless power tools are also used to help build the International Space Station on orbit. Spinoff 1981

Fireproof Firefighter Uniforms
Fire hazards are much greater in atmospheres containing a high percentage of oxygen under pressure. After the 1967 Apollo fire, NASA needed to find new ways to protect astronauts and their vessels. The Monsanto Company developed a chemically treated fabric called Durette that does not burn.

A National Bureau of Standards/NASA project resulted in a lightweight breathing system including facemask, frame, harness and air bottle marketed by Scott Aviation. Aluminum composite material was used to reduce the weight of the overall apparatus, and the frame and harness were designed to be much easier to put on and take off. Today nearly every major manufacturer of breathing apparatus incorporates NASA technology in some form, helping to reduce the incidence of inhalation-related injuries. Spinoff 1982

Heart Monitors
NASA’s Apollo technology was used by Medrad to develop the AID implantable automatic pulse generator, which monitors the heart continuously, recognizes the onset of a heart attack and delivers a corrective electrical shock. The pulse generator is, in effect, a miniaturized version of the defibrillator used by emergency squads and hospitals to restore rhythmic heartbeat after fibrillation. Once implanted, it needs no specially trained personnel or additional equipment and consists of a microcomputer, a power source and two electrodes that sense heart activity. Spinoff 1980