Space Technology Hall of Fame
Medicine
DeBakey Blood Pump
Based on turbine technology developed for use in liquid propellant rocket engines, this specially designed small, lightweight, high speed turbine pumps blood without damage to the delicate, individual blood cells. A joint effort beginning in 1988 between NASA and a group of doctors headed by Dr. Michael DeBakey led to development of this Ventricular Assist…
Light Emitting Diodes for medical applications
One of NASA’s life science research goals is to better understand plant growth in microgravity. NASA found that it was difficult to use traditional plant growth light sources in space because they require considerable power and turn much of it into heat. This means that the experimental system has to have good controls to eliminate…
Ocular Screening System – vision defect detection
Using photo-refractive optics technology and experience developed in the Landsat and Skylab Space Telescope programs, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center innovators created an apparatus for detecting human eye defects. The innovators found that different eye abnormalities and diseases cause the eyes to reflect light in distinctly different ways. Vision Research Corporation integrated the technology into…
Cochlear Implant
In 1977, Adam Kissiah, Jr., a hearing-impaired engineer working at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), patented technology that has been used in digital implantable hearing aids. He developed the technology using the skills and knowledge of electronic sensing systems, telemetry, and sounds and vibrations sensors he acquired during his work on the Space Shuttle…
MedStar Monitoring System
The cost of caring for the chronically ill continues to grow. In-home care is part of the solution, and statistics show significant patient health improvements through closer in-home monitoring. Cybernet’s MedStar™ System allows health care professionals to remotely monitor patients, and evolved from research funded by NASA, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the…
LADARVision 4000
More and more people are now leading lives without eyeglasses or contact lenses thanks to laser vision correction surgery. Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis or LASIK, the most common form of laser vision correction is the most widely performed, elective procedure. The LADARVision(R) 4000 laser uses an eye-tracking device to ensure accurate reshaping of the cornea.…
InnerVue Diagnostic Scope System
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given the world amazing images of the distant stars, planets, and galaxies. The cutting edge imaging technology that enhances the Hubble images also extends its benefits to life here on Earth, from deciphering previously unreadable portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls to improving digital mammography for advanced cancer detection. This…
ResQPOD
Collaboration between NASA, the United States Army and private industry led to both significant improvement and an important new application for a remarkable medical device called ResQPOD. Successfully used by NASA to treat orthostatic intolerance – a condition of suddenly lowered blood pressure that occurs upon rapid reentry into Earth’s atmosphere – ResQPOD quickly increases…
ArterioVision
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Space technology is now helping diagnose and monitor treatments for hardening of the arteries before it causes heart attacks and strokes. Advanced video imaging software developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides remarkably accurate and imagery of our solar system and has laid…
Micro Algae Nutritional Supplements and Products from Space Research
Millions of infants and adults around the world benefit from nutrition technology that began with space research. In the early 1980s NASA’s Closed Environment Life Support System program explored the use of microalgae as a food supply, oxygen source and waste disposal catalyst on long duration interplanetary missions. Scientists continued work independently after the completion…