Did you know that NASA technology is all around you? From the camera in your phone to lifesaving medical devices — and so much more — innovations developed for space often come back to improve life on Earth.
Through NASA spinoffs, space technology fuels advancements in healthcare, transportation, agriculture and more. Our expert explains how NASA is part of your everyday life!
Watch now and explore more at https://spinoff.nasa.gov.
Producers: Scott Bednar, Pedro Cota, Jessica Wilde
Editor: Pedro Cota
Credit: NASA
Through NASA spinoffs, space technology fuels advancements in healthcare, transportation, agriculture and more. Our expert explains how NASA is part of your everyday life!
Watch now and explore more at https://spinoff.nasa.gov.
Producers: Scott Bednar, Pedro Cota, Jessica Wilde
Editor: Pedro Cota
Credit: NASA
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, to answer that question, we're going to have to go all the way back to 1958, back
00:11to the legislation that originally created the space agency, NASA.
00:15So in that legislation, there's some forward looking language that says, make sure that
00:21all the cool stuff you develop for space doesn't just get blasted off into the universe, but
00:25comes back down to the earth in the form of practical and terrestrial benefits.
00:30I'm paraphrasing, of course, the legislation is actually a little bit dry, like legislation
00:33should be.
00:35Since that time, NASA has worked to get the technologies it created into the hands of
00:40the public.
00:41These become products and services, and they save lives, they improve lives, they generate
00:47income, they create jobs, they boost the economy, they increase crop yields, they make airplane
00:53travel safer, they make train transportation safer.
00:57NASA's everywhere you look.
00:59One example I like to bring up is the camera in your cell phone.
01:02That was actually developed at JPL.
01:04We were working on a lightweight, high resolution camera for a satellite application, and that
01:10became the very first camera on a chip, camera in the cell phone.
01:14We've also worked on things like indoor agriculture, which is increasingly important as the world
01:19gets denser and people need access to healthy foods.
01:22During the pandemic, some researchers developed a ventilator that had fewer than 100 parts,
01:27none of which were required in the supply chain to make other ventilators.
01:31We gave that to dozens of companies all around the world to help save lives.
01:35If you check out spinoff.nasa.gov, you can find thousands of examples of how NASA is
01:42everywhere in your life.