Success and Education

NASA Success and Education--A Special Feature

Problem solving is what NASA has long been about. The space agency's men and women offer their talents, time, and facilities to work out difficult challenges that confront our nation. Each year, there are many success stories that underscore NASA's problem solving abilities and a willingness to cultivate partnerships for the public good.

One such helping-hand effort is assisting the Smithsonian Institution in its three-year project to help give new life to "Old Glory" by preserving the Star-Spangled Banner. An infrared camera built at Goddard Space Flight Center for exploration of Mars is in use to image the historic flag.

The Mars camera's infrared abilities are well suited to help preservationists identify deteriorated and soiled areas on the flag that are not obvious to the human eye. The flag is suffering from decades of exposure to light, air pollution, and temperature fluctuations, despite special care given the historic icon at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Things that are difficult to see, or invisible to the human eye, can be detected by scanning the flag in infrared. Moisture and dirt, for instance, are culprits that can degrade the flag. Goddard's Acousto-Optic Imaging Spectrometer (AimS), and its special ability to make an image with reflected infrared light, is perfect for the job. Goddard's camera team is also exploring the use of AimS in skin cancer research, as well as using it to study the pigment used in paints, which can help distinguish an authentic piece of art from a forgery.

A Sensors 2000 team at the Ames Research Center has produced a "pill transmitter," which monitors body temperature, pressure, and other vital signs in the womb, and radios this critical information to physicians. Nearly every time doctors operate on a fetus, the mother will later undergo pre-term labor that must be monitored. Pre-term labor is a serious problem that is difficult to predict and monitor with conventional equipment, and often leads to the death of the baby. Thanks to the Ames effort, prototype versions of pill-shaped devices are being designed. Placed in a woman's body through endoscopic surgery techniques, these devices can measure and transmit data on acidity in the fetus, with the future of measuring electrical activity of the fetal heart. These pill transmitters are also being studied for monitoring physiological changes in astronauts during space travel.

As increasing numbers of aircraft crowd the skies, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have joined forces to improve safety and air traffic. The partnership is geared toward improving aviation safety, airspace system efficiency, and aircraft environmental concerns. The agreement to work together guarantees that NASA's abilities and the FAA's air transport industry expertise will be combined to provide a safer aviation system and an affordable and dependable service for the air traveler and the air carrier business.

For over 20 years, a foam developed by researchers at the Ames Research Center has been used in many applications. From wheelchairs to airplane passenger seats, the material, often referred to as temper foam, is one of the most widely used NASA inventions. The material is a cell polymeric foam with "slow springback" properties.

Researchers at the Marshall Space Flight Center have been using a NASA aircraft to fly over U.S. cities, like Baton Rouge in Louisiana, Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Supported by NASA's Earth Science enterprise, science teams are flying a thermal camera to take each city's temperature profile. Images taken by the camera can pinpoint the cities' "hot spots." These are bubble-like accumulations of hot air, called urban heat islands. The bubbles of hot air develop over cities as naturally vegetated surfaces are replaced with heat-radiating asphalt, concrete, rooftops, and other human-made materials.

The Marshall science team is working with the trio of cities initially surveyed to incorporate results into the cities' plans. This type of research is expected to promote strategic planning, such as where best to plant trees and use light-colored, reflective building material, to help cities maintain their cool. NASA's environmental work can help urban planners reduce ozone levels, focus tree-planting programs, and best locate heat emitting roofs.

NASA has also pledged to help in water cleanup and pollution-reduction efforts in the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding areas. The space agency and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have entered into an agreement to better understand the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and its impact on surrounding communities. NASA is contributing a wealth of data it has gleaned from satellite sensors, research aircraft, and the Space Shuttle to help the environmental cause. This information includes water temperature measurements and data on pollution runoff, algae bloom, and fish populations. The NASA/EPA agreement covers new data, as well as historical measurements from the space agency's remote sensing archives. Armed with this type of information, environmental officials can establish priorities for cleaning up the bay and outlying areas. The bay watershed is extensive, covering New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Yet another technology assistance from NASA involves outreach to industry in identifying natural marine oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico, offering clues on oil deposits. Through the Commercial Remote Sensing Program at NASA's Stennis Space Center, NASA is demonstrating practical applications of space technologies in America's marketplace.

Oil migrates naturally through cracks from deposits deep below the ocean floor, releasing into the world's surface waters. These marine oil seeps offer clues as to where oil deposits may be located in ocean basins. Marine oil seeps occur naturally and are manifested as oil slicks on the ocean's surface.

Through Stennis, industry partnerships are being established to use remote sensing and related technologies to explore markets that can enhance opportunities for industry customers. NASA's technical and financial participation helps reduce the market risk associated with new product development to a level that partnering companies can accept. By way of Stennis' outreach to industry, small companies can explore the use of remote sensing without exposure to excessive financial risk.

Be it saving a historic flag, helping reshape the hot and bothersome landscape of the city, or creating life-saving technologies for babies, NASA know-how is being leveraged in many ways to sustain and enhance the quality of life on Earth.