Daniel Lockney, technology transfer program executive at NASA, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest innovations by the agency. 

Between Bells

NASA's New 'Spinoff' Report Features Latest Tech Innovations 

joining us. Now to discuss is Daniel Lockney technology transfer program executive at Nasa Welcome welcome to the show. So many innovative projects featured in this publication. What was this year's tech inspired by. So every time Nasa starts submission, we have to do things that have never been done before, create technologies that hadn't existed before. And in that process we come up with new ideas, materials, concepts, software and we find out how to get it out to the public and this book is full of many examples of these types of terrestrial Nasa technologies coming back down to earth. So Daniel, how does Nasa choose which companies they want to work with and who they want to feature in this report? We work with just about anyone who is interested in our technology. We have a wide portfolio available at technology dot Nasa dot gov of thousands of technologies that the public can access. So there's more more to space than just rockets and propulsion. We've got new materials, we've got medical devices, we have consumer goods, whole portfolio. All right for people to look at, figure out if they can use it to figure out how to commercialize it and bring that Nasa technology back down to earth. We're seeing a picture I believe. Or just saw a picture of the robotic gloves Nasa built with general motors. How are these gloves going to improve the industrial industry? I'm so curious and fascinated by these gloves. It was designed originally for astronauts to use during the E. V. A. The spacewalks where they had to hold tools with a pressurized glove on and over time with the suit pushing against your your hand your hand did the fatigue and the hours that it takes to repair the space station. So the same glove we're using. Um we worked with general Motors to figure out how to to use it in industrial applications and the thinking is it adds a little bit of strength, reduces fatigue and make your hand a little bit stronger so you can avoid injury and then do more on the factory floor with it with his glove on, avoid injuries and and have a little more strength. Hmm. It looks really cool actually like pretty easy to use flexible, I should say. So we know at the height of the pandemic. Nasa's drones helped those of us that were stuck at home, walk us through how that technology works. Daniel. So Nasa developed software that helps with drones um kind of an operating system for drones. And one of the applications during the pandemic was delivering hand sanitizer and face masks to people. You know, we didn't want human contact and if you don't have a face mask, we're not coming near you. But we figured out ways working with companies um to commercialize this software and allow drones to drop off these needed supplies to people. The Environmental Protection Agency announced it's working to end air and water pollution in poorer communities. This is something we follow very closely on the show and on cheddar climate. Can you talk about how the trees that are featured in the spinoff report could help with that very thing. This is a cool one. So this is fiddle remediation using plants to clean the air in the water. So you all know that plants will will clean clean the air. Um and that that comes from NASA research that that we know that but we figured out a way to introduce a specific bacteria into trees um that would then eat up pollutants in an area specific pollutants. So the way we developed that was there was a factory nearby one of our field centers and we found a way to make these trees that grow their cleanup the pollutants. It's now being used all around the country. You plant a tree in addition to providing the oxygen in the shade and all the great things that trees get provide us their cleaning specific pollutants from, from the air and from the groundwater. That sounds everything you've mentioned sounds cooler than the last, which says a lot because every item is awesome. Daniel. I have to ask you in your personal opinion, what's your favorite personally? I think the simplest most profound example of Nasa technology being everywhere is we developed a lightweight high resolution camera that doesn't draw a lot of battery power. We made it for a satellite satellite application and now that same technology, that camera is what you find in your cell phone. So Nasa invented the cellphone camera. A lot of people don't know that, but that is, that is one of the ones that we've done talking of smartphones I'm hearing. There's also one that can be unlocked by using a heartbeat. What's that about? Daniel? Uh, so that's one of the many technology we have that someone else can come in and adopt and commercialize and that is um, a biometric feedback that can inform your, your handheld device. So ultimately it's a security feature the same as you use your thumb print. Um, you can use your heartbeat to unlock the telephone. Very, very cool. We hope you come back. I this is so fascinating to us. Daniel Lockney technology transfer program executive at Nasa. You can read more about the latest innovations by visiting spinoff dot Nasa dot gov.