Inventions of the Year Selected
A LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER
TECHNOLOGY, now commercially available with
$10 million in sales, has been selected as the NASA Commercial Invention
of the Year. The NASA selection committee also chose a Goddard Space
Flight Center inventor for the Government Inventor of the Year Award.
PETI-5, short for "Phenylethynyl Terminated Imide Oligomers,"
fifth composition, is a high-temperature resin material originally
de-veloped for high-speed, high-temperature aircraft applications
because it is strong and lightweight. With an exceptional properties
combination, this material can be used both as a glue that holds
fibers together and as an adhesive in a variety of aerospace and
commercial applications. Langley inventors Paul Hergenrother, Joseph
Smith and Brian Jensen were awarded three patents on the novel material.
To date, NASA has licensed PETI-5 technology to four companies.
Designers and manufacturers are very satisfied with PETI-5 because
it is easy to process into complex parts and because of its mechanical
properties, durability, nontoxicity and ability to adjust to changing
environments. In the future, PETI-5 may be applied to such consumer
products as high-performance automobile engines.
The NASA Government Inventor of the Year Award goes to Goddard
employee/inventor Charles E. Clagett for his device that helps stabilize
NASA spacecraft, called the "Apparatus for Providing Torque and
for Storing Momentum Energy." Clagett is Associate Head of the Component
and Hardware Systems Branch at Goddard in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Being selected the NASA Government Inventor of the Year is really
a surprise, an honor and quite a shock," said Clagett. "I appreciate
the fact that I have been recognized for my invention."
Commonly known as the SMEX Reaction/Momentum Wheel, Clagett's
device was developed for NASA's Small Explorer program (SMEX). A
compact mechanism that could accelerate at a high rate with little
vibration was needed to fulfill the missions' science requirements.
The wheel's compact design is durable, with at least a four-year
life expectancy, while providing improved performance and better
stability for a spacecraft, as well as significantly reducing vibration.
This reaction wheel invention has been highly successful on the
last two Small Explorer missions, the Transition Region and Coronal
Explorer and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite. The high-acceleration-rate
and low-vibration device allows for the detection of signals that
would have been obscured by previous reaction wheels, thus enabling
Goddard to support missions that previous technology could not support.
The inventors will be honored at a NASA Headquarters ceremony,
where they will receive an award check and certificate.
For more information, contact Sonja Alexander at NASA Headquarters.
Call: 202/358-1761, E-mail: salexand@hq.nasa.gov
Or contact Keith Henry at Langley Research Center.
Call: 757/864-6120, E-mail: h.k.henry@larc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
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RESEARCH
BREAKTHROUGHS IN RADIATION PROTECTION
An
evaluation of microorganism contamination safeguards for an
upcoming Mars mission has resulted in the discovery of a novel
compound that may lead to breakthrough methods for protecting
astronauts and sensitive electronic equipment from space radiation's
harmful effects. Montana Biotech Corporation of Belgrade,
Montana, has just signed a Technology Cooperation Agreement
with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California,
for research on radiation shielding compounds. The MSU TechLink
Center, a technology transfer and commercialization partnership
between NASA and Montana State University (MSU) located in
Bozeman, Montana, helped broker the agreement.
The agreement
stems from a recently completed project between Montana Biotech
and Johnson Space Center to improve methodologies for recognizing
and analyzing microorganisms in rock samples acquired during
NASA space missions. MSU Associate Professor Dr. David Singel
assisted Montana Biotech in testing the compound's radiation
protection effects. The new agreement calls for measuring
this new compound's ability to shield gamma radiation, the
relative effectiveness of different formulations of the compound
and its ability to shield other types of radiation, including
x-rays and proton and electron radiation. Preliminary results
indicate that the compound can shield other organisms, fiber
optics and microcircuits from radiation's harmful effects.
The implications of this research extend into the areas of
satellite communications, bioremediation and nuclear medicine.
Montana
Biotech specializes in analyzing and isolating unique compounds
from microorganisms found living in extreme environments,
such as boiling, acidic or radioactive water, and developing
commercial products from these compounds. Examples of products
include environmentally friendly adhesives, anti-oxidants
and antifungals for the biomedical market and environmental
remediation agents.
For more
information, contact Will Swearingen at MSU TechLink Center.
Call: 406/994-7704, E-mail: wds@montana.edu
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
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