NASA News Briefs
NASA, Technology Transfer and Industry-Related News

NASA Partners with Private Sector for Economic Growth

NASA's Glenn Research Center and two leading private sector partners announced an alliance to stimulate regional and statewide economic growth through development and transfer of new technologies. Glenn, Battelle's Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center (GLITeC), and the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) announced the establishment of the Glenn Alliance for Technology Exchange.

Under the leadership of Glenn's director, Dr. Julian Earls, Glenn is continuing its "Journey to Tomorrow" by implementing recommendations from Northeast Ohio leaders that it become a leading-edge research and development center. The recommendations include forging partnerships with higher education and industry to contribute to national research excellence and industrial commercial adaptation and use.

"The alliance will strengthen our ability to improve Glenn's impact with new products and processes and will also contribute significantly to NASA's mission requirements in aerospace," says Earls.

"The importance of Glenn to the region and state cannot be overemphasized," says Dorothy Baunach, president and executive director of Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition (NorTech). "This was clearly the main driver for the sponsors of the original study. Glenn is to be commended for its responsiveness to the study, and both OAI and GLITeC have shown a true spirit of collaboration in stepping up to manage the effort."

Specific efforts soon to be undertaken by the alliance include:

• Identify and establish a Research and Technology Platform, and conduct several demonstration projects within a field of technology of high interest to both Glenn and Northeast Ohio.
• Fund small and early-stage Ohio companies to further develop Glenn technologies.
• Match Glenn-created technologies to Ohio companies for commercial development and application.
• Provide Glenn's technology assistance to solve specific problems faced by Ohio industry.
• Establish a Glenn Technology Partnership Fund to facilitate the co-development of technologies with Ohio companies to help meet NASA mission needs.
• Attract supplemental funding to support activities within the alliance.

"Working with GLITeC to implement the Glenn Alliance will benefit not only NASA Glenn, but also the entire state of Ohio, Northeast Ohio and our local area. The beauty of this effort is that it will invest money directly in technology, not infrastructure, because it builds on the existing capabilities of the partners," says William R. Seelbach, President and CEO of OAI.

In 2002, the Ohio Aerospace Council (OAC), with the financial support of more than 16 corporate and private foundations, including the Generation Foundation, commissioned the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice to create a roadmap showing how Glenn could be utilized to provide momentum for Northeast Ohio's economy. A key recommendation of the report was the creation of a Glenn Commercialization Center. NorTech and OAC, working with the Greater Cleveland Growth Association/Greater Cleveland Partnership, were able to secure a $2 million federal appropriation in FY2004 for the creation of the Center. In late fall, OAI and Battelle's proposal to jointly create and manage a center, renamed the Glenn Alliance for Technology Exchange, received approval from NASA.

"OAI, under the leadership of Bill Seelbach, is the right partner in our mission to enhance NASA's impact on the local economy," says Priscilla Diem, program manager for Battelle. "Powered by this new alliance, GLITeC intends to increase NASA's economic impact in the region by 25 percent over what has been accomplished to date."

The Glenn Alliance for Technology Exchange will be led by OAI, and overseen by an Advisory Board comprised of representatives from Glenn, NorTech, OAI and Battelle.

For more information, contact Laurel Stauber, Glenn Research Center, (216) 433-2820, laurel.j.stauber@grc.nasa.gov.

Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.

NASA, SpaceDev Collaborating on Future Space Transportation

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and SpaceDev Inc., of Poway, Calif., are developing new low-cost space launch vehicles to help achieve the goals of the nation's Vision for Space Exploration.

Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), SpaceDev, a nationally recognized leader in the development of hybrid propulsion systems, will partner with NASA to explore designs for small, piloted launch vehicles and flight test platforms, which will enable near-term, low-cost, routine space access for future exploration.

"I am delighted that we will be working with SpaceDev to help meet the goals of the Vision for Space Exploration," says G. Scott Hubbard, Ames director. "Near-term, low-cost, piloted and unpiloted routine space access is a key for realizing the nation's exploration vision. I look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with SpaceDev to explore the technologies for a new class of exciting launch vehicles for future space exploration."

The MOU points out several potential areas of collaboration, including vehicle concept analyses; hybrid propulsion systems; systems engineering; detailed design; fabrication; re-entry analyses and design; thermal protection systems; information technology; vehicle health monitoring; advanced hybrid propulsion fuels; wind tunnel, arc-jet facilities and flight simulator use; and experimental design and integration.

"We are pleased to be a partner with NASA in helping the nation achieve low-cost, routine access to space," says Jim Benson, SpaceDev's founding chairman and chief executive officer. "We believe that our expertise in hybrid propulsion technology, combined with NASA's hypersonic flight tests and the use of its world-class facilities, will provide an important new opportunity for meeting the nation's space-access needs."

Founded in 1997, SpaceDev designed and built a hybrid propulsion system for SpaceShipOne, the privately funded space vehicle that completed a successful launch in Mojave, Calif., in June 2004. Company officials say that hybrid propulsion provides a level of safety, low costs and operational flexibility that are unmatched by conventional liquid-fueled or solid-rocket motors.

For more information, contact Phil Herlth, Ames Research Center, (650) 604-0625, Philip.M.Herlth@nasa.gov.

Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.

NASA and IVEK Corp. Enter into License Agreement

Drug delivery and laboratory automation might soon be significantly more accurate, efficient, reliable and cost effective, thanks to a wafer-thin diaphragm developed by NASA for use in the space program.

IVEK Corp., a manufacturer of precision small-volume fluid metering and dispensing systems, has licensed the Radial Field Diaphragm (RFD) from NASA's smart materials research area. The RFD is a unique fluid-control device that offers significant potential for accurate small-volume handling of liquids. The agreement was reached with the assistance of the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC), a full-service provider of technology-management services headquartered at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, W.Va.

The Radial Field Diaphragm licensed by IVEK Corp. from NASA's smart materials research area.

Most fluid-controlling diaphragms on the market are configured for low-volume, low-flow precision pumping and dispensing, and have strictly medical applications. NASA's RFD, however, has broad potential in a variety of applications as a pump, a valve, a sensor or all three simultaneously. Vermont-based IVEK plans to refine the diaphragm for commercial use in specific markets and products. Potential uses include measuring and dispensing liquids in the medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, in food and chemical processing and in semiconductor manufacturing.

One of the RFD's main advantages is that it has only one solid-state moving part, a flexible piezoelectric diaphragm, to pump and move liquid. This feature improves reliability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness, which are common shortcomings of multiple-component mechanical devices. The RFD is part of NASA's continuing research in synthetic jets, in which tiny air pumps change the airflow over a wing for enhanced aircraft performance.

The RFD's journey into the public arena originated from the NTTC's NASA Partnership Opportunities initiative. The initiative facilitates partnerships between NASA and industry, research institutions and other government agencies, yielding technologies that not only benefit the space program but also become new commercial products. With the RFD, the NTTC facilitated initial communications between NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and IVEK, and then helped prepare an agreement and a license application for the device.

"NASA Langley is proud of its long history of developing innovative technologies for NASA's space exploration and aerospace programs. Our technology transfer program is committed to transferring cutting-edge technologies to U.S. industry," says NASA Technology Transfer Manager Marisol Garcia. "The Radial Field Diaphragm technology is the latest in the family of smart material actuators that has evolved from our piezoelectric research. We are happy to be working with IVEK in bringing this technology to a commercial market for volume fluid handling and metering applications."

For more information, contact Bill Chard, Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center, (800) 678-6882, wchard@nttc.edu.

Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.

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