IT Blog

From cell phone cameras to microchips, life on Earth abounds with NASA technology.

Since the Apollo era, NASA technology has found extended life in more terrestrial applications—to such extent that the space agency set up its Technology Transfer Program (T2) in 1976 to streamline getting its patent offerings to the public. Chances are that players in next month’s Super Bowl trained on machines derived from microgravity exercise treadmills used by astronauts on the International Space Station. And you can thank a vibration dampening tool in the lunar-bound Space Launch System rocket—slated for its first test flight this spring—for mitigating shaking in some Manhattan skyscrapers.

NASA scientists and engineers invent an average of 1,600 to 1,800 devices and release some 5,500 pieces of software a year, though not all get commercialized. Last year, the agency licensed patents to just 220 companies, according to Dan Lockney, T2’s program executive for…