Technology Transfer Takes Technology On The Road

Marshall's Technology Transfer, Microgravity, and Space Transportation Offices showcased the Center's technology efforts in the National Manufacturing Week Conference and trades show in Chicago, Ill. March 15-18. In addition, the Media Relations Office teamed with the Johnson Space Center to provide the mobile International Space Station trailer, as well as news media support. The event, with an estimated 65,000 manufacturing professionals in attendance, is the nation's third largest trade show.

As part of an aggressive campaign to commercialize NASA technologies, the Technology Transfer Office highlighted developments in thermal gasket seals, stepper motors, and video stabilization, and other promising Marshall technologies. Technology Transfer also provided a display on the Productivity Enhancement Complex (PEC), and unveiled the "40 Years of Solutions" CD-ROM, which highlights the PEC. This CD provides a PEC overview, and also covers doing business with NASA, some major NASA historical milestones, and several Spinoffs. Representatives from the office and several other centers were on hand to discuss a broad range of NASA developments and their potential applications in the commercial sector, and to identify potential partners for licensing those technologies.

The Microgravity and Space Product Development attendees provided an overview of both ongoing and potential research projects, encouraging both the use of recent developments and the pursuit of new joint projects among industry's cutting edge manufacturers.

Technical presentations were given on a variety of topics, including NASA's Technology Transfer effort, Marshall's thermal gasket seal and video stabilization, and other stepper motor work. Glenn Research Center's embedded web technology and Goddard Space Flight Center's flat screen video technology also received considerable attention from the designers and executives attending the event. Marshall's Dr. Fred Bickley, chief engineer for the International Space Station Propulsion Module at Marshall, gave a special presentation on Parallel Manufacturing techniques that also received an enthusiastic reception.

Other contributors to the event were the National Technology Transfer Center, several Regional Technology Transfer Centers, Research Triangle Institute, Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Stennis Space Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.