THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF SPACE SPIN-OFFS: AN INTRODUCTION

摘要

Technology transfer is the process of taking an innovation developed for one purpose and finding a new application for it. For NASA, the process is designed to achieve two goals: (1) To form partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies to develop new technology that supports NASA programs and (2) To commercialize and transfer NASA technology to the private sector, enhancing NASA's technology and commercial objectives. These technology transfer efforts are based in the Innovative Partnerships Program at NASA Headquarters as well as technology transfer offices at NASA's 10 Field Centers, of which Goddard's Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) is one. OTT's activities to effect technology transfer include: (1) evaluating NASA technologies and needs, (2) finding licensees/partners for those technologieseeds, and (3) negotiating agreements. These efforts have generated several technology transfer, and specifically spin-off, successes. Several recent spin-off successes from NASA Goddard are presented.