NASA contributes expertise, ingenuity to COVID-19 fight

NASA has joined the combat towards coronavirus (COVID-19) with efforts underway throughout the nation to reinforce the nationwide response, just a few of which have been highlighted in a media briefing at this time.

“NASA’s power has all the time been our means and keenness – collective and particular person – for fixing issues,” mentioned NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “All of the work being finished reveals how NASA is uniquely outfitted to help within the federal response to coronavirus by leveraging the ingenuity of our workforce, mobilizing investments made within the U.S. house company to fight this illness, and dealing with private and non-private partnerships to maximise outcomes.”

On April 1, NASA launched an agencywide name for concepts on its inside crowdsourcing platform [email protected] for a way the company can leverage its experience and capabilities to assist the nation with this unprecedented disaster. In simply two weeks, 250 concepts have been submitted, greater than 500 feedback have been submitted, and greater than four,500 votes have been solid.

Along with the [email protected] problem, the company workforce developed concepts and labored with companions to rapidly reply to the well being disaster throughout the final month. Company efforts highlighted through the media briefing embody:

VITAL Ventilator

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California designed a brand new high-pressure ventilator tailor-made particularly to deal with COVID-19 sufferers. The system, known as VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Expertise Accessible Regionally), handed a crucial check on April 21 on the Icahn Faculty of Drugs at Mount Sinai in New York – an epicenter of COVID-19 in the USA – and now could be below evaluation for an emergency use authorization by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA).

VITAL is designed to deal with sufferers with milder signs, thereby maintaining the nation’s restricted provide of conventional ventilators obtainable for sufferers with extra extreme COVID-19 signs.

The system may be constructed quicker and maintained extra simply than a conventional ventilator, and is comprised of far fewer elements, making it extra economical to provide. It was designed to make use of elements presently obtainable to potential producers however not compete with the present provide chain of presently made ventilators.

Aerospace Valley Optimistic Stress Helmet

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Analysis Heart in California partnered with Antelope Valley Hospital, the Metropolis of Lancaster, Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Firm (TSC), Antelope Valley Faculty and members of the Antelope Valley Activity Power to resolve doable shortages of crucial medical tools in the local people.

One of many activity power’s first efforts was to construct an oxygen helmet to deal with COVID-19 sufferers exhibiting minor signs and reduce the necessity for these sufferers to make use of ventilators. The system capabilities like a steady optimistic airway stress (CPAP) machine to power oxygen right into a affected person’s low-functioning lungs.

Referred to as the Aerospace Valley Optimistic Stress Helmet, the system was efficiently examined by medical doctors at Antelope Valley Hospital. The Spaceship Firm started producing 500 this week and a request was submitted April 22 to the FDA for an emergency use authorization.

Floor Decontamination System

Via its Regional Financial Improvement Program, engineers at NASA’s Glenn Analysis Heart in Ohio partnered with Ohio firm Emergency Merchandise and Analysis in 2015 to information the event and manufacturing of a small, transportable, and economical system that decontaminates areas resembling ambulances in below an hour and at a fraction of the price of methods presently in use. AMBUStat is being utilized in police vehicles and different areas killing airborne and floor particles of viruses. Now NASA is conducting extra analysis to proceed to maximise the effectiveness of this system on COVID-19.

NASA’s legacy of human house exploration, analysis and expertise growth has yielded numerous improvements that show the direct and profound influence of taxpayer funding in America’s house program on our high quality of life on Earth, together with improved applied sciences for water purification, air filtration, kidney dialysis and tele-medicine, in addition to analysis that has led to improved vaccines, drug therapies, and mitigations for bone loss. We will solely speculate as to the breadth of transformative advantages that can come from America’s return to the Moon by way of NASA’s Artemis program and our efforts to place the primary people on Mars.

Associated Hyperlinks

Coronavirus at NASA

Space Medicine Technology and Systems

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NASA develops COVID-19 prototype ventilator in 37 days

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 24, 2020


A brand new high-pressure ventilator developed by NASA engineers and tailor-made to deal with coronavirus (COVID-19) sufferers handed a crucial check Tuesday on the Icahn Faculty of Drugs at Mount Sinai in New York, an epicenter of COVID-19 in the USA.

The system, known as VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Expertise Accessible Regionally), was developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to unlock the nation’s restricted provide of conventional ventilators so they could be us … read more