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2003-07-24 - 8:08 a.m. Esoteric practicality We're working with finite element models, analyzing dynamical interactions between various moving pieces using a program called NASTRAN which makes mathematical models of structure bend and stretch in ways that would put Jane Fonda to shame. Sounds, esoteric, huh? You thing so? Nope, it's just one of NASA's greatest hits. NASTRAN is a computer software program that likely has touched every American. The software saves time and money by using a computerized design to identify what's good and bad about a product before it is ever actually manufactured. NASTRAN and its offshoots in the private sector are used in everything from chemical plants, refineries and trains to next-generation fighter aircraft, cars, acoustic speakers, electric guitars, and skyscrapers. NASTRAN was developed for human space flight and for aerospace/aviation, but private companies that offer offshoots of the original program have a direct revenue of more than $1 billion a year, and the software affects hundreds of billions of dollars worth of consumer products. What else do we do for you? How about his bit concerning the TRMM spacecraft of monkey story fame - NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use remote sensing observations to enhance hurricane track, landfall, and intensity forecasts. Measurements from NASA�s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and QuikScat Earth-observing satellites help to improve predictions about hurricanes and other tropical systems as they move from the open ocean to coastal regions. Reducing hurricane track error means pinpointing precise regions for evacuation in advance of a predicted landfall. Better forecasts have considerable societal impact, including cost savings. One more tidbit from the NASA greatest hits literature, answering what do astronauts do during spaceflight that justifies all that expense? On the Space Shuttle Columbia's final mission, STS-107, astronauts helped scientists study how prostate cancer cells and bone cells come together. The goal was to learn about how the cells might interact in the early stages of when cancer begins to spread. Columbia's astronauts used a device invented by NASA called a bioreactor. The bioreactor helps researchers turn cell cultures into functional tissue, which can be used for experiments, transplants and drug development. Without a bioreactor, cells fall to the bottom of a Petri dish and grow as a sheet one cell layer thick � thinner than a human hair. In NASA's space bioreactor, the cells stay suspended and form the kind of large samples researchers need. During the Columbia mission, the cell "assembly" grew to the size of a roll of pennies � much larger than anything researchers have seen before. The Shuttle experiment was so successful that NASA plans to fly similar, longer-term experiments on the International Space Station. NASA's bioreactor has yielded 25 patents and more than 20 licenses, and over 6,000 units are now in universities, medical centers, and the National Institutes of Health. And we do all this for a fraction of the DoD's budget. Sorry, couldn't resist. � � Scribble to Theo previous - next �