We expect a leading organization in the international space race to develop insane tech, spearhead invaluable innovation, and come up with solutions to problems so far above the mental capacity of us mere mortals we might fail to comprehend. However, sharing technology is not everyone’s business. Naturally, NASA also has to solve everyday problems that we take for granted here on Earth, made more complicated by the absence of oxygen and gravity or the dangers of temperatures far below freezing.

Luckily for us, NASA is quite generous in how they share their inventions, which makes it possible for us to use them to better our own lives in the process. Here are ten innovation spinoffs developed by NASA that changed many lives here on Earth

Related: Ten Most Expensive NASA Programs

10 Breast Cancer Detection

Working in space has many downsides. One of which is exposure to radiation. It was found that astronauts working on the International Space Station (ISS) were exposed to radiation equal to as many as 1,000 chest X-rays.

Although we are constantly exposed to various levels of radiation here on Earth, radiation in large quantities can be quite cancerous. Intensive preventative care and detection technology were therefore required to prevent their colleagues from developing terrible life-threatening cancers. NASA invested in research to study how sections of DNA can measure a person’s radiation exposure and assess the damage.

The BioScan System has been proven to be able to scan, find, and confirm the presence of cancer in the breasts by detecting the cancerous cells’ ability to recruit an alternative blood supply—a clear red flag of malignant lesions.^[1]

9 Safety Grooving Highways

Hydroplaning during rainstorms is a condition that causes the tires of a car rolling or sliding along the slippery road to be lifted away from the surface due to water pressure. This leads to a loss of control of the vehicle and is considered the main reason uncontrolled skidding happens during inclement weather.

As you can imagine, hydroplaning is a terrible thing to happen to a spacecraft returning to Earth at insane speeds, so NASA jumped to task. In the early ’60s, safety grooves in the runway were proposed, which would channel the water off the surface, providing better traction.

It wasn’t long before the innovation was used to improve the roads Americans travel on every day, leading to a reduction in almost 85% of wet-weather accidents since the implementation of the grooves.^[2]

8 Apollo-Era Life Rafts

Space travel has become more sophisticated over recent years, with shuttles landing on Earth in one piece, with designated runways. But there was a time when it wasn’t as easy, and pods would find themselves deep in the ocean in a maneuver called a splashdown.

NASA teamed up with a man named Jim Givens, who was working on a similar invention, something that would keep the astronauts afloat while the search for them in the vast ocean continued. The collaboration developed an inflatable raft system that could be deployed once they hit the water.

The Givens Raft has been adapted for commercial use and, after many years of use and adaptations, has saved upward of 450 lives that would have been claimed by the sea.^[3]

7 Airplane Winglets

When a fuel crisis in the 1970s threatened global air travel, the entire industry almost collapsed. Adversity breeds opportunity, so a band of NASA engineers and scientists came together to explore new fuel-saving technologies.

The Aircraft Efficiency Program was a 10-year program to develop various aeronautical technologies in the hopes of making future craft up to 50% more fuel efficient. It was to be completed by 1985 but was extended.

In partnership with Boeing, they initiated a winglet flight test based on the findings of Richard Whitcomb and proved a 7% increase in lift-drag ratio with a 20% decrease in induced drag. This finding led to an overall reduction in fuel consumption and millions in fuel savings since the winglets were introduced.^[4]

6 Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator

The first Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator was developed by Dr. Michel Mirowski, a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins School for Medicine. It was implanted by Dr. Levi Watkings of the same institute.

But the life-saving technology we know today is derived from NASA’s space circuitry technology and can prevent erratic heart action known as arrhythmias. The implanted unit consists of a microcomputer power source and two heart sensors that can deliver corrective electrical shocks in the event of an irregular heartbeat.

The discovery of polymers also made it possible to implant pacemakers in complicated cases of congestive heart failure, and it all started with an attempt to build a passenger jet that could break the sound barrier.^[5]

5 Invisible Braces

Some of us are lucky enough to have avoided those uncomfortable wire tracks that slowly pull our teeth together like some contraption from the Stone Age. Still, many people around the world will have to adorn braces at some stage in their lives.

Up until the late ’80s, braces were made from a very noticeable metal that held your teeth together. Sometimes, they added colorful rubber bands for some flash. NASA, in conjunction with others, invented translucent ceramics that became a popular component in “invisible braces,” which went on to be a bestseller in the world of orthodontics.

It’s not the only way NASA has influenced the world of orthodontics, with the use of alloy, ultrasound, and X-rays to detect and improve overall dental health.^[6]

4 Smoke Detectors

Although smoke detectors have been around for a while, it wasn’t until the 1960s that they were adjusted and made available for home use. The device was cheap, easy to install, widely used, and frustrating as heck. Legislation made it compulsory, but the frustrating part was that false alarms became a common thing.

Around the time smoke detectors became a household item, NASA was busy finding ways to prevent false alarms in Skylab and other space labs. So they, working with Honeywell Corporation, set out to invent a new technology that was sensitive to differences in smoke and other fumes. They also fashioned the detector into a handy plastic unit that could be adjusted according to needs.

The smoke detector has saved thousands of lives since its invention (not to mention reducing the cost of false alarm callouts), with the adjustable smoke detector likely preventing many people from going insane.^[7]

3 Cell Phone Camera

When you dip your chin, tilt your shoulder, and bend one of your legs ninety degrees for your next selfie, hold out a thought for NASA as they contributed to the development of the cell phone camera.

NASA did not develop the cell phone camera, but what they contributed was key technology that helped with its creation. Active pixel sensors are a key element in digital imagery, which NASA developed for space travel. This tech, in turn, gave rise to what’s known as complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensors (CMOS).

CMOS image sensors originated from NASA’s desire to create fast, cheap spacecraft but also led to the development of charge-coupled devices, which allowed for high-quality digital photos by the late 1980s. Eric Fossum further pushed for even smaller and lighter machinery using the CMOS tech to create active pixel sensors. Say cheese!^[8]

2 Tracking Systems

Initially used on low-orbiting satellites and distant geostationary satellites, the cross-use of tracking technology has come a long way.

Since the 1970s, NASA has provided aid and expertise to the Cospas-Sarsat program, which is an international satellite-aided search and rescue effort. By utilizing the Search and Rescue System Satellite Aided Tracking System (SARSAT), multiple search and rescue type beacons have been developed (for example, the current 406 Beacon), enabling explorers to venture on land, air, and sea with a sense of security not previously known.

It is estimated that over 50,000 people worldwide in life-threatening situations, have been rescued by the inventions of the SARSAT beacons.^[9]

1 Plant Texting

If you do not already have enough notifications on your phone, it might soon be possible to receive texts from your thirsty plants demanding water.

BioServe Space Technologies, a company sponsored by NASA, has developed a leaf sensor of sorts that can detect whether your plants require water using electrical pulses. The world was quick to realize its agricultural benefits, and massive funding has subsequently led to amazing advancements in the field.

For those who do not have the greenest of fingers, it is quite possible that in the near future, your plant can be fitted with a custom device to alert you to low water levels. We will leave it to you to decide whether you want the thought of your plant dying of thirst while you are away hanging over your head.^[10]

Their names ring out like something between a punchline and a primetime memorial: Joanie Loves Chachi. After MASH. Joey. TV spinoffs are seldom a good idea and typically end up in the small-screen scrap heap.

There are, however, some exceptions. A select few TV shows have parlayed a previously introduced character into a successful standalone series. Here are the best ten, in chronological order.

Related: 10 Important Characters In Television We Never Got To Fully See

10 The Andy Griffith Show
(1960–1968)

In 1960, The Danny Thomas Show introduced America to Andy Taylor, the widowed sheriff of the sleepy, fictional town of Mayberry. The level-headed, fatherly character worked—a classic strong, soft-spoken type at a still-pollyannaish time.

Months later, The Andy Griffith Show commenced an eight-season run that quickly eclipsed its predecessor’s success, en route to regularly being cited among the greatest shows ever. As suburbanization rapidly changed lifestyles, the show blended nostalgic Americana with a quirkiness that kept it from seeming stale.

Within its sitcom genre, the show became a trailblazer of a now-established formula: a “straight man” lead surrounded by screw-ups, eccentrics, and ne’er-do-wells. Don Knotts as Barney Fife is Taylor’s inept deputy, providing comic relief and a ceaseless set of challenges for his boss to overcome (and coining a still-common term for a dunderheaded policeman). And long before he was directing Oscar-nominated films, Ron Howard was Opie, Andy’s discipline-averse son now synonymous with generic, dopey whiteness.

By the end of its run in 1968, The Andy Griffith Show had deftly bridged TV’s simpler times with its more complex ones; exemplifying this, its first 159 episodes were black and white while the final 90 were in color. Along the way, the series never fell lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and finished its last season at number one—a distinction shared only by I Love Lucy in 1957 and Seinfeld in 1998.^[1]

9 The Jeffersons
(1975–1985)

The show that introduced George and Louise “Weezy” Jefferson, All in the Family, birthed more spinoffs than any program in television history. In addition to The Jeffersons, Archie Bunker is responsible for Maude, Good Times, Checking In, Archie Bunker’s Place, Gloria, and 704 Hauser. None were as successful as The Jeffersons, whose 11-season run eclipsed its parent program.

As with other spinoffs, the first trick was distancing the main characters from their previous supporting roles. The Jeffersons accomplishes this right from the first line of its theme song, moving the couple on up from Queens to a “deluxe apartment” in Manhattan—due to George’s dry-cleaning chain prospering.

The Jeffersons were a Black Roseanne before there was a Roseanne. While the latter brought the challenges of working-class, small-town whites into America’s living rooms, George and Weezy represented an upper-middle-class Black community that, in the mid-1970s, wasn’t represented in mainstream entertainment. “Every time you see a Black man on the tube,” wrote series co-creator Norman Lear, “he is dirt poor, wears shit clothes, can’t afford nothing.” The Jeffersons disrupted that dynamic.

Though the show was anchored in character-driven comedy, it showcased issues pertinent to both Black Americans and the country at large: the KKK and racism, minority literacy, and suicide. Along the way, The Jeffersons became the second-longest-running series with a primarily African-American cast and the first to prominently feature a married interracial couple—neighbors Helen and Tom Willis.^[2]

8 Mork & Mindy
(1978–1982)

“Who is that funny, funny white man?”

That was Richard Pryor, possibly the greatest stand-up comedian ever, at a Los Angeles comedy club. Pryor was the night’s main attraction, with other aspiring comedians pregaming.

The “funny, funny white man” was a manic, frantically riffing stand-up named Robin Williams. Soon, Pryor would be instrumental in launching Williams’s career, featuring him on his short-lived NBC variety show in 1977.

The following year, Williams was a last-minute stand-in to play, of all things, an alien on Happy Days—an increasingly eye-roll-inducing show that, thanks to a leather jacket-clad Fonzie waterskiing stunt, birthed the phrase “jumping the shark.” ^[3] As Mork, a visitor from the distant world of Ork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue in a high, nasally voice while introducing his trademark quirky, physical comedy.

It was the shortest path to a spinoff imaginable; Mork & Mindy debuted in the fall of that same year, 1978. The show was such a success that Williams was featured on the cover of Time magazine the following March. At its peak, Mork & Mindy had a weekly viewership of 60 million.

The show itself is…well, weird. And a bit random. Given Williams’s superstar-caliber talent, had he appeared on Happy Days as, say, a janitor, it likely would have led to a show called “Mindy & the Custodian.” Considering this, Mork & Mindy was merely a vehicle for an irrepressible talent.

7 She-Ra: Princess of Power
(1985-1986)

In the mid-1980s, animation studio Filmation launched a cartoon series to parlay the success of its television and toy franchise, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, into something more appealing to girls.

The first step was a classic marketing crossover: In March 1985, Filmation released the arguably pornographically titled film He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword. The ’80s equivalent of a binge-able Netflix drop, the movie was nothing more than the first five episodes of the soon-to-come She-Ra series.

On the surface, it should have been awful. Think “Gem” plus a sword and minus the truly, truly, truly outrageousness. But it wasn’t. It was…well, awesome, actually.

She-Ra, whose non-superhero name is Princess Adora, turns out to be He-Man/Prince Adam’s long-lost twin sister. While He-Man protects Eternia from evildoer and Weight Watchers success story Skeletor, She-Ra leads the Great Rebellion on her home planet, Etheria. Throughout the series, She-Ra and her comrades fight to free their world from the wicked Hordak.

She-Ra is basically He-Man with a female lead and equally compelling (albeit clearly derivative) characters. He-Man has Battlecat; She-Ra has Swift Wind, a horse that transforms into a flying unicorn. He-Man gets advice from the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull; She-Ra is counseled by Light Hope, guardian of the Crystal Castle. She-Ra is a spinoff success driven by the wherewithal not to stray too far from its parent program.^[4]

6 Frasier
(1993-2004)

Establishing Cheers’ Frasier Crane into a self-titled sitcom star was a leap of faith. Compared with those who carried that series—Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Shelley Long, George Wendt—Kelsey Grammar was hardly a household name, and his character was on the outer ring of the main cast. In Cheers, Frasier was a change of pace device—a Harvard-educated, elitist psychiatrist espousing advice and cutdowns to counterbalance the blue-collar barroom banter.

In fact, Frasier was unlikable by design. Initially cast as a foil to Sam’s romantic interest in Diane, Frasier was purposefully snobbish. But the brainy vs. blue-collar yin-yang worked, and a character initially intended for a few episodes became a permanent barstool fixture.

Still, when Cheers ended, spinning Frasier off was a gamble. The premise finds him newly divorced and having moved to Seattle, where he hosts a psychotherapy radio show. His father, a retired, hobbled police detective, moves in with him—something that needed clarifying since, on Cheers, Frasier insisted his father was a) a scientist and b) dead. The continuity problem presented an opportunistic “Sam Malone visits Frasier” episode that settled the matter while drawing millions of viewers.

From there, though, Frasier had to stand on its own. It did just that, largely because it was unafraid to embrace the character’s erudite essence without worrying about losing some of the Cheers’ mass-market following. Eleven years later, Frasier had won 37 Emmys, more than any other sitcom in TV history.^[5]

5 Daria
(1997-2002)

La la la, la la…. The brainy, dour, monotone classmate who Beavis and Butthead called “Diarrhea” struck out on her own for a five-year series that drew a limited yet dedicated following. In addition to easily making this spinoffs compilation, Daria deserves consideration as one of the funniest animated shows ever made.

Like many spinoffs, Daria first needed to be extracted from the shadows of the show that introduced her. Co-creators Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn accomplish this in the pilot, moving the Morgendorffers from Beavis and Butthead’s hometown of Highland to a new life in Lawndale. Our heroine, along with her attractive yet superficial younger sister, Quinn, starts fresh in a new school with a new cast of misfits.

The show’s success stems from leaning into teenage stereotypes and watching the deadpan, disenchanted Daria verbally shred them. Her sister leads a prototypical popular girl clique. Her mom is a loveless workaholic, her dad a doddering doofus in the vein of Rick & Morty’s Jerry Smith. Dumb jocks and even dumber cheerleaders. Teachers embittered in their middle-aged mediocrity. Daria despises them all. “I don’t have low self-esteem,” she replies to her mother after a teacher reported her drab mood. “I have low esteem for everyone else.”^[6]

Among the inspirations for Daria was Darlene Conner—the depressive yet quick-witted daughter on Roseanne—and stand-up comedian Janeane Garofalo; in fact, many viewers initially thought Garofalo voiced Daria.

4 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
(1999–present)

A two-decades-long network mainstay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is technically a double-spinoff: Law & Order (of course) and Homicide: Life on the Street, whose Detective John “Built-in Porn Name” Munch (played by Richard Belzer) joined SVU upon his program’s cancellation.

Crime and courtroom dramas are prime territory for derivative knockoffs. Predictably, Law & Order creator and similarly porn-named Dick Wolf has tested those waters to the tune of five spinoffs (in addition to the loosely connected “One Chicago” franchise). Of these, SVU is simply heads and tails better than its spinoff siblings. In fact, upon the premiere episode of its 21st season last year, it became the longest-running primetime live-action series in American history (the world “primetime” separates it from daytime soap operas).

Special Victims Unit could just as easily be Sexual Victims Unit. Based in Manhattan, the team of detectives investigates and prosecutes sex-centric crimes like rape, pedophilia, and domestic violence. Child abuse and certain cases of violence against the elderly and disabled are also in their purview. Not surprisingly, the show’s persistent B-story is the law enforcement heroes trying not to let the deflating, often disgusting crimes they solve affect their psyches and personal lives.^[7]

3 The Colbert Report
(2005–2014)

Anyone watching the first episode of The Colbert Report—that’s a soft “rt” on both “Colbert” and “Report”—undoubtedly wondered: would the schtick wear off? Would the conservative pundit caricature that cameoed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stand on its own legs for a full half-hour, four nights a week?

Nine years and nearly 1,500 episodes later, Stephen Colbert had engineered what is far and away the most successful spinoff in television history. Forty-seven Emmy nominations (including seven wins), stellar ratings considering he was airing opposite The Tonight Show and Late Nite with David Letterman, and—most impressive—a promotion to succeed the retiring Letterman in 2015.

Each evening Colbert, against a Fox News Channel-esque backdrop of American flags and bald eagle insignias (he actually had a bald eagle named—what else?—”Steagle”), used his anchorman alter-ego to hilariously mock cable news blowhards like Bill O’Reilly; in fact, he appeared on O’Reilly’s show, in character, as a faux-like-minded peer.

In 2006, Colbert famously hosted the White House Correspondent’s Dinner fully in character. By then, the Bush administration was flailing and, addressing accusations that a recent staff shake-up was like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, Colbert contested that “this administration is soaring, not sinking. If anything, they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”^[8]

Colbert’s gimmick gave cover for blistering commentary, leading to surprisingly insightful guest interviews and, often, allowing him to deliver news more effectively than traditional news outlets.

2 Better Call Saul
(2015–2022)

Walter White broke more than bad—he broke the mold. The origin story of the cancer-ridden kingpin’s legally agnostic lawyer owns two distinctions. For starters, it’s a prequel; while the show features intermittent flashes of Saul’s post-Breaking Bad existence, the narrative unfolds prior to his days laundering Heisenberg’s cash. Second, Better Call Saul also is the only successful spinoff named for an episode of its parent program (Season 2, Episode 8).

Unique among spinoffs, Better Call Saul seemed like a good idea from the get-go for several reasons. First, Saul was a main character on arguably the best drama series of all time—an integral component of a show that racked up awards and never lost steam. Second, at the risk of overly subjectivizing an inherently subjective list, Bob Odenkirk is both eminently likable and exceptionally talented, evidenced by his four lead actor Emmy nominations. Third, Better Call Saul was written by Breaking Bad’s creator, Vince Gilligan, who’d already proven deft at “descent of the antihero” narratives.^[9]

Getting there is an enjoyable slow roll. Jimmy McGill—Saul’s real name—starts as a public defender before failing as a private lawyer and ultimately losing his license. As side stories begin to intersect with Jimmy’s life, he finds himself managing a cell phone store but making more money selling prepaid burners to drug dealers. It takes several seasons before he becomes the flamboyant, amoral huckster portrayed in Breaking Bad. A sixth and final season airs next year.

1 The Conners
(2018–present)

The Conners is this list’s oddest entry…because it was never supposed to be a spinoff.

In 2018, ABC launched arguably the most anticipated reboot in American TV history: Roseanne Barr was returning to primetime with a re-up of her self-titled sitcom, Roseanne, whose original nine-season run ended in 1997 after collecting more than 20 Emmys.

And then, just nine episodes into the show’s well-received return, Barr ruined it with just 11 tweeted words: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The initials referred to Valerie Jarrett, an African-American former government official. Both Roseanne and her show were summarily canceled.

But America would not be deprived of its renewed romance with the Conner clan simply for lack of its signature matriarch. Dispatching Roseanne in the only realistic way—she dies from an opioid overdose), which conveniently tracked with her mounting addiction problem on the reboot—The Conners continued to dominate its time slot despite slightly less favorable reviews than its parent program.

Like Roseanne before it, The Conners is at its best when showcasing the struggles that working-class, small-town Americans endure—a hard-scrabble life typically ignored by both mainstream television and professional class coastal elites. In doing so, it isn’t afraid to humanize the gaping political divide; Dan and Roseanne before him are Trump supporters, the younger Conners firmly against him. More than 30 years after first gracing the screen, the Conners are still among the realest families on network TV.^[10]

NASA is well-known for its operations in space. It is hard to miss giant rockets streaking across the sky, bulletins about space meteors, and their stylish spacesuits. When not exploring outer space, NASA sponsors research that leads to spinoff technologies. Many inventions developed for space have an impact on Earth’s environmental efforts.

NASA’s budget was most significant during the Space Race (approximately 1957-1969). It had a peak annual budget of $5 billion, through which it developed several technologies that transformed into smoke detectors, smartphones, and more. Despite budget cuts, NASA and its partner agencies have continued to innovate.

Although NASA and its partners revolutionize and improve technology consistently, people ask, “How has NASA benefited life on Earth?” After all, we know that space travel is not the most environmentally friendly enterprise. So how has an agency that is renowned for its space travel contributed to the fight against environmental distress?

Let’s look at ten ways the NASA is improving life on Earth.

Related: 10 Everyday Things That Were Invented By NASA

10 EZVI

During the Apollo program, NASA cleaned rocket parts with chlorinated solvents. While effective at cleaning these components, this did not bode well for the natural environment around the launch pad. The solvents used belong to a class of chemicals (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) that were difficult to remove due to their weight compared to water and relative lack of solubility. To solve the pollution caused by the Apollo program, NASA scientists and engineers co-developed a new technology called Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron. This two-step treatment uses iron particles to dechlorinate the area, producing a non-toxic hydrocarbon. EZVI can be used to decontaminate both soil and groundwater due to its soluble membrane.

The technology has become one of NASA’s most licensed technologies due to the sheer number of sites contaminated by dense non-aqueous phase liquids. Its low cost and quick treatment time (2 to 3 months) make it a useful invention for groundwater decontamination.^[1]

9 Durable Wind Turbines

Mars is a harsh and unforgiving planet. The surface is an average of -62°C (-81°F) and can be even colder at the poles and during the wintertime. (LINK 4) Renewable power sources will be required to colonize the red planet, and a popular solution is a combination of solar and wind power due to the slightly longer days and infamous dust storms. Due to the harsh conditions, NASA needed to invent a turbine with resilient parts and as few moving pieces as possible. These same qualities also helped expand the reach of renewable energy to some of the harshest environments on earth. NASA initially tested the technology in the South Pole to reduce the amount of fuel that they flew in for research teams stationed there.

After a successful test at the South Pole, the technology has been deployed globally, including Alaska and Colorado. Northern Power Systems (the corporate partner for the spinoff technology) claims the technology has since been deployed and successfully endured extreme weather such as hurricanes and typhoons.^[2]

8 Canary-S

Dust bunnies have more bite when the dust comes from the lunar surface. Managing and filtering regolith is vital for any building where humans may work on the lunar surface as the small particles can damage the eyes and lungs. A small company called Lunar Outpost created a monitoring device dubbed the Space Canary to tackle this challenge. As part of NASA’s NextSTEP program, Lunar Outpost teamed up with Lockheed Martin Space to tweak the design for use in space and on Earth.

The redesigned Space Canary, now named Canary-S, has been independently verified to work for pollution monitoring in outdoor settings. Canary-S has been deployed to help protect firefighters from carbon monoxide poisoning, monitor emissions from oil and gas companies, and track local air quality at public schools.^[3]

7 Plant Sensors

If you’ve ever under- or overwatered a plant, you may have wished it could just tell you what it needed. Thanks to this next invention, plants can do just that. Research done by a NASA-funded researcher determined that how much water a plant has can be monitored by measuring the leaf thickness through electrical pulses. Later, this idea was turned into a commercial product by AgriHouse Brands. By connecting directly to a leaf on the plant, their sensor can send information back to the farmer regarding the plant’s health and alert them when the plant needs water.

The sensor’s real-time data on plant health allows farmers to water the plant only when needed. Precision agriculture saves water, time, and money. Soon, you may get a text from your houseplant requesting more water.^[4]

6 High Efficiency Lighting with Integrated Adaptive Control (HELIAC)

LEDs are not just for tricking out your room or making your car glow. Plants were not evolved to grow in space. Especially in the space station, the constantly changing day cycle and sub-optimal positioning can make plant growth more difficult. Traditional lights are energy-hungry and can radiate heat, which is unsuitable for more sensitive plants. LED lights address both of these issues with lower energy requirements and an almost complete lack of heat.

To develop a sustainable alternative light source for plant growth, NASA teamed up with Orbital Technologies Corporation. This company developed the High Efficiency Lighting with Integrated Adaptive Control. It works by stringing together a series of 4-cm-square (1.5-inch-square) LED light panels. These panels can be individually adjusted, which allows for energy savings in two ways. The first way they save energy is the LED panels can optimize the light they emit for specific plants during specific growing phases. The second way the HELIAC system saves energy is by detecting if plants are in front of them and only turning on when they detect a plant. Not only do these LEDs look cool, but they also may soon power an indoor farm near you.^[5]

5 Self-Driving Farm Tractors

You may be asking yourself, “How can John Deere be good for the environment?” Tilling the land is necessary for growing food, but historically, this process has been inefficient. Since farmers have to drive by eye, they often overlap the rows by about 10 percent. Row overlap wastes seeds and fertilizer and leads to longer total job time. Self-guided tractors can dramatically reduce the amount of overlap and increase the expected yield of a given plot.

John Deere was able to do this by tapping into NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s GPS-correction software and global data. After connecting their device to the network, they could plot courses for the tractors that are accurate within a few inches. Furthermore, they no longer needed to install large, expensive radio towers.

Combined, these innovations in remote sensing allow farmers to plot accurate courses for their tractors, resulting in lower resource usage and higher yields.^[6]

4 DigitalClone

The idea of a DigitalClone is to create a digital twin of components or systems. A digital twin is a replica of a real-world object or system used to predict certain events. Recently, this has been popularized by NVIDA’s Earth-2 digital twin.

Back in the early 2000s, Sentient Science attempted to do the same thing for mechanical components. Their focus was on turning the data they collected regarding material performance into a predictive model of component wear and tear. Although this may not seem like an environmentally friendly spinoff, the implications are. Companies can use accurate digital twins to simulate component use and predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance can reduce the repair cost and extend the lifespan of simulated systems.

Companies or government agencies can also use the technology to simulate systems much faster than traditional physical testing. Digital testing further reduces the environmental impact of component and system testing. Sentient Science has used its DigitalClone technology extensively in the renewable field—specifically for wind turbine gearboxes. They estimate that their technology helped lower wind energy’s cost to 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour as of 2016.^[7]

3 Smart Fertilizer

Plants need nutrients to grow well, but traditional fertilizer methods are wasteful. A standard application schedule for fertilizer is monthly, but the plants do not absorb a lot of that fertilizer. Florikan developed a more intelligent solution. Instead of large quantities of fertilizer applied monthly, Florikan’s technology is a single application of fertilizer that releases nutrients in stages. This approach uses only one-third of the amount used in traditional application practices.

There are two key environmental benefits of this technology. The first benefit is that reducing the amount of fertilizer used reduces the amount of nutrient runoff. In large quantities, nitrogen (a key nutrient in fertilizer) is correlated with algal blooms that harm marine life. The second environmental benefit is a reduction in the amount of fertilizer used. Since fertilizer is limited, reducing the amount used is vital for conservation efforts.^[8]

2 WATEX

Water is a critical element for life on Earth. Freshwater reserves are under increasing stress, as evidenced by droughts experienced in the Southern Plains and the Western United States. It isn’t just a western country issue either. The BBC reports that water scarcity affects about 40 percent of the global population. Experts also estimate that water-related conflicts could rise as water access becomes more difficult.

Not all is lost, however. Satellite imagery and specialized software can help governments and researchers find hidden freshwater deposits underground. Based on a combination of several data sources, satellite imagery, and the algorithm developed by Radar Technologies International, WATEX can create a 3-D map of areas that are likely to have water.

It is even able to do so in war-torn regions without risking cartographers. A crowning achievement of the WATEX system was the discovery of 66 trillion gallons of water beneath Turkana. The technology has also found water in Afghanistan, Angola, and Sudan. As fresh water becomes more scarce, innovations like this may help us avoid complete disaster.^[9]

1 M-2000

No, this is not an early terminator model. Ships have to routinely undergo dry-docking and maintenance to ensure they are sea-worthy. The traditional method of stripping paint is grit blasting, which produces toxic airborne particles. Grit blasting also results in trips to the landfill, further adding to its environmental impact. M-2000 is a robotic paint stripper that aims to replace grit blasting for contaminant removal.

In contrast to grit blasting, UltraStrip’s M-2000 strips paint using a high-powered water jet. The jet is strong enough to cause paint chips and water to be the only byproducts. The robot uses a vacuum to capture these byproducts and then recycles the water while keeping the paint chips safely secure in a separate container. The process is estimated to be 200 percent more effective than grit blasting for contaminant removal, which leads to fewer repainting episodes. Robotics will likely play an increasingly important role in environmental conservation in the coming decades, as M-2000 has shown.^[10]