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goobster  ·  2812 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 3, 2016

Yep. I used to help them out when I was at NASA. It was called a variety of names, but basically the department was responsible for taking all the taxpayer-funded science that NASA had come up with, and finding companies who could turn that science into commercial products.

In practice it didn't work so well. It should have been eBay for NASA ideas... but at that point in time, eBay hadn't been invented yet. So technology kinda got funneled out to a few companies that had personal connections within the team, and then many of those companies failed to execute on creating legitimate commercial products from the NASA tech. A lot of those ideas floundered due to lack of accountability and follow through.

But nowadays, I'd love to see a modern version of this. A place where NASA scientists could publish their work and findings, and then companies could pitch product ideas, and NASA could trumpet how taxpayer money went to create jobs and new products for the market... that'd be so cool!

I have no idea how that department is doing today, or if it even still exists.

Oh wait! Google!

Lookee here... the department still exists, and now has a much better name and portal!

NASA's Technology Transfer Program