Nasa Tech Briefs - Rapid Product Development

It will come as no surprise that innovations developed by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) and its industry partners and contractors have led to new and improved products in the commercial arena. NASA Tech Briefs is the agency's vehicle for spreading news of commercially-significant technologies developed in the course of its R&D - generally months or even years before they are reported elsewhere. The Tech Briefs, which began as a series of single sheet reports in the 1960s and were later converted to magazine format, are on the Web, as well, together with other publications providing insight into commercial applications of NASA technology. The briefs themselves, authored by the engineers or scientists who did the original work, are generally technical in nature. Areas that may be of more interest to less technical managers include: Rapid Product Development, which offers "tools and techniques to create better products faster"; and NASA Spinoff, an annual report on major R&D efforts and on recently developed products and services resulting from the transfer of NASA technology.