New NASA Open Innovation Challenge Pavilion Leverages
Crowdsourcing To Improve Health And Performance Of Astronauts
One of the largest challenges for
long-term speceflight is protecting the health of astronauts in
extreme, and often unknown, environments, In a effort to tackle
those problems, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) Space Life
Sciences Directorate (SLSD) and a company called InnoCentive
announced a new NASA Open Innovation Pavilion Wednesday, which will
provide the public with the opportunity to help solve difficult
problems in human health and performance facing the U.S. space
program.
"Many people around the world did not previously have the
opportunity to help solve some of the problems facing NASA," said
InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin. "Now, anyone with interest and
ability can impact how the U.S. explores the final frontier. NASA
Space Life Sciences' commitment to open innovation is a testament
to exploring solutions from any contributor."
NASA Space Life Sciences is pursuing new strategies, such as
crowdsourcing, to achieve its goals for improved collaboration and
open innovation. Open to InnoCentive's network of 200,000 Solvers,
the NASA Open Innovation Pavilion currently offers awards for the
solving of three challenges focused on developing an exercise
resistance mechanism, forecasting solar events and improving food
packaging. They include:
- Improved Barrier Layers - Keeping Food Fresh in Space
- Develop a compact, effective aerobic and resistive exercise
device
- Forecasting of Solar Events
These three efforts are the first
in a series of life sciences challenges focused on improving the
health and performance of astronauts. They pose a new level of
problem-solving and excitement to the InnoCentive Solver network,
since these challenges accompany a new set of solution development
constraints. Because the challenges exist in space, not on Earth,
InnoCentive anticipates Solvers attempting to provide winning
solutions will need to employ significant creativity.
"Providing more opportunities for collaboration is key to
achieving Space Life Sciences goals," said Jeffrey R. Davis, M.D.,
director, Space Life Sciences, NASA Johnson Space Center. "Working
with InnoCentive and other open innovation intermediaries allows us
to draw from the broadest set of expertise to most effectively
address the health and performance challenges of human
spaceflight."
"Solutions generated within NASA's Open Innovation Pavilion may
have implications beyond improving health and human performance
during spaceflight," said Elizabeth E. Richard, senior strategist,
Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering Group. "Solutions for
spaceflight may have applications to Earth-based problems that
could include new medical therapeutic and diagnostic devices, air
and water quality monitoring, and even new food packaging
strategies as described in one of the current challenges."
In the future InnoCentive will partner with additional NASA
research centers, including Langley, to develop and post to the
NASA Open Innovation Pavilion Challenges specific to their
programs.
FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.innocentive.com