NASA’s Compact, Lightweight Gas Sensor Available for Licensing

NASA photo

Innovators at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have developed a compact, lightweight gas sensor that the agency’s technology transfer program is making available for licensing. Using interferometric and spectroscopic techniques, the sensor measures gas density, temperature, species determination, and species concentrations.

NASA’s innovation offers many advantages over commercially available gas detection methods. Because the sensor is rugged, compact, and lightweight, it can be used in small or remote areas where other devices will not fit. Constructed from solid optics, the innovation can be used safely in cryogenic environments, pressurized or vacuum conditions, or hazardous locations. The sensor provides critical, real-time information on both the severity and location of the leak, all while consuming minimal power at very low cost.

The compact sensor for in-situ measurements of gas leaks can be used in aerospace applications, as well as numerous commercial industries:

• Industrial manufacturing facilities
• Industrial storage facilities
• Distributed power for small-scale or utility-scale fuel cells
• Semiconductor and electronics processing
• Facilities or processing involving or housing toxic, hazardous, or explosive gases
  

For more information, contact: Fuentek, LLC (919) 249-0327 or nasa.msfc@fuentek.com

–By Aubrey Arnoczy