 People always ask me why we spend money on space when there are problems to be solved down here on Earth. NASA has just released their spin-off 2017 report listing space technologies that help people here on Earth this year and into the future. Here are my top seven examples of how space spin-offs are making the world a better place. This is your space pod for December 14th 2016. NASA wanted a rapid and easy to use diagnostic test for astronauts beyond low Earth orbit, because when you're on the way to Mars, medical help is pretty far away. The sooner a treatment is given, the better a chance for a full recovery. They provided funding to two companies, Intelligent Optical Systems and Selmic LLC, to develop a lateral flow test strip that could be read by a smartphone camera. A lateral flow test strip is like a pregnancy test. It uses bodily fluids and checks them for molecular markers and shows the results using color or light. NASA's version checks heart and liver health, but the commercial version has the ability to be used with almost any diagnostic test. By being compatible with a smartphone, this device brings better diagnostic care to people with limited medical facilities in remote areas. NASA was looking for a way to passively manage heat inside space suits using phase change materials. Phase change materials or PCMs are ones that can refreeze or melt to absorb and release heat when needed. Ice cubes are a phase change material that absorb the heat from your drink while they melt. NASA held patent rights to a fabric impregnated with PCMs, but it didn't make it into space suits. The company Embrace Innovations now uses special PCM-containing fabric to make a range of infant swaddles, blankets and sleeping bags. They can keep a baby warm at 37 degrees Celsius or 98 Fahrenheit for up to six hours and are easily reheated by putting them in boiling water. Imagine a flight MH370 was being tracked from space. Right now there are gaps in radar coverage for planes flying over the ocean or remote areas. That's about to change in 2018 with the launch of the Iridium-next satellites carrying special radios, Harris AppStar radios into orbit. Harris AppStar radios were developed as a cost-share agreement with NASA to provide high-band width KA-band radios that could transmit more data much faster than before and be reprogrammed while in space. The company Aeron LLC jumped to the technology and programmed the AppStars to receive signals from new airplane transceivers called ADSB, which automatically send out the flight number, location, heading and other flight details. Aeron will store the data and provide it for free in the case of any aircraft emergency. When NASA tested the ARIES-1 launch vehicle back in 2009, the launch showed big vibration problems. The rocket's engines vibrated at the natural frequency of the rocket's entire structure, causing it to nearly shake itself apart. All structures have a natural vibration or resonance, kind of like a tuning fork. NASA engineers set to work on creating a device that could reduce those vibrations by as much as 50% more than conventional methods. The new device, called a disruptive tuned mass dampener, is now being used to reduce vibrations or sway in bridges and buildings caused by wind or earthquakes. It works by submerging a balloon in liquid and then rapidly inflating and deflating it to cause new vibrations that block out the natural vibrations of the structure. There's a saying on the space station that yesterday's coffee becomes today's coffee. No water is wasted, even down to the astronauts' urine. This was made possible by NASA investment into the Florida company Argonide to develop their nanosuram filters for space. The filters had to process water quickly, keep more than 99.9% of viruses and bacteria at bay, and use no chemicals. The nanofibers used in nanosuram are bioadhesive or sticky for things like bacteria and viruses. This allows the filters to have bigger pores or holes than traditional filters and thus let more water through quickly. The nanosuram filters are now used by firefighters in remote areas that need to create drinking water on the go and humanitarian disaster relief groups. The company Water Pure Technologies, developed a system that can fit inside a suitcase, is recharged by a solar panel connected to a small battery and only costs 1400 US dollars, filtering 11 litres of water a minute. What does a Mars rover have to do with mining pharmaceuticals and airport security? The Curiosity Mars rover has a payload called ChemMin which uses x-ray powder diffraction or XRD to detect minerals on Mars. Traditionally, XRD machines are large, heavy and need about a million tiny grains of fine powder per sample. NASA discovered that by shaking the sample as it was analysed, they didn't need a million particles per sample anymore. They could use much less particles that were bigger and coarser with about the texture of sand. The company in C2 Incorporated was granted a contract to develop the technology further and now produces a battery-powered suitcase-sized device used for detecting important mining minerals in remote locations like Western Australia. They also produce a Benchtop version which is used to check pharmaceutical quality, check for counterfeit medicines and is being expanded into explosives detection in places like airports. NASA's Osiris-REx mission launched earlier this year to the asteroid Bennu. It's carrying a LiDAR, a laser-powered 3D surface mapper produced by the company Teledyne Optec. The same company also built a LiDAR for the Phoenix Mars polar lander. The space LiDARs had to be very small and very light so Teledyne took that experience and applied it to their commercial LiDARs. Archeologists used one of the new LiDARs from Teledyne to search Oklahoma for the best place to look for fossils. The lightweight LiDARs allow aerial surveys to map huge areas of ground that wouldn't be possible by hand, leading to discoveries of once hidden stone walls, abandoned buildings and old roads. So, there are my top 7 NASA spin-offs for 2016. Let me know which one was your favorite in the comments below or via social media. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel youtube.com slash tmro for more spaceportages like this one. Of course, I'd love to give a huge shout out to the crowdfunding supporters, our Patreon patrons that make these videos possible. Thank you so so much for all of your support. We couldn't do this without you. So thank you to our founders, architects, engineers, ambassadors and dreamers of tomorrow for all of your support. And if you'd like to help us out, head on over to patreon.com slash spaceport. My name is Lisa Stodzianowski. Happy holidays and until next time, keep on discovering.