Page 41 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

Investigation Title Valuation Summaries

Biokin-4 A partnership between the European Space Agency and Bioclear resulted in a new
biological filter and DNA screening technology being commercialized through a spin-
off company, Bioclear Microbial Analysis (BMA). BMA reported assets greater than
$500,000 and 7 employees at the end of 2017. BMA was created to focus on the
use of this technology in terrestrial applications, including identifying microbial
influenced corrosion (MIC). The global market to prevent MIC is $7 billion.

Canadarm2 and Synaptive Medical and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a Maxar
Dextre Technologies company, collaborated to engineer the Modus V, a commercially
available robot-assisted surgery system designed using principles of the space
station’s Canadarm2 technology. Currently used in leading healthcare centers,
research institutions and community hospitals across North America, the Modus V
has the potential to offer brain surgery to patients considered inoperable using other
methods, and may potentially improve spinal surgery methods by lowering the risk
of complications and by reducing recovery time.

Docking/Birthing Neptec Design Group Ltd. honed expertise in Triangulation & Light Intensification
Detection and Ranging Automated Rendezvous & Docking (TriDAR) technologies in
the development of autonomous spacecraft docking sensors and algorithms for the
space shuttle, ISS, and the Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems)
Cygnus resupply spacecraft. Neptec Design Group is estimated to employ around
100 people with an annual revenue of $10 million. In 2011, a spin-off corporation,
Neptec Technologies Corp., which currently employs about 100 and has an
annual revenue of up to $10 million, was created to translate technologies such
as Light Intensification Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for terrestrial applications.
Neptec Technologies currently offers the OPAL-360 (Obscurant-Penetrating Auto
synchronous LiDAR) device—a three-dimensional (3-D) scanner that can work in real
time and see through obscurants such as dust, snow or fog. It has found traction
in industries such as mining, rail, aeronautics and marine transportation. In 2018,
Rolls Royce debuted a sophisticated new “situational awareness system” for marine
vessels using Neptec LiDAR technologies to create a 3-D map of the surrounding area
for navigation. In July 2018 Neptic Design Group was purchased by MDA, a Maxar
Technologies Company for $32 million.
Environmental Founded by researchers behind NASA’s Microbial Water Analysis Kit, a major
Control Systems component in the ISS crew healthcare system, mWater is a company focused on
providing low-cost test kits and monitoring software in support of the global Water
and Sanitation for Health (WASH) initiatives. Based on ISS technology, the mWater
testing kit costs $10. Updated through receipt of 70,000 surveys from 150 countries
each month, in 2018 mWater has the largest WASH open-access database on the
planet. The accompanying mobile applications enable the public to record water
quality and map safe water sources. More than 25,000 NGOs, governments, and
researchers use the mWater app worldwide including USAID, UNICEF, WHO, and
the World Bank Innovation Fund.

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