Back to the catalog
Spinoff story
Rockets, Rovers Spur New Offshore Drilling Safety Technology
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
After Bastion Technologies Inc., a company with a long history at Marshall Space Flight Center and other NASA locations, helped investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the company sought a way to prevent such a disaster. Using the knowledge of propellants, mission assurance, and structural analysis its employees gained at NASA, the Houston-based company invented its SureShear product for subsea blowout preventers. Rather than using pressurized gas, SureShear burns a solid propellant to power rams that quickly and reliably shear and seal a well’s drill pipe.