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Health Medicine and Biotechnology
Human-Powered Ventilator
In space there are a limited number of care providers, and those providers are not always clinicians with extensive medical training. Space travel also has limited room to provide care and limited consumables. The Human-Powered Ventilator is compact, portable, and easy to assemble. It is designed so that users can implement hand and arm movements to pump the bellows between two hinged, clamshell-like panels back and forth to provide positive pressure ventilation to the patient. A light spring is incorporated into the design to assist in expanding the bellows, drawing air out of the patient’s lungs, and reducing the physical load on the operator without compromising the tactile feel necessary for proper usage. The airflow can be supplemented with prescribed medical vapors, oxygen, etc. via standard industry fittings.
The Human-Powered Ventilator is TRL 6 (system/subsystem prototype has been demonstrated in a relevant environment) and it is now available for your company to license. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.