NASA developed a critical high-pressure ventilator in just 37 days in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
The White House said the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which “normally builds spacecraft[s]”No medical products,” conferred their expertise during the COVID 19 pandemic.
“Thanks to the innovation of men and women at JPL, they have built a new ventilator!” Read the explanation from the Oval Office.
The White House said the machine, manufactured in NASA’s Southern California laboratory, was “designed to use fewer parts and parts that are not used in existing designs” and would not disrupt the supply chain.
NASA confirmed that its breathing apparatus, called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Local), “passed a critical test” on Thursday.
It was tested at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in NYC on a “high fidelity simulator for human patients”.
The director of the school, Matthew Levin, said they were “very happy” with the test results.
Levin said the machine “works as expected under a variety of simulated patient conditions.”
“The team is confident that the VITAL ventilator can safely ventilate patients with COVID-19 here in the United States and around the world,” said Levin.
The news comes after NASA officials met with President Trump on Friday to discuss technologies that could help during the outbreak.
NASA is applying for approval from the FDA for emergency approval. VITAL can “approve the nationwide offering of traditional ventilators so that they can be used on patients with the most severe symptoms of COVID-19”.
NASA said they are “answering the call to fight the corona virus” by developing several products in a YouTube video today.
They also made an oxygen hood coronavirus that allows patients to learn about ventilator dependency and a canopy that doctors can use to treat people with the virus it contains.
The innovations were intended to help the hard-hit countries that had previously bid against each other to procure ventilators from China.
However, NASA admitted that its machines should not replace complex ventilators.
These devices can last for years and can do more than just help patients with the deadly virus, while VITAL lasts up to four months and is “tailored to coronavirus patients”.
“NASA is an amazing little agency that does amazing things every day,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters in a video press conference.
“And now we’re using this ability to respond to this pandemic with a holistic government approach.”
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