Washington, Apr 24: NASA scientists designed and built two prototypes of ventilators – a mechanical model that pumps oxygen directly into a patient’s lungs and a passive model that uses a helmet to surround the patient’s breathing passages with pressurized oxygen – and submitted them to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization earlier this week, Administrator Jim Bridenstein said.
“Tell a rocket scientist to stay at home and it’s amazing what they’ll do,” Bridenstine told reporters in a teleconference call on Thursday accompanied by a group of senior NASA officials.
A mechanical ventilator designed and constructed within three-to-four weeks contains just 80 parts, one-seventh the number that makes up existing machines, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Associate Director Dave Gallagher said.
“It’s really designed to not interrupt the manufacturing chain for the mainstream, big, highly complex ventilators that are designed to deal with any situation,” Gallagher said. “We should, with any luck in 24-48 hours have approval from the FDA.”
Gallagher noted that on Friday, the California Institute of Technology will issue a royalty free industry production licensing call, meaning that anybody from the industry can come in and manufacture this ventilator at very low cost and very high speed.
A second passive ventilator, also created by NASA, uses a helmet to supply pressurized oxygen without the need for an intubation tube extended down a patient’s throat, NASA Chief Medical Officer JD Polk said.
In addition to the ventilators, NASA also created a machine that sterilizes surfaces and air by releasing a disinfectant fog – a device that could be used to kill any lingering viruses in ambulances or hospital rooms, NASA Research Engineer Marit Meyer said.
(agencies)
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