Do you suffer from motion sickness? NASA has your back

By Megan Garber

October 16, 2012

Water filters. Cordless tools. Shoe insoles. The list of life-improving products developed at NASA is long and nerdy and wonderful. And it is, wonderfully and nerdily, about to add a new item: a nasal spray that fights motion sickness.

Yes. Rejoice, ye sufferers of sickness, whether of space or car or sea! NASA has your back.

Motion sickness, of course, is a long-standing problem for astronauts -- particularly those on the space station, who spend much of their time flipping and flopping in the stomach-tossing environs of zero gravity. And NASA researchers have found that nasal sprays can work much more quickly -- and much more reliably -- than other methods to mitigate space's stomach-churning effects. So the agency has contracted with a Epiomed, a California-based pharmaceutical firm, to develop a nasal spray that will fight motion sickness. Because the team-up makes sense! And because you can't spell "nasal" without NASA.