Ventilator shortages in America spurred many companies into action, in both fixing the broken ventilators donated to California by the federal government as well as manufacturing new ones.  Though Silicon Valley stepped up in glorious fashion to fix all 170 donated broken ventilators, NASA grew worried about this development.  In just 37 days NASA developed their own custom COVID-19 ventilator named VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally).  Compared to other designs, VITAL can be built faster, maintained more easily, and is composed of fewer parts, all of which can be easily sourced through existing supply chains.

NASA’s entry into the ventilator market was fueled by fear of big tech entering ventilator design.  Janine Dayton, lead engineer of VITAL elaborates, “Well, to be blunt, Silicon Valley is decent at fixing bugs via updates, but we just wanted to be sure to create solution that was correct the first time.  You shouldn’t over the air update a deployed ventilator.”  Hotter than a reusable rocket reentry burn, Ms. Dayton’s roast has launched #DoingItRightTheFirstTime.