Do you manufacture tech-related products? Do they involve paint, welds, metalurgy, clothing, synthetics, plastics, chrome, cnc, etc.?

While NASA the government agency might draw a laugh or two from time to time, nobody’s laughing when one of their majestic flying machines rockets into orbit. So here’s the deal: you’re a taxpayer, and they’ve got solutions. Boy, do they have solutions.

NASA’s loaded with engineering talent. And that talent’s available to the general public with surprisingly few strings attached. Only small business (less than 500 employees), no software or IT issues, a 40-hour research limit and your dilemma can’t be easily solved by the private sector.

Otherwise, SATOP — the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program — is ready and waiting to help you solve your otherwise insurmountable mind-benders.

It’s a 12-year-old program that renders aid to the commercial sector in the form of really good answers to a bewildering array of questions. You work by e-mail, fax and/or phone, after having your problem reviewed and then matched to a NASA volunteer for peer review.

Seems like a good deal to us — after all, this is the outfit that came up with Teflon and Velcro.