It sounds like the ultimate in heartburn, but some heart patients may soon find themselves fused with a piece of the space shuttle's engines.

You might not think that the human heart and the monstrously powerful rocket engines that carry astronauts into orbit have much in common. However they do share a critical trait: they both depend on a steady flow of fluid to work.

While developing the shuttle's engines, NASA researchers pushed the envelope in turbopump design. And to understand and regulate the rapid gushing of millions of gallons of super-cold rocket fuel through engines that needed to be reused, NASA created revolutionary software for analyzing fluid dynamics.

The pump is currently entering clinical trials for use as a temporary heart for patients awaiting a transplant, and to take some of the load off a newly transplanted heart during recovery.