Mini C-Arm History

This website is for educational and historic purposes only and has no commercial purpose.

NASA has closed its largest research library at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, effective January 2026. Officials will discard thousands of un-digitized books, technical reports, and historic documents.

Since the Government decided to close the NASA Library, several scientists and engineers wanted to preserve several items that they worked on that were included in the NASA Library and would be discarded. The following individuals worked on the low-intensity x-ray imaging technology:

• Lo I. Yin, Ph.D. – Astrophysicist who worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Jacob I. Trombka, Ph.D. – Astrophysicist and Nuclear Scientist who worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Arthur P. Ruitberg – Senior Design Electrical Engineer of the Space Power Applications Branch of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Stephan M. Selzer – Nuclear Physicist who worked at the National Bureau of Standards

These individuals helped develop the low-intensity x-ray imaging technology (LIXI). This website has been designed to preserve the documentation that showed, through the NASA technology transfer program, they were instrumental in the development and history of the LIXI technology that formed the basis for the invention of the Mini C-arm by Larry Grossman, when he was the CEO of HealthMate, Inc., the first Mini C-arm manufacturer.

These scientists and engineers employed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center helped make the Mini C-arm a reality. It has become a groundbreaking technology in medicine and industry, with annual sales of over $1 billion.