“- You don’t believe we went to the Moon?
– I believe it was a brilliant piece of propaganda, that the Soviets bankrupted themselves, pouring resources into rockets and other useless machines…
– Useless machines?
– And if we don’t want to repeat of the excess and wastefulness of the 20th Century then we need to teach our kids about this planet, not tales of leaving it.
– You know, one of those useless machines they used to make was called an MRI, , and if we had any of those left the doctors would have been able to find the cyst in my wife’s brain, *before* she died instead of after […]”
– Interstellar
The usefulness and meaning of space exploration is a subject of eternal debate. I will leave here just a few examples, without claiming to be exhaustive (a few thousand of these exist of this day), of how many things were born because we wished/wish to go into outer space, because we wanted to know the secret of everything.
NASA SPINOFF page is about all the objects that have been developed since 1976 and are part of our daily lives.
Baby food
Algae is rich in vitamins, easy and fast to grow, an excellent source of nutrients and produces a lot of oxygen. NASA has conducted/is conducting algae research, with the aim of delivering as many vitamins as possible to astronauts’ bodies through algae. As a result of this research, baby food containing microalgae was created. Incidentally, the company producing algae oil was founded by a NASA employee.
Water Filter
In the 1970s, activated carbon and silver ion water filters were developed, which partially purify and prevent the re-appearance of infectious bacteria in the water. Today, water purification technology has advanced to the point that, for example, astronauts can obtain clean, drinkable water from their own urine.
Smoke detector
The world’s first adjustable sensitivity smoke detector was created in 1973 for the first American space station, Skylab, with the aim of indicating the leakage of toxic gases and smoke.
Memory foam
The original purpose of memory foam was to absorb and evenly distribute shock waves. It was used to line the interior of spaceships to equalize pressure differences, and it was also used for seating.
Insoles
Special shoes were developed for the lunar landing. It was important to have easy ventilation and greater momentum for the steps due to the low gravity on the lunar surface. The developed insole evenly distributed the load and helped maintain momentum. In the 80s, for example, KangaROOS used a special insole based on NASA research in the sole of its running shoes. The structure of today’s running shoes is based on this development.
Infrared Ear Thermometer
The technology was originally developed by NASA experts to measure the temperature of stars.
Solar Panel
The main source of energy for spacecraft in space is solar panels, which collect energy from our central star. Solar garden lights? Solar chargers? Solar panels on rooftops?
Cordless tools, devices
A joint development by Black&Decker – a battery-powered, cordless vacuum cleaner-like device, which was developed for the lunar landing to collect rock samples. This technology led to the operation of drills, screwdrivers, and various tools from batteries.
Scratch-resistant coating
Primarily a protective layer developed to protect spacesuits, which is now used in many areas, in more advanced versions, such as on eyeglass lenses.
Satellite Navigation – GPS
This one really doesn’t need any introduction, as it’s right in the name: satellite. Space exploration and development have made it possible to easily achieve long-distance, now almost instant communication (telephone, television, etc.) and navigation via satellites.
Invisible braces
A transparent, polycrystalline aluminum oxide material has been developed to insulate the infrared antenna of heat-seeking missiles. This is what makes transparent braces.
Camera built into a smartphone
In order to reduce the burden and make it practical, it was necessary to develop a small optical device that could take high-quality photos and videos. Later, this type of camera was built into mobile phones based on NASA’s development.
Emulsified zero-valent nanofibers
The space shuttles (Challenger and Columbia) left behind a lot of hazardous chemical waste. One of the most dangerous of these was trichloroethylene, which has harmful effects on the nervous system and development. NASA has developed a substance that breaks down this substance into a non-toxic compound. Today, this substance is also used in commercial and chemical, manufacturing and oil companies.
Drainage ribs
Like those found in swimming pools, or at the bottom of subway steps. Drainage that helps vehicles stay on the road.
CCD – Charge-coupled Device
One of the imaging devices on the Hubble Space Telescope, used in medical science.
Refrigerators
Foam insulation – advanced versions of polyurethane foam are used for insulation in space exploration. Further refined versions of these can also be found in refrigerator panels to create a larger interior space. One example is Samsung’s SpaceMax technology.
Vacuum insulation panels – VIP (Vacuum Insulation Panels) – Use of vacuum to maximize thermal insulation in spacecraft. For example, Whirlpool uses this technology in refrigerators, under the name SlimTech.
Aerogel – frozen/solid smoke – Developed by NASA, it is used to insulate storage tanks for Mars rovers or cryogenic liquids, among other things. Expensive, so it is mostly used in medical or premium-class refrigerators, also to increase the interior space and more efficient heat retention and energy consumption.
And how much do we spend in taxes on this and that?
On space exploration
The ESA, the European Space Agency, annually pays the price of one cinema ticket per European. In the States, this is the price of four cinema tickets per American.
The ESA covers 29 countries with the “outsiders”, and together with America we are talking about 30 countries.
Interestingly: On military strategy
Calculated for all 195 countries of our planet, i.e. the total population of the world (at the time of writing, approximately 8 billion people), paid from taxes: half a cinema ticket per person.
Of course, military strategy has also added a lot to our everyday lives, but I will probably talk about that in another article.
Be a Nerdy Bird!
