Outside The Box

"Variations of many NASA inventions, initially developed for space travel and exploration, have worked their way into consumer culture, ranging from common household items to complex medical technology. Since 1973, when NASA began officially recording these so-called "spinoffs," they have documented more than 1,750 items.


One of NASA's most important contributions might simply be bringing large teams of scientists together to solve problems, according to Roger Launius, curator at the National Air and Space Museum. "Then, when they disperse to go to other corporations or universities, they take with them the knowledge they gained through the process," he said. Hence, spinoffs are born."


We have gotten so much more than a few moon rocks from the Apollo program.


Think about the impact these technologies have had in our lives:


Mylar. A special aluminum-coated plastic designed to protect spacecraft from the blistering heat of the sun at a fraction of the weight of other
heat shield materials. It's now used in thermal blankets, performance
sails for sailboats, magnetic tape, insulation, and of course those
shiny birthday party balloons that hold air for two weeks.

Camera on a Chip. NASA scientists developed this to shrink the size of
the large, cumbersome digital imaging devices of the day. At first it
was used for automotive headlight dimmers and swallowable cameras for
gastric imaging. But the technology really caught on in the mid 1990's
when it was first used to put cameras in cell phones. Now all of us have
at least one of these tiny cameras.

Following the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts, NASA decided to
completely redesign the Apollo spacesuit, ditching the nylon material
and developing a new durable, fireproof fabric made of ultrafine woven
glass coated in Teflon. It worked great for spacesuits and is now used
in fire suits, as the roof of the Denver airport, and for a great many
other things.

NASA has also given us:

Scratch and glare resistant coatings. Revo sunglasses were designed by
ex-NASA engineers who developed the nine-layer polarized coatings for
the space suit helmets - that's why they cost almost as much as a space
suit helmet.

Because it's critical to find even small imperfections in aerospace
structures such as rocket motor casings, NASA developed an imager that
we all know today as the medical CT (CAT) scanner. They also created
the digital signal processing (DSP) visualization technologies used in
all CT and MRI imaging systems to assemble and display 3D data.

The technology behind DHA and RHA amino acid compounds for baby formula
was developed at NASA for a completely different purpose.

Athletic shoe shock reducing soles, including the air filled kind come
from NASA spacesuit designs, as does the blow molding process used to
create them. Remember what tennis shoes were like before NASA? Rubber
soles baby.

Modern sports helmets use NASA space helmet technology for shock
resistance.

Wireless headsets, a veritable NASA trademark. Plantronics now markets
consumer Bluetooth headsets using NASA technology.

You can also thank NASA for cordless power tools. They were developed to
solve the logistical problems involved in assembling huge rocket systems
with many parts in difficult to access spaces.

The actively cooled suits the astronauts used to keep from overheating
on the moon are used today by race car drivers and hazmat workers.

The hollow retroreflector, developed at NASA, is now used as a sensor to
detect the presence of hazardous gasses in chemical plants and waste
water treatment facilities.

Video stabilization software was developed to analyze shuttle launches
and was adapted for use in everything from crime scene video analysis to
consumer camcorder stabilization.

A NASA-developed chemical process was responsible for the development of
kidney dialysis machines.

Modern freeze-drying was invented to keep astronaut food light and easy
to store.

NASA-developed water purification systems are used all over the world to
remove bacteria and viruses from drinking water.


The list goes on, this is just a taste of the 1,750 inventions NASA has
given us back for our money. NASA is one of the best deals going.