Space Is All Around You

Space Is All Around You: From GovGab:


"Have you ever worn UV-blocking sunglasses or slept on a memory foam pillow? Used a Dustbuster, a wireless headset, or an ear thermometer? Clicked around a 360-degree view of a house or car online? Then thank your lucky stars! Or the U.S. space agency, NASA, to be exact. Because these and other everyday things—including acoustic guitars, kidney dialysis machines, and even NASCAR—have borrowed from—or been inspired by—technologies developed by NASA.

As a matter of fact, since humans landed on the moon, hundreds of useful items and activities that benefit life here on earth have used NASA research. Part of the agency's mission is to partner with industry, schools, other government agencies, and national laboratories around the world. Together they develop technologies that help fields such as health, transportation, public safety, computers, food production, sports, and the environment.

The Space Shuttle program, for example, has generated more than 100 practical technologies, including:

• light-emitting diodes that treat cancerous tumors
• miniaturized heart pumps
• infrared cameras that scan for forest fires
• lighter and stronger prosthetic limbs
• rocket fuel that destroys land mines
• thermal protection for racecar drivers

In its search for life on Mars, NASA created a tiny, ultrasensitive sensor that can detect traces of pathogens in water using very little energy and no lab expertise. A company in Troy, New York, is working on developing the sensor to help reduce waterborne diseases for people around the world. The device could prevent E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks (like those in spinach and tomatoes in recent years), and help reduce cholera, which killed thousands of people in Zimbabwe in 2008.

Even the Statue of Liberty has benefited from space exploration: Miss Liberty sports a coating of primer that NASA developed for rocket supports at launch sites to protect them from heat and corrosion.

To learn more about the nifty things inspired by space research that we use everyday, that entertain us, or that protect us, visit NASA's cool interactive world, NASA@Home and City, or read the magazine, Spinoff. For more fun, check out the Space Pup coloring book.

And in case you were wondering...Tang, Velcro, and Teflon were not invented by NASA—but NASA did use them in space."