Space tech is always part of our lives...
points out that space technology is part of our daily lives, often in ways you wouldn’t expect.
Looking around, do you think that you could lay your hands on something that has direct links to space technology without leaving your seat?
Let’s start small: grab your phone and take a selfie. In your phone camera is a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor, developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as part of its move in the early 1990s to make technology ‘faster, better, cheaper’ and reduce the cost of space missions.
Fast forward three decades. Over three billion of these cameras are made each year, 93 million selfies are posted on Instagram daily, and none of them would be possible without that CMOS sensor.
Technologies that were designed for use in space, on robotic or crewed missions, have proven useful on Earth.
In the Planetarium at Glasgow Science Centre, we are often asked what the benefits are of exploring the universe. The answer is: lots, from the mundane to lifesaving.
Are you wearing glasses to read this? The non-scratch coating on glasses was developed to protect spacesuit helmet visors, and was licensed from NASA by a sunglasses manufacturer in the 1980s.
Perhaps you’ve ditched glasses and opted for LASIK corrective surgery? Thank NASA for that. During LASIK surgery, the eye moves a lot. A laser tracking system follows those tiny movements, updating at an incredible 4000 times a second to make sure the surgery is done accurately. The original use for that tracking technology? Helping spacecraft to carry out delicate docking maneuvers in space.
Has the thought of laser eye surgery made you need a lie down, maybe on a memory foam mattress? Designed to absorb the g-forces that astronauts experience on launch and landing, TEMPUR mattress foam was further developed by a Swedish and Danish team, expanding out from its aerospace use. Initially, they focused purely on medical settings and improving patient comfort, but in 1991 launched it as a commercial product. Naps have been more comfortable ever since.
Are you feeling refreshed after your lie-down and considering a run? With our Scottish weather, fending off hypothermia after a big race like the Great Scottish Run is crucial. In your post-run goodie bag you’ll usually find a “space blanket”, and it isn’t much of a leap to make a link to the space race. Developed in the 1960s, these shiny blankets are a sheet of plastic with a thin metal coating and they reflect 97% of radiated heat. They are perfect for keeping delicate spacecraft systems at just the right temperature in the extremes of space, as well as keeping your shivering under control on a chilly Glasgow Green after a half-marathon!
Of course, these are just a few of the spinoff technologies that benefit us daily. We could also have included the cochlear implant, which helps people to hear, the Global Positioning System (GPS) which stops you getting lost, invisible braces, food safety, freeze drying, dustbusters, infrared thermometers, and many others. You can find more of them at the Space Foundation’s Space Technology Hall of Fame website.
There are a few technologies that sound space-age but aren’t, and often get mistakenly included on these lists. Things like Teflon, which is a coating that stops your dinner sticking to the pan, was discovered by accident in 1938, and first applied to pans in the 1950s. It does get used in space though, on items like spacesuits and heat shields.
Velcro seems like it should have been invented to stop things floating around in microgravity, but was patented back in 1955, two years after the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik.
It is very useful to astronauts and is sewn onto clothing that astronauts wear in space, or stuck to panels on the International Space Station. Tools float away and get lost if they’re not firmly stuck down!
Finally, the space pen. No, NASA didn’t waste millions of dollars on a pen that could be used in space, while the Soviet Union was launching cosmonauts with nothing fancier than a pencil.
They did spend money buying the Fisher Space Pen, which was designed by an independent company, but astronauts have been using felt tip pens in space since the 1960s, and you might see astronauts on the International Space Station with simple Sharpies velcroed to the walls.