Apollo era ushered in new generation of tech
When President John F. Kennedy stood in front of a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, proclaiming that the United States would put an American safely on the moon by the end of the decade, it was a massive and ambitious undertaking.
Eight years later, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins made Kennedy’s mandate a reality, but
developing the technological advances needed to make that happen was anything but a smooth journey.
In those eight years, NASA and its engineers advanced space technology at an unparalleled pace — with many of those developments still part of everyday life 50 years later.
Computers
We now hold more computing power in our smartphones than NASA had to put a man on the moon.
Nonetheless, the technological breakthroughs in the Apollo Guidance System Computer, developed by MIT and built by Raytheon, laid the foundation for our handheld super-computers.
“It was the first time that kind of computing and communication system was ever used on-board a vehicle” said Mikaele McShane, Communications Director for the NASA Technology Transfer Program.
When NASA contracted with MIT to build the AGC, they did not provide any specifications.
This posed unmatched challenges, as an everchanging list of functions the computer would need to perform, rapidly increased as the mission neared. In the end, two computers were on-board for the Apollo 11 mission.
One was used in the command module to compute the coordinates responsible for getting the astronauts safely to the moon and back. The second computer was in the lunar lander.
At 70 pounds and the size of briefcase, the AGC was considered compact in an era when computers were typically the size of a refrigerator. Inside each were 2 kilobytes of writable memory and 36 kilobytes of fixed memory.
To put that in perspective, the iPhone has a million times more processing power than the AGC.
The revolutionary design of the AGC did include the first silicon chips ever used in a computer — a substance still used in chips today.
Cordless tools
There’s a good chance that your last home improvement project was made easier thanks to the Apollo lunar landing.
“The tools had to be cordless so astronauts could use them for EVA (extravehicular activity) walks and ergonomic for use with gloves,” McShane said.
While cordless power tool technology was in existence before the Apollo mission — it was unveiled by Black & Decker in 1961 — the Apollo missions accelerated product development.
NASA contracted Black & Decker to develop the cordless rotary hammer drill that was used for drilling into the surface of the moon, and also a computer program to optimize the drill’s motor and power consumption.
Before heading to the moon, the tools went through rigorous tests in both underwater and antigravity conditions.
Ultimately, the technology was perfected and found its way into commercial cordless power tools of Black &Decker, including the DustBuster cordless vacuum.
Fireproofing
Fire-resistant fabrics and materials became a priority after a fire claimed the lives of three Apollo 1 astronauts during a full system test on Jan. 27, 1967, just weeks before their scheduled launch.
The tragedy forced NASA to reevaluate and redesign many of the components for the command module.
“They realized they had a highly pressurized crew capsule that had 100% oxygen,” McShane said. “That was a fire hazard in itself.”
The solution involved bringing the oxygen content down to 34% inside the capsule to make the environment more stable, and rethinking the flight suits and the fabric used in the crew capsule.
New synthetic, flame-retardant fabrics that had virtually no melting point and were able to maintain their strength and shape even after being exposed to extremely high temperatures.
Not long after its use in the Apollo program, the fire-retardant materials found their way into lightweight, fire-resistant garments for firefighters and military personnel.
Dialysis machine
Many of the advancements made during the Apollo missions did not have clear applications at the time.
A prime example is the dialysis machine.
NASA contracted with scientists to develop a chemical process to purify and recycle water during long space missions.
Researchers discovered that the same process also could be used to remove toxic waste from the blood of individuals suffering from kidney failure. As a result, treatment for the condition became vastly more efficient, and easier on those patients.
Athletic shoes
Before Nike decided to get into the air business, NASA was already laying the groundwork for the technology that would forever change athletic shoes.
The process known as “blow rubber molding” that was used for the shock-absorbing materials in the astronauts’ helmets was pitched to Nike by a former NASA engineer, Frank Rudy, to create shock-absorbing air cells in soles of shoes.
In terms of the future of shoes, it was one giant leap forward indeed.