NASA Celebrates Its 40th Year
ctober 1, 1998, marks the 40th anniversary of NASA's creation. Throughout the year, the Agency will celebrate its achievements and the significant highlights, discoveries and events of its past, present and future—accomplishments and contributions that enhance our knowledge of the universe and the quality of our everyday life.
NASA was born during the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, but its core went back much further, to an organization known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), founded in 1915 by farsighted men who were concerned with the then-primitive state of aviation technology in the United States. By the 1950s, the NACA's members had become increasingly involved in missile research and were contemplating a move into space exploration. The NACA had a network of laboratories around the country, which today are NASA's Ames, Dryden, Langley, Lewis and Wallops field centers, as well as a longtime relationship with industry and the military.
In April 1958, Congress began examining a bill to establish NASA as the organization to continue aeronautics research and push forward a national space program. Originally proposed as the "National Aeronautics and Space Agency," the name was changed a few months later during the bill's debate to "Administration." President Eisenhower signed the legislation on July 27, 1958. With the NACA as the core of the new agency, it soon incorporated the space exploration projects of the Naval Research Laboratory (now Goddard Space Flight Center), the Army's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (now Marshall Space Flight Center). Thus, NASA picked up the threads of an embryonic and fragmented space program initiated largely by a U.S. Army team of rocket technicians, who had launched the first American satellite, Explorer I, on the last day of January 1958.
In just over a decade, three Americans were reading passages from the Book of Genesis while they were orbiting around the Moon! For more than four decades, NASA has been guiding the American aerospace effort, establishing the United States as the preeminent nation in aerospace technology and exploration. NASA is still heavily engaged in research and development work in all aspects of aviation and space. What NASA accomplished yesterday has built the foundation for what it is doing today. Its experiments and technological research efforts fuel the hopes that embody the future, thus paving the way for a permanent human presence in space, increasing our understanding of the solar system and Earth, maximizing the competitive position of today's aviation, space launch and communications industries, and continuing to enhance the quality of life on Earth.
To most Americans, NASA means no more than aerospace exploration. However, the NASA Technology Transfer Program, established 40 years ago under congressional mandate to promote the transfer of aerospace technology to the public and private sectors of America, has given an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise to U.S. industry, touching every part of life. Aerospace Technology Innovationserves as a primary source of information about NASA projects and opportunities in the areas of technology transfer/commercialization, aerospace technology development and the commercial development of space. To celebrate NASA's 40th year, this and subsequent issues of Innovation will examine the many ways the Agency's research and development results have affected our everyday lives—from the many products, services and enhancements used daily that originated from NASA technology and know-how to how NASA has progressed through the years.
Research and development has generated technology for decades and is available to private industry in a vast storehouse easily accessible through the NASA Commercial Technology Network. Technology transfer helps the United States meet international challenges and keeps U.S. industry competitive in global scientific and technological innovation. Technology transfer and commercialization increases productivity, which brings about new products and processes that meet consumer demands. Through NASA's research and the participation of entrepreneurs and industry, thousands of spinoff products and processes have been derived from NASA-developed technology. Examples are:
Our Daily Bread
What to feed the astronauts—The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) method addressed NASA's need for absolute freedom from potentially catastrophic disease-producing bacteria and toxins. The food industry has adopted this method. HACCP establishes control over the entire food preparation process, raw materials and people involved to prevent food safety problems instead of catching them after an occurrence. Other government agencies are considering extending HACCP to meat/poultry and seafood inspection operations. Today, food plants are still operating under HACCP.Partnering with Disney—The ripe tomatoes exhibited at Disney's EPCOT Center are real and represent a project that is increasing the Earth's food-growing capacity. NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Disney World are collaborating to use human and industrial waste to provide ingredients needed for growing edible plants. Many vegetable farmers around the world are learning how to grow crops without soil—a method known as hydroponics, which also has promise for long space flights during which astronauts will grow their own food without carrying heavy soil into space.
Buyers or sellers—NASA's Landsat satellites are helping determine potato pricing in the Pacific Northwest. A company is using data from a Landsat satellite passing over Oregon and Washington to calculate just how well potato crops are doing. The more potatoes there are, the less money farmers will get for their crop. The fewer potatoes growing in the area helps a farmer decide to harvest early and get a higher price.
NASA food technology first resulted in
Action Snacks, but now contributes
to food safety, hydroponics and crop management.
Life, Health and the Moonsuit of Happiness
Cooling systems for health and occupational comfort—A channeled cooling garment for space wear has resulted in personal medical cooling systems worn by patients with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and spina bifida, among others, to lower their body temperatures. "Cool Suits" are used by hazardous materials workers, armored vehicle crews, firefighters, crop dusting pilots, heavy equipment operators, auto racing drivers and surgical personnel in hot operating room environments.
Spacesuits are everywhere—Spacesuit material is used in construction of shopping centers, sports stadiums, airports and many other places. Lightweight fabric used in the Mercury and Gemini programs—and improved on during the Apollo era—was used to build Atlanta's Georgia Dome, Rome's Olympic Stadium, a Vancouver stadium, and airport terminals in Denver and Saudi Arabia. This flexible, stronger-than-steel "moonsuit" fabric developed by Owens-Corning is being used by more architects, engineers and building owners because it is durable, fire resistant and moisture repellent. It expands and contracts with temperature changes, lets in light and reflects heat, thus reducing cooling and lighting costs.
These shoes were made for moonwalking—The space shoes used on the Moon were also perfect for retaining shock absorption, stability and flexibility in the athletic arena. The midsole, similar to the rigid/flexible system in spacesuits, and NASA's "blow-molding" process for stress-free durability were incorporated into athletic shoes and showed no visible signs of wear or structural fatigue after testing equivalent to 400 miles. They can also be configured for different sports.
Lifesaving "jaws"—Firefighters and rescue workers use lifesaving "jaws" tools to help injured accident victims. The tools are powered by the same small explosive charges that release the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters. The boosters are held together by explosive bolts that burst for release from the rest of the vehicle. A company has been supplying NASA with explosive nuts and bolts and related equipmentsince the Apollo days. The rescue tools can be set up quickly, are lightweight and cost less; they were used in the Oklahoma City bombing rescue efforts.
Less firefighters' lives are being lost—Firefighters die often from smoke fumes and inhalation. Breathing equipment for astronauts is universal in firefighting because its light weight is an advantage over the old heavy equipment often left behind. The system is more evenly distributed on the hips and has better visibility with a low oxygen warning device.
Skylab helps sniff out killer vapors—Detectors on Skylab helped eliminate killer vapors by identifying carbon monoxide and smoke. This sensitive instrument immune to vibration distinguished carbon monoxide from water vapor by removing the water vapor before measurement. Smoke or fire triggers an alarm with an ionization chamber that acts as a sensor. This technology can be found in some of the smoke and carbon dioxide detectors available today.
Space in the lives of women—Space is saving their lives with the help of Hubble Space Telescope technology. Breast biopsies can be performed with a needle instead of a scalpel using supersensitive charged coupled devices (CCDs), which are silicon chips that convert light directly into electronic or digital images. A company adopted the new CCD for its breast biopsy system to obtain clearer images than conventional x-rays offer.
Beam me up—Lasers are used to transmit communications signals, to drill, cut or melt hard materials and to carry out various medical applications and treatments. Lasers have given heart patients a nonsurgical alternative to open up clogged arteries after the Food and Drug Administration approved a new surgical method derived from laser technology pioneered by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for remote sensing. A small catheter is threaded through coronary arteries, and the laser light is carried through fiber optic bundles within the catheter. Another group of fibers shines a light at the tip to provide video pictures of the inside of the artery.
Better body imaging—Such imaging is acquired through digital image processing through two of the most widely used body imaging techniques: computer-aided tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. These two methods were developed from digital image processing technology that enhanced pictures of the Moon and later became the basis for the NASA Landsat satellites.
"Moonsuit" fabric worn by the Apollo
astronauts is now used by architects,
engineers and building owners.
Home and Leisure
Home improvement power tool is born—Apollo astronauts needed a way to drill as much as 10 feet beneath the Moon's surface to collect core samples. As with everything else that went to the Moon, the drill had to be small, lightweight and battery powered. A company designed a computer program so the drill's motor could use as little power as possible, which has provided a strong technology base for developing battery-powered tools and appliances.
What has golf got to do with space?—How is golf connected to Space Shuttle technology? Companies have worked with the airload and slosh control used in the Space Shuttle's external tank to provide "unmatched accuracy and distance" in its latest golf ball design. Similar to the liquid in the Shuttle tank, when flying through the air, the liquid inside the golf ball sloshes around unless it is controlled to keep it traveling in an efficient and predictable way. As an object moves through the air, its aerodynamic efficiency is also affected by the way the air passes across its surface. These "airloads" are important for a golf ball as well as the external tank.
NASA has a tradition of excellence extending back to the NACA established in 1915. Concerned with the problems of flight in the atmosphere and in space, NASA's partnerships with industry, universities and other government have helped make the United States the most scientifically and technically advanced civilization the world has ever known.
Our lives have fundamentally changed for the better in the 40 years since the dawn of the space age, and NASA's creation was a crucial part of it. The next 40 promise similar progress. Happy 40th, NASA!
For more information, contact Karen Kafton at the National Technology Transfer Center.
Call (304) 243-2415, Fax: (304)243-2457, E-mail: kkafton@nttc.edu
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
Technology used in the Space Shuttle's external tank
is now being applied to
golf ball manufacturing.
