Let’s Not Cut NASA’s Budget I am always interested in knowing how NASA will fare under a new president. NASA had some programs put on the back burner under President Obama and since President Biden seems to want to follow the example of Obama, I think we have to look at what I would call substantial changes in the direction of NASA. Biden probably will be looking to make budget cuts in some areas as he advances his social platform which will require super tanker loads of cash to implement. I personally want to see advances at NASA no matter who the president is and a speedy continuation of the manned flight program. The benefits in manned flight will not only aid mankind or do I have to say peoplekind now, but will produce revenue as more discoveries are made which we could sell to commercial companies. The Reader’s Digest ran an article in 2019 mentioning some of the inventions NASA was responsible for in the past. The article cites a device which was used in the shuttle called a Grid Compass which was said to be the first portable computer. Sorry I have to take issue with this one. The grid compass was said to have been manufactured in 1982 while it was probably the first practical laptop, it was not the first portable computer. The Osborne was invented in 1981 and is said to be the first portable computer. Creating a practical laptop was important and has led to many of us have powerful laptops today. A GPS system was invented for the military but was not as accurate as the one we use today. NASA refined it in the 1990s and now it is said to be accurate to within 5 centimeters which is 1.97 inches. Before the correction the accuracy was about 15 meters which was 49 feet 2 inches. This was very helpful to some businesses which needed more accurate readings and this update also allowed our cell phones to be able to use GPS. Sometime some of NASA’s inventions are not as spectacular as others, but useful never the less. One of these inventions was the dust buster. Yeah, that’s right our dust busters were born at NASA. While this is sort of a quiet invention which didn’t bring big headlines it became a very useful device. Years ago, our glasses used to get a lot more scratched. One company tried for ten years to develop a scratch resistant coating, that company was FosterGrant. NASA wanted all astronauts to wear shatter proof glasses so plastic lenses were used but they were more easily scratched. Doctor Ted Wydeven discovered a coating which would make plastic lenses less scratch prone and it was licensed to FosterGrant. You can thank NASA for not having to look through scratches. When we talk about NASA inventions some of the one’s people consider the most important are medical devices. The Insulin pump has been a God send for some people. It was developed from technology used on the Mars Viking spacecraft. The technology was originally developed to keep an eye on the health of astronauts, but like so many inventions it had other uses. Today, almost everyone is carrying a cell phone on them. Most of the cell phones are smart phones with cameras. The cameras use what is known as a CMOS active pixel sensor which allows us to take digital photography. This technology was developed by NASA to allow them to make small cameras for space missions. Thanks to NASA almost all of us have a camera in our pocket at all times and many have a door bell with a tiny camera in it. The Kennedy Space Center claims it contracted Aspen Technologies to develop aerogel insulation to keep astronauts comfortable in space. If we do some research on the subject, we find a man named Doctor Samuel Stephens Kistler invented aerogel between 1929 and 1930. Perhaps NASA was the first to use it in clothing? Aerogel is the lightest material being over 90 percent air and is a great insulator. NASA was always looking for better ways to feed and keep astronauts alive, especially those who were off world. Their scientists discovered the fact omega-3 was a very important ingredient in breast milk and played an important role in the development of babies. This caused companies to enrich their baby formulas with this ingredient. NASA needed a way to purify water. Water was very important for space travel and colonization. They needed something which would not take a lot of power and was small. They developed a system for the Apollo spacecraft and today this technology has been used by people and businesses all over the world. Sometimes the answer to a problem is really simple, take the original paper clip for example. It was a great invention but many times would pop off the paper. This was solved by cutting grooves into it. NASA took a look at our roads and realized they could make them a lot safer. They suggested cutting grooves into the roads and runways which would drain off water. Because of this innovation vehicle accidents have been reduced by 85% and the incidence of planes skidding off runways because they were wet as been reduced by 300%. There have been a lot of stories about ice downing airplanes. I remember one scary one told to be by a former airline worker. A rubber strip was supposed to be along the edge of the wing of a plane he was working on. It was to prevent icing. He was ordered to paint a black line where the strip should be and roll the plane out for takeoff. NASA is responsible for modern deicing techniques used at airports which has cut down on these accidents considerably. I hope NASA will not be decimated. As I was saying before, the inventions they come out with as they learn more about space and our planet are very important and it seems if handled correctly the patents could be sold and pay a large part of NASA’s budget.
|
