Inventions We Wouldn’t Have Without Space Travel

With NASA’s Perseverance landing on Mars, the age-old debate has once again surfaced: “Why spend all that money to explore other planets, when there are so many problems right here on Earth?” Here are a few reasons. Without space travel, we wouldn’t have . . .

Camera Phones: 

Today’s tech was developed in the 90s in a quest for scientific quality cameras small enough to fit on spacecraft.

CAT Scans: 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory played a lead role in developing the technology, which in turn led to CAT scanners and radiology. 

LEDs: 

Red LEDs are used in space to grow plants, and to heal humans on Earth.

Athletic Shoes: 

Nike Air trainers wouldn’t exist if a NASA engineer hadn’t pitched the idea when working on space suit technology.

Dust Busters: 

NASA asked Black & Decker to come up with a lightweight device to collect moon samples. That lead to the Dustbuster in 1979.

Ear Thermometers: 

NASA and Diatek developed the aural thermometer, which uses infrared astronomy tech to measure the energy emitted by the ear drum.

The Jaws of Life: 

This uses a mini version of the explosive charge used to separate devices on the Space Shuttle.

Wireless Headsets:

NASA developed these to allow astronauts to be hands-free without wires. 

Baby Formula:

 It now contains a nutritional enrichment ingredient which can be traced back to NASA research into the use of algae during space travel. 

Portable Computers – and the Computer Mouse: 

Yup. Inspired by, and developed for space travel.