Industrial Productivity/Manufacturing Technology - NASA Spinoffs

Magnetic Liquids - Based on the NASA-developed ferrofluid concept involving synthetic fluids that can be positioned and controlled by magnetic force, the ferrofluidic seal was initially applied in a zero-leakage, nonwearing seal for the rotating shaft of a system used to make semiconductor chips, solving a persistent problem contamination due to leaking seals.

Welding Sensor System - Laser-based automated welder for industrial use incorporates a laser sensor system originally designed for Space Shuttle External Tank to track the seam where two pieces of metal are to be joined, measures gaps and minute misfits, and automatically corrects the welding torch distance and height.

Microlasers - Based on a concept for optical communications over interplanetary distances, microlasers were developed for the commercial market to transmit communication signals and to drill, cut, or melt materials.

Magnetic Bearing System - Bearings developed from Space Shuttle designs support moving machinery without physical contact, permitting motion without friction or wear, and are now used in electric power generation, petroleum refining, machine tool operation, and natural gas pipelines.

Engine Lubricant - A NASA-developed plasma-sprayed coating is used to coat valves in a new, ten-inch-long, four-cylinder rotary engine, eliminating the need for lubricating the rotorcam, which has no crankshaft, flywheel, distributor, or water pump.

Interactive Computer Training - Known as Interactive Multimedia Training (IMT), originally developed to train astronauts and space operations personnel, now utilized by the commercial sector to train new employees and upgrade worker skills, using a computer system that engages all the senses, including text, video, animation, voice, sounds, and music.

High-Pressure Water stripping - Technology developed for preparing Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters first evolved into the U.S. Air Force's Large Aircraft Robotic Paint Stripping (LARPS) system, and now used in the commercial airline industry, where the waterjet processing reduces coating removal time by 90 percent, using only water at ultra-high pressures up to 55,000 psi.

Advanced Welding Torch - Based on the Variable Polarity Plasma Arc welding technology, a handheld torch originally developed for joining light alloys used in NASA's External Tank, is now used by major appliance manufacturers for sheet metal welding.

Other spinoffs in this area include: Gasoline vapor recovery, self-locking fasteners, machine tool software, laser wire stripper, lubricant coating process, wireless communications, engine coatings, and engine design.

Public Safety - NASA Spinoffs

Radiation Hazard Detector - NASA technology has made commercially available new, inexpensive, conveniently carried device for protection of people exposed to potentially dangerous levels of microwave radiation. Weighing only 4 ounces and about the size of a cigarette pack, it can be carried in a shirt pocket or clipped to a belt. Unit sounds an audible alarm when microwave radiation reaches a preset level.

Emergency Response Robot - Remotely-operated robot reduces human injury levels by performing hazardous tasks that would otherwise be handled by humans.

Personal Alarm System - Pen-sized ultrasonic transmitter used by prison guards, teachers, the elderly, and disabled to call for help is based on space telemetry technology. Pen transmits a silent signal to receiver that will display the exact location of the emergency.

Emergency Rescue Cutters - Lightweight cutters for freeing accident victims from wreckage developed using NASA pyrotechnic technology.

Fireman’s Air Tank - Lighter-weight firefighter's air tanks have been developed. New back-pack system weighs only 20 lbs. for 30 minute air supply, 13 lbs. less than conventional firefighting tanks. They are pressurized at 4,500 psia (twice current tanks). A warning device tells the fireman when he or she is running out of air.

Personal Storm Warning System - Lightning detector gives 30-minute warning to golfers, boaters, homeowners, business owners, and private pilots.

Self-Righting Life Raft - Developed for the Apollo program, fully inflates in 12 seconds and protects lives during extremely adverse weather conditions with self-righting and gravity compensation features.

Other spinoffs in this area include: Storm warning services (Doppler radar), firefighters' radios, lead poison detection, fire detector, flame detector, corrosion protection coating, protective clothing, and robotic hands.

Transportation- NASA Spinoffs

Studless Winter Tyres - Viking Lander parachute shroud material is adapted and used to manufacture radial tires, increasing the tire material's chainlike molecular structure to five times the strength of steel should increase tread life by 10,000 miles.

Better Brakes - New, high-temperature composite space materials provide for better brake linings. Applications include trucks, industrial equipment and passenger cars.

Tollbooth Purification - A laminar airflow technique used in NASA clean rooms for contamination-free assembly of space equipment is used at tollbooths on bridges and turnpikes to decrease the toll collector's inhalation of exhaust fumes.

Weight Saving Technology - NASA research on composite materials is used to achieve a 30-percent weight reduction in a twin-turbine helicopter, resulting in a substantial increase in aircraft performance.

Improved Aircraft Engine - Multiple NASA developed technological advancements resulted in a cleaner, quieter, more economical commercial aircraft engine known as the high bypass turbofan, featuring a 10-percent reduction in fuel consumption, lower noise levels, and emission reductions of oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and unburned hydrocarbons.

Advanced Lubricants - An environmental-friendly lubricant designed to support the Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platform led to the development of three commercial lubricants for railroad track maintenance, for electric power company corrosion prevention, and as a hydraulic fluid with an oxidation life of 10,000 hours.

Energy Storage System - The Flywheel Energy Storage system, derived from two NASA-sponsored energy storage studies, is a chemical-free, mechanical battery that harnesses the energy of a rapidly spinning wheel and stores it as electricity with 50 times the capacity of a lead-acid battery, very useful for electric vehicles.

New Wind Design For Corporate Jets- NASA-developed computer programs resulted in an advanced, lighter, more aerodynamically-efficient new wing for Gulfstream business aircraft.

Aids To School Bus Design - Manufacturer uses three separate NASA-developed technologies originally developed for aviation and space use in their design and testing of a new school bus chassis. These technologies are a structural analysis computer program infrared stress measurement system, and a ride quality meter system.

Other spinoffs in this area include: Safer bridges, emission testing, airline wheelchairs, electric car, auto design, methane-powered vehicles, wind shear prediction, and aircraft design analysis.

Space Exploration is a waste of money

Space exploration gives us no direct benefit

There have been no direct benefits from space travel; the only 'good things' to come from it are indirect, and not the end aims. NASA weren't aiming for Velcro, but the moon. We got Velcro, the moon gave us nothing except some pretty pictures of the planet below. Scientists and inventors could give us the same by-products for a lot less cost if the associated space exploration was removed from the equation.

All the by-products of the space race could have been developed by commercial companies aiming to make a profit by developing good products and selling them, at a fraction of the cost: the Post-it note is possibly as useful as Velcro, but was developed by 3M at a fraction of the cost.

Furthermore, a lot of the 'advances' space exploration bring us is irrelevant to daily life: why bother spending money developing a pen that works in zero-gravity when a) a pencil will do and b) the vast majority of the world's 6 billion people will never experience zero gravity?

The Earth itself is not fully explored yet

Space exploration has always been a gimmick. The USA was doing it only to look better than the USSR and vice versa; it has never really been about the science. There are far more valuable scientific endeavors to fund, such as the exploration of our own planet. The seabed, especially around volcanic regions, is relatively unexplored, as is Antarctica. One recent news story about a ‘lost tribe’ also highlighted the fact that we are not in contact with all indigenous peoples across the planet. The scientific knowledge obtainable from our own planet, particularly organisms that inhabit locations with extreme conditions, offers far more value than that of space.

A commercial space industry is taking over

Even if space exploration was a good target of funding in the past, it is now a growing target of venture capital and private ingenuity. For example, SpaceX's reusable rocket that is expected to reduce launch costs for commercial satellites, Bigelow Aerospace's investment in space tourism, and Virgin Galactic's expected space-faring plane, among others.

Now that private companies are intending to supply space access on the cheap, it is useless to spend all that money on expensive platforms such as the space shuttle.

The new crisis on planet earth: finish your priorities before starting new ones

There are two major crises going on at your home planet. Global warming and the world wild economic crisis, both are severe. if the government doesn’t handle the economic crisis with care we all will end up poor. How can we feed the poor, fend for ourselves and take care of really expensive space travels?

Space travel is a unwanted business for now. How many of you'll know that NASA lost count of their budget after the first billions of dollar after the first year? is this more important than caring for the needy? when so many people are dieng as we speak can we just neglect them and say "the money we just spend went for a good cause, and these few hundreds of people who died are nothing because if we don’t find another planet to escape the cultures of global warming we all will die" is that fair for them? i say no and what will you say?

Global warming is the second most severe issue the earth is going through. We have to take care of our planet before we go roaming other planets. if the great legendary tribes of yesterday were here to see all this they would not believe that long time ago there used to be pure air to breath e and man and animal lived side by side. Now everything is destroyed. If we take care of this problem with care we would be able to overcome this disaster.

What if the space shuttle launches and then fall? Then what? The government is going to have to pay more money for that. Plus they might get sued. Our government is dumb for going along with this.

Money is better used to help human lives in their own country

Imagine you own a house that you have ruined over the years and never bothered to fix any of the integral parts of it, like the hole in the roof, the foundation, running water, garden, and it has become unsanitary, you need 1 Million dollars to fix it up. Instead you plan to abandon this house since you don't like the neighborhood anyways, and you want to buy yourself a new one. You're really picky and won't settle for anything less than a perfect new home, no matter the cost. You hire a Real-estate agent, his fee to search for your dream home is $1 Billion Dollars, and the potential new home you're looking in that perfect neighborhood will cost you more than 100 Trillion dollars. You're convinced to go with the latter option, because you're under the impression that some really interesting girls live there, but you're agent has yet to confirm anything of this information. His search still continues....

The argument that humanity will need to find a new habitat to survive is a stretch and paranoid. Humans are already dying due to poverty and the lack of food etc. The millions of dollars of government funding that goes to space exploration could instead be used to save the humans who are already dying in our world. No-one is going to argue against the value of knowledge but there is a greater value in spending more on food supplies which has a certain result of feeding the hungry, whereas certain results are not present in the theory of discovering a sustainable planet.

Although the cost is not high relative to other government expenditure, it is still an additional cost that the taxpayer is burdened with. If this debate is saying that space exploration is pointless then it means spending money on nothing so is definitely a waste. Even if it's a small amount it is still an amount that could be spent elsewhere. Every day in Delhi B.P.S buses are getting blasted due to the default in the engineering. So we should spend money on it not for the space exploration. We should spend money on the cotton bags and jute bags. We should spend money on Afforestation .We live on the earth so I request everyone to spend money on the Earth not on space

Indeed it is our nature to explore our environment - but that environment is not zero-gravity, extremes (and not the bearable extremes we experience on earth) of temperatures and terrain.

Indeed, there is still a substantial area of our own planet we have yet to fully explore. Why rush off to space when we've not seen our own entire planet yet?

If people had just stayed in their own locations they would find ways to become highly advanced in regards to those locations. Likely, it would get to the point that if they tried exploration they would be able to benefit most anyone that happened upon their civilization, and vice versa. Think about it as you would from ancient events in Eurasia. The Chinese were only able to help Europe so well because they were isolated from them for so long, even though it did really only lead too much conflict and war, but that was only because of the Europeans greed.

Although these discoveries have been made, do you really think that Velcro and non-stick pans are more important than feeding the starving, solving the current economic crisis or dealing with the environmental issues? Though these inventions may be useful, we can survive without them. A normal pan still cooks your meals, buttons and zips can do up your jumpers or clothes. These items are simply a luxury we cannot afford and we do not need them. The thousands of starving people cannot survive without food so why spend money on products which we do not need.

If space was not meant for us to cross, why should we take risk into crossing it? We are very comfortable in our own world. We still have resources not discovered on Earth yet. So why should we throw money down the drain just to take a meaningless risk?? For example, the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, thus proving that going into space is a hazardous risk.

Because the space corn and space harm us harvest from Mars is poisonous and kill our children. More seriously, settlements would be an immense cost with all sorts of things having to be imported from earth.