What has NASA done for you?

*NASA or NAACP? *

There is controversy as to whether or not space exploration is worthy of
federal (tax payer) funding. Space exploration has helped to create many
medical advances among other more common household products that we take
for granted. Project Mercury
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm began
in 1958 and helped to develop blood pressure testers in order to make
sure that man's first orbit remained safe to his health. Scratch proof
eyeglass lenses were originally the glass coating for satellites to
protect them from floating space particles. Nitinol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitinol, the shape memory alloy, helps to
adhere braces to teeth. And we should not forget all of the things
telemetry has done for us; such as, allowing automatic monitoring for
alarm systems, oil rigs, chemical plants, cell phones, cameras, remote
radio broadcasts, and global positioning systems.

When most people wake up in the morning they will make something for
breakfast, pack a lunch, check their email and grab their Ipod, cell
phone or palm pilot. When they leave for work or school they will close
the garage door, pop in a CD and even look up maps on a screen in their
dash. All of this happens before even entering the technologically
enhanced office or school, thanks to NASA.

Yet some people have the gall to not appreciate NASA and ask, "What has
NASA done for me?" Well, the Tempur-Pedic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPUR bed you woke up on, the Tephlon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teflon coated pan you scrambled your eggs
in and the microwave you reheated your coffee in are direct results from
products invented by NASA. DuPont
http://www1.dupont.com/NASApp/dupontglobal/corp/index.jsp?page=/content/US/en_US/news/product/2005/pn07_11_05a.html
makes many of our daily used household products such as Ziploc bags,
refrigerants, oven mitts, bake ware, inhalers, and toothbrushes to name
very few of their products that were either derived from or used within
the space exploration programs. Even Velcro was first used in the space
shuttle and may be used to help save the current space expedition
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050803/NASA03/TPScience/.


Without NASA your cable would not come in digital or satellite nor would
you be able to check the weather across the country. Your email would
never work and your cell phone would be pointless. The remote would not
lower your garage door, your CD would not hold more than a song or two
and your advanced never-get-lost system would never have been created.
Your sandwich would be stale by lunchtime, your soda would be in a cup
and your insulated http://www.specprom.com/images/sm195/lnhsak.jpg
lunch bag would be brown and paper. We haven't even gotten through the
day and I think I have made my point. What has NASA done for you? Must
you really ask?

Interenting commentary, but please check
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/in...s/story068.htm. The microwave
oven did not come about because of NASA.

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI


BobGoFish wrote:
*NASA or NAACP? *

There is controversy as to whether or not space exploration is worthy of
federal (tax payer) funding. Space exploration has helped to create many
medical advances among other more common household products that we take
for granted. Project Mercury
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm began
in 1958 and helped to develop blood pressure testers in order to make
sure that man's first orbit remained safe to his health. Scratch proof
eyeglass lenses were originally the glass coating for satellites to
protect them from floating space particles. Nitinol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitinol, the shape memory alloy, helps to
adhere braces to teeth. And we should not forget all of the things
telemetry has done for us; such as, allowing automatic monitoring for
alarm systems, oil rigs, chemical plants, cell phones, cameras, remote
radio broadcasts, and global positioning systems.

When most people wake up in the morning they will make something for
breakfast, pack a lunch, check their email and grab their Ipod, cell
phone or palm pilot. When they leave for work or school they will close
the garage door, pop in a CD and even look up maps on a screen in their
dash. All of this happens before even entering the technologically
enhanced office or school, thanks to NASA.

Yet some people have the gall to not appreciate NASA and ask, "What has
NASA done for me?" Well, the Tempur-Pedic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPUR bed you woke up on, the Tephlon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teflon coated pan you scrambled your eggs
in and the microwave you reheated your coffee in are direct results from
products invented by NASA. DuPont
http://www1.dupont.com/NASApp/dupontglobal/corp/index.jsp?page=/content/US/en_US/news/product/2005/pn07_11_05a.html
makes many of our daily used household products such as Ziploc bags,
refrigerants, oven mitts, bake ware, inhalers, and toothbrushes to name
very few of their products that were either derived from or used within
the space exploration programs. Even Velcro was first used in the space
shuttle and may be used to help save the current space expedition
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050803/NASA03/TPScience/.


Without NASA your cable would not come in digital or satellite nor would
you be able to check the weather across the country. Your email would
never work and your cell phone would be pointless. The remote would not
lower your garage door, your CD would not hold more than a song or two
and your advanced never-get-lost system would never have been created.
Your sandwich would be stale by lunchtime, your soda would be in a cup
and your insulated http://www.specprom.com/images/sm195/lnhsak.jpg
lunch bag would be brown and paper. We haven't even gotten through the
day and I think I have made my point. What has NASA done for you? Must
you really ask?

In article ,
BobGoFish wrote:

*NASA or NAACP? *

There is controversy as to whether or not space exploration is worthy of
federal (tax payer) funding.

That is true, but there is considerably more controversy over whether
*manned* space exploration is worthy of taxpayer funding, and more
controversy still over whether taxpayers ought to continue to fund NASA.
These are three distinct questions, and ought not to be conflated.

[ List of cool things NASA has supposedly done snipped ]

FIrst, the attribution of some of the technologies in this list (like
email) to NASA is highly questionable. But more importantly, it is not
at all clear that these technological advances would not have happened
without NASA. And in recent years one could seriously ask what advances
we might have had if, for example, the space shuttle and space station
programs had not been sucking tens of billions of dollars into the
cosmic void with absolutely nothing to show for it. (Note that nearly
all of the technologies on the list of Cool Things NASA Has Done are
over twenty years old.)

NASA is, by and large, not about space exploration, it's about funneling
money to key Congressional districts and (recently) saving face in the
international community. The vast majority of NASA's budget goes to
shuttle and ISS, neither of which has ever "explored" anything except
the limits of the American public's tolerance for boondoggles. (It has
yet to find them.)

I support space exploration. I think the American public really gets
its money's worth from NASA's unmanned missions. And when Virgin
Spaceways starts selling tickets I'll be there with my checkbook. But
NASA's manned program (which is the vast majority of NASA) is nothing
but a great money-consuming black hole. It ought to be scrapped.

rg

In article ,
BobGoFish wrote:

There is controversy as to whether or not space exploration is worthy of
federal (tax payer) funding.

The more specific questions on which more and more people have
(fortunately) been focusing a

1) Have NASA's post-Apollo _manned_ space flight programs delivered
value for money for taxpayers' investment? Answer is NO.

2) Has the entire shuttle program been (in retrospect) worth what
taxpayer's have spent on it? Has the shuttle program delivered even a
small fraction of NASA promised it would deliver? Has it delivered ANY
major or important scientific discoveries or technical advances, that
could not have been achieved better and much more economically with an
unmanned space program (or even in some instances just back here on the
ground)? Answer to all of these is NO.

3) Given the laws of physics, the currently available level of space
technology, and any foreseeable near-term advances in that technology,
does it make any sense to spend equally large amounts of taxpayer money
attempting to send astronauts to the moon or -- God save us all! -- to
Mars, rather than focusing on further advances in unmanned space
technology? Answer is, it makes NO sense at all.

4) Should the Space Station at this point be abandoned and left to
rust? As the current shuttle mission shows all so vividly, for God's
sake, YES.

None of the above is intended in any way (a) to disparage the Apollo
program's accomplishments, which were pretty surely worth doing in their
time; or (b) to disparage or discourage bold and innovative Burt Rutan
style private efforts, which just might come up with something new and
unexpected (though it's very unlikely to be Man on Mars, or anything
approaching that).

Fortunately, NASA has recently floated some scale drawings of initial
conceptions for what their future manned and unmanned launch vehicles
might look like, alongside a scale drawing of the shuttle.

Given that this is a pilots' news group, I suspect the reality of those
drawings may begin to sink in. The unmanned vehicle is huge; the manned
vehicle is right back to 1960's era "spam in a can" methodology: shoot
'em up, let 'em maneuver the little capsule uselessly around for a
little while, and parachute 'em back down. I think the glamour will go
off that real fast.

Hey! NASA invented Tang - now that's 'real'!

"Gary G" wrote in message
...
Hey! NASA invented Tang - now that's 'real'!

Or was Tang invented for NASA?

Hmmm . . .well, did NASA have to exist to invent Tang (or
its equivalent)?

Don't forget they invented the Internet too...

NASA defines boondoggle.

BobGoFish wrote:

There is controversy as to whether or not space exploration is worthy of
federal (tax payer) funding....

As taxpayers, we should always hold government accountable for our
money. NASA has indeed contributed much to our nation's knowledge base.

But NASA is a vestigal organ of the cold war. Its raison d'etre was to
counter the Soviet threat. So the purpose for which it was created has
passed, and it has become a living example of "bureaucratic creep".

There now needs to be a reorganization of some sort in favor of a
smaller, less bureaucratic national space effort (if such a thing is
even possible), and along with it a hard look at modern national
priorities. I feel much work could be privatized, and public endowments
or prizes established for technological challenges - as was
accomplished by the Rutan effort.

There will remain some work that only public funding can accomplish, to
be sure, but taxpayers should always demand accountability from their
government.

Having looked again at the list of claimed NASA "accomplishments" that
started this thread, I'm now trying to decide if it was intended to be
taken seriously, or tongue in cheek.