[dramatic percussion music]
- HEY, AND WELCOME TO "NASA LAUNCHPAD."
I'M YOUR HOST, ALICIA SEARS.
HAVE YOU EVER SLEPT ON MEMORY FOAM?
HOW ABOUT WORN A PAIR OF SCRATCH RESISTANT LENSES?
MAYBE YOU'VE WATCHED SATELLITE TELEVISION?
WELL, IF YOU HAVE,
THEN YOU'VE BENEFITED FROM NASA-AIDED TECHNOLOGY,
MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS SPINOFFS.
WHEN CONGRESS CREATED NASA IN 1958,
THEY HAD BIG VISIONS FOR SPACE.
BUT CONGRESS ALSO MANDATED THAT THE TIME AND MONEY
BEING INVESTED IN SPACE NEEDED TO COME BACK TO EARTH
IN THE FORM OF PRACTICAL BENEFITS.
SO THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY,
NASA HAS WORKED TO TRANSFER NEWLY DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGIES
TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR.
THESE SPINOFFS ARE MORE COMMON THAN YOU MIGHT REALIZE.
NASA SPINOFFS CAN ACTUALLY BE FOUND
IN NEARLY EVERY FIELD OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR,
INCLUDING ENERGY, ELECTRONICS, INDUSTRY, MEDICINE,
NUTRITION, OCEANOGRAPHY, SAFETY, AND EVEN URBAN DEVELOPMENT.
HERE'S ASTRONAUT AL DREW
TO TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT SPINOFFS.
- WHEN YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT PROGRAM,
WHEN YOU HAVE TO GO SOLVE PROBLEMS
YOU NEVER SOLVED BEFORE,
YOU OFTEN CREATE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS
YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD.
I THINK ABOUT ISAAC NEWTON,
WHO WAS TRYING TO DESCRIBE PLANETARY MOTION
BACK IN THE LATE 1600s,
DIDN'T HAVE THE MATH TO DO IT,
SO HE INVENTED CALCULUS, OKAY?
SO WE'VE HAD A FEW USES FOR CALCULUS SINCE THEN.
A LOT OF THE SPINOFFS WE'VE GOT NOW
BECAUSE WE'RE OUT THERE SOLVING UNIQUE PROBLEMS
LIKE TRYING TO GO TO THE MOON,
TRYING TO BUILD A SPACE STATION,
AND SO WE GO OUT AND INVENT SOLUTIONS TO OUR PROBLEMS,
AND SOMEBODY LOOKS AT THAT, GOING,
"BOY, WE COULD USE THAT FOR SOMETHING ELSE."
THAT'S THE BIG BEAT OF OUR SPACE PROGRAM.
THERE'S BOOKS AND BOOKS OF SPINOFF TECHNOLOGIES,
BUT THEY ALL HAVE THAT KIND OF SAME THING.
THE GUY WHO--WHOEVER-- OR LADY
WHO INVENTED THAT SPINOFF TECHNOLOGY
WASN'T TRYING TO BUILD SOME NEW TURBO PUMP FOR HEARTS
OR NEW FIRE EXTINGUISHER THING.
THEY WERE TRYING TO SOLVE A PARTICULAR PROBLEM.
- ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC PROGRAMS FOR SPINOFF GENERATION
HAS BEEN NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE.
IN ITS THREE DECADES OF OPERATION,
THE SHUTTLE HAS PRODUCED OVER 130 DIFFERENT SPINOFFS
THAT IMPACT PEOPLE'S LIVES ON EARTH, INCLUDING YOURS.
DO YOU WEAR CONTACT LENSES OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES?
WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW
IS THAT ASTRONAUTS ON BOARD THE SPACE SHUTTLE
PERFORMED EXPERIMENTS AS PART OF A RESEARCH PROJECT
THAT LED TO BETTER FUNCTIONING CONTACTS.
THREE EXPERIMENTS THAT FLEW ON THREE SEPARATE SHUTTLE MISSIONS
RESULTED IN CONTACT LENSES THAT ARE GAS PERMEABLE,
RESISTANT TO DEPOSITS,
AND LESS LIKELY TO HARBOR BACTERIA,
LEADING THE WAY FOR THE NEXT-GENERATION CONTACT LENSES
WE USE EVERY DAY.
AND GET THIS:
THE TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS THE SPACE SHUTTLE
TO AUTONOMOUSLY DOCK WITH AND SERVICE SATELLITES
RESULTED IN A NEW TRACKING TECHNOLOGY DOCTORS TODAY UTILIZE
IN LASIK EYE SURGERY.
THE EYE TRACKING DEVICE IS CAPABLE
OF SAMPLING THE EYE'S POSITION AT A RATE
OF AT LEAST 1,000 TIMES PER SECOND DURING SURGERY.
SO THANKS TO THIS SPACE SHUTTLE SPINOFF,
ASTIGMATISM CORRECTION HAS BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED.
EVEN AS YOU WATCH THIS VIDEO,
YOU'RE OBSERVING A SPACE SHUTTLE SPINOFF.
IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE SHAKINESS OF SHUTTLE LAUNCH VIDEOS,
NASA ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED
AN ENHANCED VIDEO IMAGING AND STABILIZATION TECHNOLOGY.
THE TECHNOLOGY REMOVES DEFECTS DUE TO IMAGE JITTER,
IMAGE ROTATION, AND IMAGE ZOOM.
SO YOUR FOOTAGE CAN GO FROM THIS TO THIS.
MECHANISMS ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE
LIKE THOSE USED TO LIFT THE LANDING GEAR
OR MOVE THE WING FLAPS
ARE NOW FOUND IN MUSEUMS OR AT AMUSEMENT PARKS.
MOTION SIMULATORS USE AN ADAPTED VERSION
OF THIS SPACE SHUTTLE TECHNOLOGY
TO REPRODUCE THE EFFECTS OR FEELINGS
OF BEING IN A MOVING VEHICLE.
IT CAN ALSO BE USED TO ENHANCE FLIGHT SIMULATORS,
GIVING PILOTS A MUCH MORE REALISTIC TRAINING EXPERIENCE.
SPACE SHUTTLE SPINOFFS AREN'T NECESSARILY TECHNOLOGIES.
THE SPINOFF MAY SIMPLY BE
AN APPLICATION OF SOMETHING LEARNED
AS A RESULT OF THE EXPERIMENTS DONE ON THE SHUTTLE.
THAT'S THE CASE WITH THIS NEXT SPINOFF.
RESEARCHERS STUDYING THE AERODYNAMICS
OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE
APPLIED WHAT THEY LEARNED TO EARTHBOUND TRANSPORTATION.
USING EXPERTISE GAINED FROM DESIGNING THE SPACE SHUTTLE,
ENGINEERS WERE ABLE TO ALTER THE SHAPE OF LARGE VEHICLES
LIKE BIG RIGS.
ROUNDING CORNERS AND EDGES
AND ADDING FIXTURES KNOWN AS FAIRINGS
IMPROVE AERODYNAMIC EFFICIENCY,
WHICH ULTIMATELY LEADS TO IMPROVED GAS MILEAGE
AND BETTER VEHICLE CONTROL.
WE CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW MANY OTHER EXPERIMENTS
HAVE PROVIDED THOSE TANGIBLE BENEFITS
THAT CONGRESS HOPED TO SEE WHEN THEY CREATED NASA.
WE CAN SAY THAT EXPERIMENTS ON THE SHUTTLE
HAVE IMPROVED EVERYTHING FROM KETCHUP TO MOTOR OIL,
HAVE INSPIRED EXOTIC PERFUME SCENTS,
BECAUSE FLOWERS DEVELOP UNIQUE AROMAS IN SPACE,
AND HAVE EVEN REVEALED THE SECRETS OF FIRE HERE ON EARTH.
THE PAYBACK HAS LITERALLY BEEN ASTRONOMICAL.
- TO BE A GREAT NATION, WE MUST DO GREAT THINGS,
AND SO IF WE WANT TO CONTINUE TO HAVE A LEGACY OF GREAT THINGS,
TO REAP FROM THESE THINGS,
WE HAVE TO GO OUT AND DO THINGS THAT ARE TOUGH
LIKE GOING TO MARS.
I GUARANTEE YOU BY THE TIME WE GET TO MARS,
WE'LL HAVE INVENTED SO MANY NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO GET THERE
AND SO TRANSFORM HOW WE LIVE OUR LIVES
THAT IT WILL MAKE IT WORTH IT.
WHATEVER PROBLEMS WE NEED TO SOLVE TO GO TO MARS,
WE'LL FIND WILL HAVE APPLICATIONS
HERE IN SOCIETY AS WELL,
AND SO I THINK THAT'S THE BIGGER THING IS THAT
YOU MAKE YOURSELF SMARTER AND STRONGER
BY TAKING ON THESE TOUGH PROJECTS.
AND THE SPINOFFS ARE KIND OF A SERENDIPITOUS BYPRODUCT OF IT.
- THROUGHOUT THE SPACE SHUTTLE ERA,
NASA'S FLEET OF SHUTTLES HAS MADE
OVER 20,000 ORBITS AROUND EARTH.
THE SHUTTLES HAVE CARRIED CREW AND PAYLOADS
BOTH LARGE AND SMALL INTO SPACE,
ASSEMBLED, STAFFED, AND MAINTAINED
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION,
CARRIED SATELLITES INTO ORBIT,
AND DEPLOYED AND SERVICED THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE.
ALL OF THESE FEATS HAVE LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT
OF SOME AMAZING SPINOFF TECHNOLOGIES
THAT CONTINUE TO IMPACT OUR LIVES DAILY.
SPINOFFS FROM THE SHUTTLE JUST BECAUSE IT FLEW.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME ON "NASA LAUNCHPAD."