From Dustbusters to digital photos, NASA’s innovations find their way home - Houston Chronicle

NASA has long scored public relations points by noting how many of its technical advances have found their way into everyday life. In fact, the agency has a yearly report called Spinoff that highlights this transfer of innovation into the commercial sector.

The era leading up to and including the Apollo missions was particularly verdant for tech advances — after all, NASA was literally inventing the technology to support space exploration as it went along — and some things we take for granted today became household items years later. Here’s a look at some of them.

Software engineers

An earlier Mission Moon story detailed how the software that helped get humans onto the lunar surface and back home again was remarkable for its resilience and ability to prioritize tasks. It was the first time a computer controlled a vehicle carrying humans.

Overseeing the work on that code was Margaret Hamilton, a 33-year-old programmer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Instrumentation Laboratory. Hamilton is credited with coining the term “software engineer,” which she says initially drew derision from other technically oriented professionals. Hamilton said in a 2014 interview with El Pais, the Spanish-language newspaper: “When I first started using this phrase, it was considered to be quite amusing. It was an ongoing joke for a long time. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas. Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline.”

Dustbusters

When NASA needed a lightweight, battery-powered drill to collect samples from as deep as 10 feet below the lunar surface, it turned to electric toolmaker Black & Decker. The space agency wanted something lightweight, powerful and with decent battery life.

Black & Decker delivered big time, using a specialized computer program that helped design a tool that balanced all the design requirements. The company’s leaders also realized that what they learned from the moon drill could be applied to earthbound tools as well.

Thus was born the Dustbuster, a lightweight, handheld vacuum cleaner that debuted in 1979. Like the lunar drill that inspired it, the Dustbuster was powerful but could go a while on a charge. Black & Decker developed other cordless home products after the success of the vacuum, which has since been enshrined in the Smithsonian.

Digital photography

Though NASA didn’t necessarily invent digital photography, the concept was first proposed by a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In a 1961 paper for an American Rocket Society conference, Eugene F. Lally outlined the concept of digital photography for use primarily on board spacecraft. In fact, he’s generally credited with coining the term.

Lally suggested using digital imaging sensors to capture light, a technology that he also proposed be used for navigating in space. It was not until 1973, however, that Fairchild Semiconductor — working from research on Lally’s concept conducted at Bell Labs — introduced the first photo detector array. It was only 100-by-100 pixels. Today’s smartphone cameras use sensors that result in images in millions of pixels.

Lally’s concept for using digital imaging for navigation also took a while to catch on. But a system built on his description — now known as Autonav — has been used by NASA since the 1990s as the primary method by which modern spacecraft find their way through the heavens.

NASA continued to work on digital imaging technologies. In the 1990s, it developed improved complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor, or CMOS, sensors, which became the primary technology used in smartphones.

Firefighter breathing gear

Equipment designed to prevent smoke inhalation by firefighters has been around for a long time, dating to World War II. But it was extremely heavy and hated by firefighters, who tired quickly while using it.

In response to requests by fire chiefs, NASA’s Johnson Space Center worked with the Fire Technology Division of the National Bureau of Standards to craft a new design based on the life-support systems the Apollo astronauts used as they explored the lunar surface.

Working with multiple companies over four years, NASA helped develop a system that was about a third lighter than the older breathing apparatus. Improvements were made to the facemask, air regulator and harness, redistributing the weight so it would not cause fatigue as quickly. The lighter-weight oxygen tanks were made from the same material as rocket-engine casings.

The Houston Fire Department was among the first to field-test the design, which is now the standard.

Scratch-resistant eyeglass lenses

Eyeglasses, as you can guess by the name, used to be made of actual glass. This material provided excellent correction for those who couldn’t see well, but it also was heavy and, if it broke, could damage the eye. In the early ’70s, the Food and Drug Administration decreed that all eyeglasses should be made of plastic — which, unfortunately, was prone to scratching.

NASA researcher Ted Wydeven came up with a type of coating that was so hard that it resisted scratching. But he didn’t find it while researching tougher plastic. Instead, he was working on a water-filtration system at the Ames Research Center when he used a new technique to coat a filter. The substance turned out to be extremely tough as well as clear.

Initially, it was used on space helmets and their visors. But in the early 1980s, sunglasses maker Foster Grant licensed the technology for use on eyeglass lenses. If you’re reading this through eyeglasses that are scratch-free, thank NASA.

dwight.silverman@chron.com

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/space/mission-moon/article/NASA-s-innovations-find-their-way-home-13811959.php

2019-05-02 09:00:00Z
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