NASA's Contribution to Technological Advances on Earth

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Recommended: Space exploration past and present

NASA's Contribution to Technological Advances on Earth

Abstract

NASA is more than just a space administration; it shows itself everyday in the world although at first it might not be apparent. There are not many people that know the variety of what it has brought to everyday life. NASA is not limited to just aerospace technology. The three main fields of development have been medical, environmental and consumer products. Each field is equally important to technological development. NASA’s space exploration is essential for the advancement of technology on Earth.

History

On October 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created. It was the day of beginning a rich history of unique scientific and technological achievements in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications. It was formed because of the Sputnik crisis of confidence. NASA inherited the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government organizations, and immediately began working on options for human space flight (Roland, 1999).

NASA was first called upon to find out if humans could survive in space in Project Mercury. This was then followed by Project Gemini, which built upon the successes of Project Mercury and used a spacecraft built for two astronauts. NASA then turned their attention to the moon in Project Apollo, which was successful in 1969 when the Apollo 11 mission first put a man on the moon. The Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects soon followed in the early and mid-1970s. NASA then resumed their human space flights in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that is still continued today to help build the International Space Station (Launius &...

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...ar System Exploration. Retrieved March 9, 2003, from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/whatsnew/pr/021113B.html

McDonough, B. (2002, March 28). NASA names top inventions. News Factor. Retrieved March 9, 2003, from http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16989.html NASA selects commercial, government inventions of the year.(2000, April 14). Aerotech News and Review. Retrieved March 5, 2003, from http://www.aerotechnews.com/ starc/2000/041400/NASA_Inventions.html Roland, A. (1999). "National aeronautics and space administration." World Book Encyclopedia (Vol. 14) Chicago: World Book, Inc. Watson, C. (2003, January 17). A JSC engineer turns the sun’s heat into a cool invention. NASA Human Space Flight. Retrieved March 14, 2003, from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/people/mewert.html#xml=http:// da spaceflight.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/webinator/search/xtml.txt

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