NASA's Spinoff Showcases Decades of Trickle-Down Space Tech

Contrary to popular belief, NASA's effect on everyday life goes beyond spacefoam and Tang. Actually, NASA didn’t even invent Tang: William Mitchell from the General Foods Corporation created the drink in 1957 at the agency’s request. But there are loads of other things that NASA has created that affect our day to day lives, and they are compiled in the 2011 edition of Spinoff, NASA’s annual publication that’s filled with awesome descendants of NASA technologies that make our lives better.

For the most part, NASA technologies trickle down to the public in the form of medical advances, like LASIK, for example. The Space Shuttle used an autonomous rendezvous and docking software when servicing satellites. The technology has since been applied to LASIK procedures. The LADARTracker measures eye movements 4,000 times per second, and applied to eye surgery this makes it an incredibly safe and precise technology.

But there are other, more common effects of the space program we see in everyday life.

Semi-trucks are more space aged than you'd think. In the 1970s, researchers from the Dryden Flight Research Centre used the knowledge they gained designing the space shuttle to shaping truck fairings. The rounded corners and edges on some models are aerodynamically efficient to increase gas mileage, even if the drive isn't quite as far as low Earth orbit.

Remote controlled appliances, too, come from the modern space age. The engineers who designed the International Space Station's Electrical Power System used embedded web technology for remote operations. This is now applied to civilian homes, remotely powering alarm systems and ovens. Yes, ovens. TMIO LLC of Cleveland markets a hot- and cold-capable oven that can refrigerate a dish before cooking it — all controlled remotely — so you can come home to a perfectly cooked meal.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration is an offshoot from NASA as well. Developed to create better videos of fast and shaky Shuttle launches, engineers from the Marshall Spaceflight Centre developed the technology to help FBI agents analyze footage from the 1996 bombing during the summer Olympic games in Atlanta. The technology is now routinely applied in military situations and law enforcement; it was the tech that helped find Saddam Hussein in footage sent back from Iraq.

It might not come as a surprise that the cameras that are creeping their way into everyday cars as part of crash avoidance technology are a NASA spinoff. Advanced Scientific Concepts Inc. (ASC), of Santa Barbara, California develop its 3D flash LIDAR technologies for space applications.

It's not just new innovations in space that are trickling down to civilians. Echos from the Apollo era still resonate.

The Apollo guidance computer, the ultra-reliable system that enabled precision landings on the Moon demonstrated that digital computers can be used to fly aircraft. Digital fly-by-wire systems have since been incorporated into large airliners making airtravel safer overall. The technology has also been applied to military jets, submarines, and even some cars.

When the Apollo astronauts got back from the Moon, they waited for recovery forces in NASA designed life rafts. The design has been used by the Givens Marine Survival Company of Tiverton, Rhode Island, manufactures life rafts based on the same design, and they've saved the lives of over 400 sailors stranded at sea.

The 2011 Spinoff, says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, "demonstrates once again how through productive and innovative partnerships, NASA's aerospace research brings real returns to the American people in the form of tangible products, services and new jobs." For 35 years, the annual publication has been a definitive resource for people wanting to know how spaceflight benefits the Earth-bound among us. The issue, all 224 pages for your perusal, is available online. We’d argue that’s it’s the best spinoff showcase out there — way better than the Simpsons one with the fake Lisa – but if you think you’ve got something better, let us know in the comments.