66 INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | SUMMER 2019
tech
zone NASA
Apollo’s PRODUCTive Legacy
This summer, we’re celebrating the 50th
anniversary of the greatest achievement in the
history of both humankind and technology:
putting men on the moon. That we did it in
1969, just eight years after President John F.
Kennedy issued the challenge, spoke mightily to
what is possible when a nation takes on a
supreme challenge and syncs together as a
massive team.In this case, more than 400,000 scientists,
engineers, mathematicians, and tech experts
created a national effort to get us to the moon
and back – highlighted by Apollo’s six
moonwalk missions. Those workers built the
rockets, spacecraft, systems, launch pads,
centers, parts, and even tools to make it happen,
creating a source of national pride we have not
seen since.
They also did something else – invented many
technologies, far ahead of their time, that we use
in our everyday lives. The Apollo space program
is a perfect example of how powerful innovation
spins off far more products – with far more uses- than originally intended.
Everything was created specifically for the
Apollo moon effort. Much of it was
experimental by nature, simply because we
really didn’t know what to expect beyond Earth’s
orbit, how the body would behave or
instruments would work. Scientists worried
about that every day, while the country focused
on the amazing adventure of visiting another
planetary body.
After the Apollo space program wound down,
NASA officials and outside manufacturers
realized many of the items they’d developed for
space could become cutting-edge instruments,
equipment, appliances, and even foods for
consumers. “We get better airplanes, or we get
better weather forecasting from space stuff, sure,
but we also get better-fed chicken,” said David
Lockney, program executive in technology
transfer and spinoff partnerships at NASA. “That
kind of stuff, people don’t necessarily associate.”
Here are a dozen of the creations from the first
Space Age that we use today:- Wireless Headsets: We wear them for our
game consoles, at work, and when listening to
our beats and tunes. Wireless headsets are
everywhere – but where did we first hear this
technology? When Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong
took the first step on the moon and uttered into
his wireless headset, “That’s one small step for a
man, one giant leap for mankind.”- Reflective Materials: Today, propylene and
mylar are regularly found in our home
insulation, and on various types of outdoor and
camping equipment. We even have mylar
balloons. 50 years ago, before it became public,
this material helped protect astronauts from
radiation and heat. - Credit Card Swipe Devices: We swipe and
chip-feed our credit and debit cards on
transactions, maybe even use Square readers or
similar to swipe others’ cards. It all began as
software used to manage complex systems on
the Apollo spacecraft. - Integrated circuit: The key to our lives on
screen, the computer microchip, was invented
by Intel’s Robert Noyce and integrated into
Apollo spacecrafts by Jack Kilby of Texas
Instruments. They needed to condense systems
By Beth Covington