Q&A of the Day – Part 2 Challenger’s Tragedy's 40th Anniversary & NASA’s Technological Contributions
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station page in the iHeart app.
Today’s entry: Hey Brian, love the show! What you said about Challenger and the space program was fascinating. I’d never heard the backstory to it. Also, I knew the space program brought about many technological advancements but didn’t realize the extent of it. Please do an analysis on this.
Bottom Line: In Part 1 of the of the Q&A, I detailed the events preceding the doomed Challenger flight. The breakout included the “why and how” involved with the decision to launch Challenger on January 28th, 1986, which came against the recommendations of the engineers behind the rocket boosters. In today’s Part 2, I’ll address the extent of NASA’s technological contributions to society as they’ve impacted almost every aspect of modern life.
So, about that... NASA’s contributions to society...
- Microprocessors & integrated circuits: Early space missions needed lightweight, reliable computers, accelerating chip development that led to personal computing and smart phones
- Software engineering practices: Establishing real-time computing and code creation for all future computer software
- Memory foam: Developed to improve aircraft and spacecraft seat safety and comfort.
- Satellite communication: TV broadcasting, international phone calls, internet in remote areas.
- GPS: Originally military/space-based navigation; now used in phones, cars, planes, farming, and logistics.
- Weather satellites: More accurate weather forecasts, storm tracking, climate monitoring.
- Medical imaging improvements: Image-enhancement tech used in CT scans and MRIs.
- Remote health monitoring: Tech used for astronauts’ vitals which led to telemedicine
- Artificial limbs & robotics: Lightweight materials and precision control systems.
- Infrared ear thermometers: Based on infrared sensing developed for space.
- Heat-resistant materials: Firefighter gear, aircraft materials, racing suits.
- Scratch-resistant lenses: Eyeglasses, sunglasses, camera lenses.
- Carbon fiber & advanced composites: Bikes, cars, aircraft, sports equipment.
- Aerogels: Ultra-light insulation used in buildings and winter clothing.
- Water purification systems: Used in disaster relief, developing regions, camping gear.
- Freeze-dried food: Lightweight, long-lasting food for hiking and emergency supplies.
- Environmental sensors: Air-quality monitoring, pollution detection.
- Smoke detectors: Improved designs from spacecraft fire-safety research.
- Cordless tools: Early versions developed for lunar missions.
- Thermal blankets (space blankets): Emergency, medical, and outdoor use.
- Improved aerodynamics: Cars, trains, and aircraft designs.
- Shock-absorbing materials: Helmets, crash protection systems.
- Robotics: From space rovers manufacturing, surgery, and warehouse automation.
- Satellite imaging: Agriculture optimization, disaster response, urban planning.
- Climate science tools: Measuring ice loss, sea levels, atmospheric gases.
Just to name a few... And here’s a story that goes along with how some of these developments came to be and an anecdote about how the space program spurred technological advances that likely would have taken additional decades (or more) to otherwise innovate.
My mother’s father was an engineer who frequently worked on government projects with a specialty in adapting food for specific storage and stability needs. During the space race he was tasked with developing food for the space program. While public focus was rightly on the technological side of being able to successfully send astronauts into space, and onto the moon, just as important was figuring out how to sustain them once there. Just as mass manufacturing of canned goods were a byproduct of World War II, and the need to send sustainable, shelf-stable food to our troops overseas that would be easily accessible while on the move fighting a war – the proliferation of dehydrated foods was a byproduct of the space program.
My grandfather’s lab was in the basement of his home in upstate New York and that’s where he worked on a way to create food that took up very little storage, was sustainable, provided adequate nutrition, and could be prepared/eaten easily in space. His answer was to use the dehydrated food process and freeze drying in a way and with foods that hadn’t been done before. Specifically, taking fresh fruits, vegetables and milk and turning them into dehydrated and freeze-dried versions that could placed in small, sealed pouches and rehydrated for use in space.
Making the long story short on this one my mother tells a story of how she, her mom and her sisters were guinea pigs for the trial-and-error process. This includes a funny story about the first successful creation of the dehydrated vegetables that didn’t go according to plan. As my mom has explained, one day my grandfather came up from the basement, handed my grandmother a bunch of small hard vegetables and told her to cook them. He went to clean up for dinner and when he sat down she had done just what he had said. She took the small hard vegetables, put them in a pan on the stove and cooked them. They were as hard as rocks.
While my grandfather knew that they needed water to rehydrate, he failed to communicate that message to my grandmother and with the concept of this being new to her she didn’t know differently. What turned out to be the first successful batch was never actually eaten. From there my grandfather figured out how to turn milk into a powder which gave birth to that industry as well.
That type of dynamic was and still is repeated in so many different ways – where engineers and scientists are pressed to figure out things they’d have likely never attempted if not for the need to accomplish something for the space program, which of course these days is led by SpaceX in partnership with NASA. Every day in countless ways our lives are impacted by the space program. In reality, more has been accomplished through the space program on this planet through innovation than has occurred in outer space. That’s what’s often missed by critics of the space program who question what we’re really paying for.