DescentBB

A while ago, I read a site that may have been linked to from here that discussed the legitimacy of common beliefs surrounding so-called NASA inventions. What I mean by NASA inventions is, although it's one of the sillier examples, a claim such as NASA invented Tang. Other claims floating around say that NASA contributed to the advent of PC's and what not. Anyone know anything about this or have a link that does? Thanks.

well here's a link to the million dollar "space pen" one http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
i couldn't find any other ones on snopes.

There's a common misconception that NASA invented this stuff. In reality, what happened was that the cold war and the space program spawned a vast proliferation of technologies. This led to many items that we find commonplace today. Most of which were invented by private industry.

Remember: NASA's charter says something along the lines of, "All information discovered and held by NASA is freely available to any and all American businesses".

This means private enterprise has access to all of NASA's info' - making it a fantastic source for technical information which would cost crazy amounts, or access data which would otherwise not even exist.

The space program in the 60s meant a simply mind boggling amount of money was invested into aeronatics and this resulted in Boeing becoming the world's largest manufacturer of jet airframes. Notice also, how Boeing's ascendancy has been defeated by Airbus since the US Government stopped spending money areonautics.

The spin-offs for US industry as a result of the space race are still being felt today - but the lack of specifically targetted research over the last 30 years has caused the US supremacy in the air (and many other areas) to be sorely tested. Unless things change, the US will no longer be able to claim is produces the largest, most, or the best aeroplanes in the world.

Personally, I'd rather see the USA dominate the aerospace industry, than France/Germany, or Japan. And make no mistake, the only people working on a supersonic passenger craft are the Japanese, and the only aerospace industries which seem to be making new vehicles, cheaply, are the Russians and the Europeans.

roid wrote:well here's a link to the million dollar "space pen" one http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
i couldn't find any other ones on snopes.

Funny.

When the Russians encountered a similar problem, they just issued pencils to their astronauts.

did you read the snopes article, mobius?

Pencils work nicely underwater as well.

I have one of those Space Pens, and I can verify that you can write upside-down with them.

Mobius wrote:

roid wrote:well here's a link to the million dollar "space pen" one http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
i couldn't find any other ones on snopes.

Funny.

When the Russians encountered a similar problem, they just issued pencils to their astronauts.

yes hilarious