Space Stations: Past, Present, And Future

[facthunter]

Wise words. We and this planet were MADE for each other and we can't stuff it up quick enough. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

Critics often decry the billions spent on The Space Race, but it has paid enormous dividends in new technology and may help save humanity, with an overdue realisation that we are all alone here; we don’t have a Planet B.

[spenaroo]

the metals and manufacturing techniques are what set the USA up for technological superiority IMO.
how many times do you look at the history of an alloy or material and discover its original purpose was related to the space race.

solar panels, insulation, water filtration, air purifiers, digital imaging, scratch resistant lenses, insulin pumps, firefighting gear (polymers and coolant system for the suits), cordless vacuum (originally the dust buster was created for taking soil samples) tires (the belts for radials were developed for parachute shrouds on mars landers), wireless headsets, smoke detector, CAT scans, grooved runways, workout machines, infrared thermometers - they all originated from Nasa tech created for space exploration 

Edited September 7, 2023 by spenaroo

[Old Koreelah]

What happens to all that expensive experitise when the big project is over? After their Moon shot, America was awash with engineers and technicians and entrepreneurs setting up new ventures.
After Australia built the Snowy Mountains Scheme, we dismantled one of the world’s best engineering units.

[facthunter]

ABot told the auto workers to get a REAL job. He put about 200,000 out of work there because of all the associated support industries.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

What he did was absolutely criminal. And then he and successive LNP goverments stifled renewables R&D that we could have been world leaders at. Now the brains drain to overseas corporations. I am not aying Labor is any better (how is their Buy Australian policy going?). We are now maniufacturing some of the worlds most advanced UAVs - and the profits are shipped off to the USA..

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Back on topic:

[onetrack]

And they went to the moon and back in a day, too! 

[Jerry_Atrick]

And proved the moon is made of cheese

[Marty_d]

Wensleydale, wasn't it?