Recently I used some Velcro to connect a temporary closure thingy that only gets opened and closed twice each year.  Velcro just seemed like the right thing to use, why use a screw?

That got me thinking about where Velcro even came from.  Is it a spin off product from a need for space travel?  Actually yes it is.  They needed a way for the astronauts to have their tools handy when they needed them and wouldn’t have to go chasing them down floating around in the cabin of the space craft.  That got me thinking and so I went in search of more of the spin off products we have come to take for granted in todays world.  Heck, this very computer has some of the stuff in it that came from NASA research I’m sure of it.  But what else?

The Weasel just replaced all the bulbs in his camp trailer with LED type bulbs and low and behold, those little bad boys is one of the top of the list things that came from space exploration, or at least preparing for space flights.  Something that will emit light and not use a lot of power and will last seeming forever without burning out.  Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) were the end result of experimentation and ultimately development.  I hope the person who finally hit on that one got a BIG BONUS!

AND just for you today!  I present a list from Wikipedia that you can spend all day reading about spin off products from NASA and of course other countries research as well, let’s not take all the credit.

This is the main site for what I found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

But this is a list of some of the top items:

• 1 Health and medicine
  • 1.1 Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
  • 1.2 Infrared ear thermometers
  • 1.3 Ventricular assist device
  • 1.4 Artificial limbs
  • 1.5 Invisible Braces
  • 1.6 Scratch-resistant Lenses
• 2 Transportation
  • 2.1 Aircraft anti-icing systems
  • 2.2 Highway safety
  • 2.3 Improved radial tires
  • 2.4 Chemical detection
• 3 Public safety
  • 3.1 Video enhancing and analysis systems
  • 3.2 Fire-resistant reinforcement
  • 3.3 Firefighting equipment
• 4 Consumer, home, and recreation
  • 4.1 Temper foam
  • 4.2 Enriched baby food
  • 4.3 Portable cordless vacuums
  • 4.4 Freeze drying
• 5 Environmental and agricultural resources
  • 5.1 Water purification
  • 5.2 Solar energy
  • 5.3 Pollution remediation
• 6 Computer technology
  • 6.1 Structural analysis software
  • 6.2 Remotely controlled ovens
  • 6.3 NASA Visualization Explorer
  • 6.4 Space Race Blastoff
• 7 Industrial productivity
  • 7.1 Powdered lubricants
  • 7.2 Improved mine safety
  • 7.3 Food safety
• 8 Mistakenly attributed spinoffs
• 9 History of the Spinoff publication
• 10 See also
• 11 Notes
• 12 External links

You can look up those that interest you the most.  I could spend two or more days investigating these things.  I wonder where “Monkey Butt” powder came from?

Bears Butt

Sept. 14, 2012

DISCLAIMER:

It has come to my attention that the concept of Velcro actually came from a Swiss person in 1941 as listed below:

The hook-and-loop fastener was conceived in 1941 by Swiss engineer, Georges de Mestral^[2][8][9] who lived in Commugny, Switzerland. The idea came to him one day after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He took a close look at the burrs (seeds) of burdock that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog’s fur. He examined them under a microscope, and noted their hundreds of “hooks” that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair.^[5] He saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion if he could figure out how to duplicate the hooks and loops.^[2][9]. This inspiration from nature or the copying of nature’s mechanisms (called bionics or biomimesis) is viewed by some like Steven Vogel^[10] or Werner Nachtigall^[11] as a key example.

Thank You Magpie!  Keeping the Bears Butt straight is not an easy task!