BENEFITS OF SPACE EXPLORATION: SPIN-OFFS

SPIN-OFF: A “spin-off” is the useful application of a technology/technique that was originally developed to meet the needs of Space exploration or some other scientific enterprise.

Attention Docents, Teachers, Educators: As you know, I keep track of the anniversary dates for milestone events in aviation and Space exploration, along with dates for notable events and people, to help engage learner interest with familiar connections. It can be worthwhile to look ahead to see keys dates in 2025 that you may wish to use, or avoid, when planning educational programs, class activities, or other outreach interactions. Having info you don’t need is better than needing info you don’t have!

2026 ANNIVERSARY-RELATED PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES! Round-number anniversaries/birthdays, etc. for 2026 can be found in the Archive: Other Stuff section of the website. Such dates likely attract media and other attention, and can be used in aviation, astronomy, and Space exploration programming to engage audiences.

Upcoming Round-Number Calendar Anniversaries

A number of the events below have been covered by a previous Item of the Week. Check the index of Items in the Archive section of the website if you want to conduct outreach programming on one of them, and if so, drop me a note via email and I’ll email you a copy of the Item you seek.

October 25 is the 355^th anniversary of the discovery of Saturn’s unusual moon, Iapetus, by Giovanni Cassini. It appears to be six times brighter when it’s seen on one side of Saturn than the other, leading Cassini to think he had discovered two separate moons!

October 29 is the 35^th anniversary of our getting the first close-up look of an asteroid, when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft flew closely by asteroid 951 Gaspra.

November 7 is the 30^th anniversary of the launch of the phenomenally-successful Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.

November 9 would have been actress Hedy Lamarr’s 95^th birthday. She was not only a movie star, but she played a key role in the invention of frequency-agile communications and detection system technology, vital in the U.S. War Effort and the basis of today’s Wi-Fi technology.

November 11 is the 60^th anniversary of the launch of Gemini 12, the last of Project Gemini. James Lovell commanded rookie Buzz Aldrin. Both would be heard of later.

November 13 is the 55^th anniversary of the insertion of Mariner 9 into Mars orbit, the first time any satellite orbited another planet. Previous fly-bys of Mars led to some misunderstandings of its interesting surface; Mariner 9 data advance our knowledge considerably!

November 25 is the 115^th birthday of Athelstan Spilhaus, a geophysicist and inventor who also was an expert in science outreach, via the Sunday Funnies (no kidding). We can learn a lot from his example, so he makes a good subject for science outreach today.

November 26 is the 15^th anniversary of the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, still going strong at Gale Crater! Its wheels may be beat-up a bit, but they are still stamping “JPL” in Morse Code on the martian surface everywhere it roves!

December 4 is the 30^th anniversary of the launch of the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, the first to use the innovative air-bag system to land on Mars. Its small rover, Sojourner, was wildly popular, a radio-controlled car that examined the fancifully-named rocks at the landing site. This was NASA’s first Internet-supported mission, and the mission website took so many hits that it became the first to use mirror sites.

BENEFITS of SPACE EXPLORATION

DEFINITIONS

SPIN-OFF: A “spin-off” is the useful application of a technology/technique that was originally developed to meet the needs of Space exploration or some other scientific enterprise.

TECH TRANSFER: The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 that created NASA called for the new agency to disseminate its technology for public benefit. Accordingly, NASA is obliged to provide for the widest practicable dissemination of information concerning results of NASA’s activities. Subsequent legislation further formalized NASA’s obligation to find secondary uses for its technologies.

BENEFITS OF SPACE EXLORATION: SPIN-OFFS

NASA Benefitted the U.S. Economy by $76 Billion in 2023!

NASA continues to be an enormous economic plus, generating $76 billion on a budget of $23.8 billion, not to mention the value of spin-offs, tech transfer, or intangibles such as the promotion of STEAM education. NASA supported over 300,000 jobs, which generated a total of $9.5 billion in Federal, state, and local taxes. NASA research led to 40 new patent applications and 69 patents already in the pipeline being awarded, and to thousands of tech usage agreements, fulfilling its Charter to transfer useful technology for commercial use. If ANYONE ever challenges you about “wasting money in Space,” drop some of these numbers on them. For a summary of this item, see: https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report; for the full report, see: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/final-fy23-nasa-ecomomic-impact-report.pdf.

The above-mentioned report for 2023 is still available. I could find no similar Economic Impact Report for 2024. The NASA Impact page is here: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-impact. And of course, NASA’s Home & City page is a goodie: https://homeandcity.nasa.gov!

Not all Spinoffs are Technological

We often think of NASA spinoffs as finding a new (commercial) use for some material, device, or other Thing that had originally be developed for NASA. However, not all of the very important spinoff benefits are things. A really good example of this is NASA SP-4102: Managing NASA in the Apollo Era. After all, the development of the managerial processes needed to bring a huge project with tight safety, cost, time and other constraints to fruition successfully was one of the biggest and best spin-offs from the Apollo program! See: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sp-4102.pdf. An example of management, NASA Style, can be found here: https://www.nasa.gov/reference/jsc-program-management-execution. NASM DOCENTS: NASA management as a valuable additional by-product of the U.S. Space Program can be a good thing to include on your tours!

Xploration Outer Space

I was surfing channels recently, trying to find something to have on while I fixed breakfast, and I hit an interesting NASA show I had not known about before. It’s called “Xploration Outer Space” and was made in 2015 (there seem to be other variants of the “Xploration” programming, too). This particular episode was entitled “Technology from Space,” and it was mostly about NASA’s Tech Transfer Office (Season 2, Episode 2). It’s an older series, and not strictly up to date, but it has good examples of how NASA-developed technology is enhancing our daily lives. I did some checking; another episode is worthy of your attention, Season 2, Episode 6, “Why We Explore.” It touches on how all astro/cosmonauts have their attitudes about Earth change when the first get to orbit and see how small and fragile our “pale blue dot’ really is. Perhaps you cable or other video media access service carries these shows. Check them out!

NEW! Spinoff 2025 Has Been Released! It is an outstanding resource for relating how much NASA efforts have benefitted everyone. See:https://technology.nasa.gov/Spinoff_2025_Release!