I stand partially corrected. Here is an older link on BA discussing batteries.

Batteries on ISS/Shuttle

Several mentions in it refer to the ISS using NiMH batteries. I may have gone one assumption too far. But it doesn’t look like Lithium’s were the battery of choice at the time.

In terms of pro-NASA spin-off, here is a space.com link on space-vaccines.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...netix-iss.html

Birmingham, Alabama was also lucky to have this man as a resident
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_J._DeLucas

Most of space-potential is yet to be tapped.

Those are both commercial ventures and not NASA. NASA only provides transportation.

Well, it depends on what you consider a spin-off. How many dominoes have to be between NASA and the finished product? Do cultural works inspired by the space program count as having improved our lives?

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
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It isn't just transport, the facilities are all part of it. Gov't funding did serve to underwrite early comsats.

"Telstar was the first active, direct relay communications satellite. Belonging to AT&T as part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post Office) to develop satellite communications, it was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, the first privately sponsored space launch. Telstar was placed in an elliptical orbit (completed once every 2 hours and 37 minutes), rotating at a 45° angle above the equator."

That's a lot of dominoes indeed.

Indeed. Yet amazingly, nearly all of the Internet now runs on Earth-bound fiber.

As I use Comcast, I have unlimited LD calling in the US, over my cable modem, which carries both voice and data.

I'm trying to figure out a good use for the six RJ-11 jacks scattered around my apartment...

LED night lights? Has anyone developed ones that plug into your phone jacks?

Oh, here's a start. Are LEDs a NASA spinoff? Let's see... electroluminescence was discovered in 1907...

Nope.

Losev created the first LED in the mid-1920s...

Shoot! That even pre-dates the first liquid-fueled rocket, so...

Nope.

The growing fiber optic movement will eventually eat into some segments of the sat-comcast market, which in the eyes of many weaken the case for space. I think Congress is as pro-space as it is ever likely to get, so we really have to push for greater space spending while we have the Congressional support window open.

In history, it is not enough to say that the reason we are here is because of the asteroid strike. It might be that--had that same rock hit 64 million years ago, after say, mammals had been hunted to extinction---we'd have little left besides lizards. On the other hand, had the Baptistina hit 70 million years ago, allowing a few Myr to recover before Deccan or whatever, we might have dinos still.

Space exploration may also need "support windows." Congress needs to act before the next big disaster or war, or spaceflight might never progress. Who know, the window (late 60s-early 1970s) may have already passed... due to other conflicts.

I smell a set-up, but ok, I'll bite: What's the current load over fiber, and what's the current load over sat-comcast?

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Sorry, doesn't count. According to the logic espoused above, that would be the RUMC and ANL doing it, not NASA.

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Whose logic? And what do you mean by "doing it".

The technology exists, and is NASA.
The application to Cancer is what is being researched.

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We may be discussing two different things... I was referring to two-way Internet broadband capability and VoIP phone service, not primarily one-way TV service.

Exceedingly little of the Internet (or telephone service, nearly all of which is digital, these days) flows through satellites. Rather, it's all over fiber.

Read upthread. Also, note irony.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Hard to tell; Subtle, and no history of your opinion within this thread.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

One word: Replicators.

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

Let's call it "shotgun marriage". Science and Technology needs funding, without military and big corporations, science would not 'grow' at this far. The sad thing is that Science and technology are sometimes used not to benefit mankind, creating new destructive machines for military and a 'technology' to control our mode of life and economy for greedy capitalists to stay in power...But let's face it, this is how the system works!

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A comment on Micro-Endoscope for Medical Diagnosis - maybe its better to develop 'microscopic robotics' that a patient could swallow and let it do the venturing inside a human body and do the operation. No outside wounds or what-so-ever. One thing, it is maybe a coincidence that NASA developed this technology because of enormous funding...even w/out Hubble Telescope, this technology could be provided for medical application...the only problem is again, funding!

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The search for the ultimate truth is man's greatest craving...

Here's a linked article about a technology NASA is either developing in house or testing that could well have benefits for a lot of people.

Space explorers have yet to get their hands on the replicator of "Star Trek" to create anything they might require. But NASA has developed a technology that could enable lunar colonists to carry out on-site manufacturing on the moon, or allow future astronauts to create critical spare parts during the long trip to Mars.

The method, called electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3), uses an electron beam to melt metals and build objects layer by layer. Such an approach already promises to cut manufacturing costs for the aerospace industry, and could pioneer development of new materials. It has also thrilled astronauts on the International Space Station by dangling the possibility of designing new tools or objects, researchers said.


Let's call it "shotgun marriage". Science and Technology needs funding, without military and big corporations, science would not 'grow' at this far. The sad thing is that Science and technology are sometimes used not to benefit mankind, creating new destructive machines for military and a 'technology' to control our mode of life and economy for greedy capitalists to stay in power...But let's face it, this is how the system works!

In a utopian fantasy world, people do stuff freely for the betterment of mankind. In the real world, they do it for self-benefit. Technology is essentially neutral. The "goodness" or "badness" depends on how the technology is used. The same basic technologies required to create life-saving vaccines can also be used to create life-destroying biological weapons. You can't have one without the other.

4 posts too late, and covered by Fraser.

It's cool, considering it's only been similarly done with plastics and working with metals is such a vast improvement.
But; Star Trek replicator? Come now, it's only shaping material, it's not not even creating a new compound of a material.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

It's a very important advance for long duration spaceflight tho. the ability to manufacture complex spare parts from what is essentially raw materials without needing an entire factory chain is just what we need if we are to colonize off world.

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Signature? Why?

I was referring to the opinions of others.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

We all know who designed the Saturn V rocket...it wasn't the Wright Brothers.

Wasn't it Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas and a few other contractors that did so?

Alex

I was meaning to say WVB.

Yes, I'm sure he designed the whole thing by himself and then solved all the various issues that cropped up - like S-II weight reduction campaign, F-1 combustion instability problems, pogo problems, etc.

Yes, he was an important figure, but let's not give him more credit than he deserves.

Quite, although WVB's background was channeling tech for the benefit of only a select few.

I believe NASA's overall mission is to improve humanity.

Channeling tech? a select few? HUH? Please, please explain....I am lost again here.

And per NASA's site at http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights...s_nasa_do.html ->"NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." (bold is mine/A)

Humanity, per se, is a totally different subject

But related to NASA improving our lives, NASA does have this site, which helps delineate the 'achievements' of the topic/OP, so to speak. (did not notice that link mentioned before - sorry if it was) Also see here -> http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009...noff_2009.html

And for Shuttle specifics, here's a pdf I have not yet perused, though it does look interesting -> http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/pdf/Shuttle_spinoffs.pdf

Alex

The V-2 BM Alex.

You don't think those things are good for humanity?

__________________
I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek