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The greatness of American space innovation falls to Obama's ego

The heartbreak of the last Space Shuttle flight



The last shuttle flight took off majestically with a plume of fire, disappearing into the clouds within forty seconds into its last man-made exploration, perhaps a fitting metaphor for its meteoric rise and fall. The crew consisted of three men and a woman, a precautionary move in case technical difficulties stranded them in space. It would cost the United States $63 million for each astronaut that the Russian Soyuz would return to earth. We have become mere passengers, taking a back seat to Russia’s leading role and military ambitions in cosmos.

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It is a sad end to a program spanning decades of space exploration that has improved the quality of life for billions. Many inventions that civilization takes for granted are the result of NASA engineers and their quest for perfection. NASA excelled in Earth Science, Planetary Science, Astrophysics, and Heliophysics. It encompassed Aeronautics Research, Space Technology, Space Exploration, Space Education, and Space Operations. According to Erik Sterner, NASA’s former associate deputy administrator for policy and planning, NASA’s budget for 2011 is roughly $18.5 billion, 0.5 percent of a $3.7 trillion federal budget, as much as Americans spent on pet food in 2010. “At the height of the Apollo program, NASA consumed more than 4 percent of the federal budget. In the 1960s, that was a lot of money. Today, it’s a rounding error.” Since 1976, NASA accumulated a list of every commercialized technology and product linked to its research such as improved pacemakers, exercise machines, satellite radio and filed 63,000 patents. Some discoveries have not yet shown all implications for science and humanity: a solar system 127 light years away, solar flares, alien life on Saturn’s moon Titan, detailed pictures of earth, and frozen water on the moon. I found many inventions that NASA pioneered in conjunction with its many contractors. To protect the infrared antennae of heat seeking missile trackers, a new use was discovered for the translucent polycrystalline aluminum, invisible braces. NASA needed a special coating to protect space equipment, especially astronaut helmet visors, from dirt and particles found in space. Foster Grant delivered scratch resistant lenses. “The open cell polyurethane-silicon plastic was created for use in NASA aircraft seats to lessen impact during landings. The plastic has a unique property that allows it to evenly distribute the weight and pressure on top of it, which provides shock absorbency. Even after being compressed to 10 percent of its size, the memory foam will return to its original shape.” Memory foam is now used in prosthetic limbs, by bed manufacturers, and by hospitals to ease pain and reduce bedsores. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab invented an infrared sensor that serves as a thermometer. Aural thermometers with these infrared sensors take temperature instantly by measuring the amount of energy the eardrum gives off into the ear canal. Neil Armstrong’s famous moon boots provided inspiration for Avia and Kangaroos tennis shoes to include the technology and the materials that absorb shock. Before humans were sent into space, NASA built satellites that could communicate with people on the ground. Over 200 communication satellites orbit the globe each day. These satellites send and receive messages that allow us to call our friends anywhere in the world and use our wireless devices. NASA monitors the locations and health of many of these satellites. NASA did not develop Tang, as it is widely believed. General Mills invented it in 1957. It was attributed to NASA because it was one of the foods that could be easily carried to and used in space. In the 1970s, the designed space station Skylab needed a reliable smoke detector that would not give faulty readings, thus the adjustable smoke detector was invented. NASA’s Langely Research Center experimented in the 1960s with safety grooving as a way to improve safety to aircraft taking off on wet runways. Today it is used around swimming pools, pedestrian crosswalks, animal pens, and highways. Road accidents have decreased by 85% as result of safety grooving. In preparation for the Apollo missions in the 1960s, NASA and Black & Decker developed cordless tools, lightweight, compact, and powerful, with a battery that would last longer in space with a magnet-motor drill. Water filtration existed since early 1950s, but NASA introduced the tiny black flecks, apart from the charcoal chunks. These tiny black flecks are specially activated with silver ions that neutralize pathogens in water, killing bacteria and preventing further growth. Virgin Galactic is trying to provide space transportation but most of NASA’s missions are not commercially possible to replicate because there is no consumer demand for robotic missions to Mars, Hubble Space Telescopes, and Alpha Magnetic Spectrometers. Private investment is usually prompted by demand. Fifty years passed since President Kennedy’s speech, which announced that man would be sent to the moon. I still remember the moon landing and the controversy surrounding it. There are still Americans today who claim that the whole affair was staged and we never planted the American flag on the lunar landscape. NASA was founded in 1958, a year after Sputnik was placed into orbit. President Eisenhower wanted a peaceful mission into space unlike the Russians who wanted to display their military power. President Kennedy wanted to win. President Reagan said, at the start of the space station program in 1984, “We are first; we are the best; and we are so because we are free.” We never wanted to colonize space - that was Hollywood’s fantasy. NASA set the pace and was the world leader in space exploration. We are no longer number one. Nine other countries have placed payloads into orbit, including India, China, Iran, and Israel. Fifty or more nations design, deploy, own, or operate satellites in space such as China, Brazil, and Japan. China and Japan mapped the moon. India launched a robotic moon mission in 2008 in co-operation with Russia. Will we ever go to the moon again? Will we go to Mars as the president desires? Does he even realize it takes 288 days to get there? The Universal Man described as “ten men in one,” Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), had envisioned flight beyond the myth of Daedalus and Icarus with their waxed wings which melted in the sun. Leonardo from the little town of Vinci left behind a detailed notebook with plans for flying machines, a parachute, a helicopter, a diving suit, a military tank, and a split-level city. And here we are today, at a fork in the road, our manned space exploration dreams killed with the ignorant stroke of an executive order pen.


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Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.


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