Obviously we all have events that define who we are as people—birth,
death, the broken heart—but sometimes things happen on a global scale that change
life as we know it. Waco, 9/11, and the War Between the States come to mind. As
horrific as those incidents were, life eventually resumed its normality. Somewhat.
The internet, however, is a different beast. Life hasn’t
been the same since we signed on to AOL to send our first Email. The worldwide
web has dramatically changed our culture. However, one could argue another
event actually spawned the technology necessary for the internet.
I am of course talking about the Apollo 11 mission that put
mankind on the moon. Mr. Armstrong perhaps said it best when he quipped, “One
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Without the research and
development required for the space missions, the Intel Corporation might never
have been founded. The processor giant certainly wouldn’t have made its Wall
Street debut so soon. To quote Scott Hubbard: “Power consumption. Mass. Volume.
Data rate. All the things that were important to making space flight feasible
led to major changes in technology."
And you thought Tang was the only thing we got from planting
the flag in a moon crater. Tsk, tsk. (BTW, Tang was not actually invented for
the astronauts, but that’s a blog for another day).
We got much more from our space missions:
· Systems on board the capsules were forerunners of
credit card swiping machines.
· The freeze dried foods used by the astronauts
are today used by military personnel on maneuvers.
· CAT scanning technology was first used to find
imperfections in space components.
· Cordless drills were used to dig for moon rocks.
· Today’s home insulation incorporates the reflective
technology that protected spacecraft from radiation.
We even see better
(scratch-resistant lens use a coating developed for astronaut helmets), sleep better (memory foam was invented
to soften the capsule seats during landing), and run better (shoe companies adopted moon boot design technology to
lessen impact).
Other than the advent of fire, I challenge you to find a
single event with a greater impact on technology. So here’s to you Neil, Buzz,
and Michael… and to the thousands of scientists and technologies who made Apollo
11 possible.
