Comfort "Made In Space"

"They spend millions for searching water on Mars, but they don’t realize that children in Africa are dying of thirst".

It has certainly become customary to hear this factious "scientific" statement emerge from minds that confuse the lack of international cooperation with the expenses related to scientific research.The first point is in fact the triggering factor of the social differences between "developed world" and countries in conditions of extreme poverty.

What is all too often ignored is the disproportionate amount of convenience, accessories, tools and inventions, drawn up directly by technological research projects supported by aerospace agencies and private companies which, not only have increased the comfort of daily life, but have had beneficial effects on aspects of primary importance for humanity, such as personal and collective security, medical research, nutrition, pollution, climate change.

Besides, what could an aerospace agency possibly devote itself to, if not the development of aerospace research?Actually besides that it does much, much more...

1. The Big Falcon Rocket, a launch vehicle completely reuseable, actually in the final stage of the project, developed and financed by the private aerospacial company SpaceX, head leaded by Elon Musk.

During the numerous scientific analyses carried out by men and machinery in orbit around our planet, extreme working conditions were experienced, often similar to critical situations that we can find during life on earth, and one of the most important results achieved by the space research programs of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) or ESA (European Space Agency), was the conversion of many objects from "space use" on land;just think of the global navigation satellite system that, through the use of a network of artificial satellites in orbit, allows geo-radio localization, helping navigation on land, sea or air. Among the countless inventions the thermal blanket, for example, is a raincoat developed by NASA in 1964 that today allows to stabilize subjects who are in a state of hypothermia or who have had a heat stroke.

Qwip is a technology developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to analyze incandescent rocket discharges on takeoff, which is adopted by firefighters through their infrared thermographic viewers to locate fireplaces and persons to be rescued during fires. As well as smoke detectors were invented with the collaboration of NASA, which was interested in the prevention of combustion and gas leaks in orbit.

Safety grooves used in pedestrian advances, swimming pools and animal holds were tested in the 1960s by the NASA Research Center.

2. robotic arm

Determining the incredible advances in the medical field.

Thanks to the AMS-2, the particle detector that on the International Space Station hunts dark matter, new carbon fiber prosthetics have been built for disabled, more resistant and lighter; in general, robotic sensor bionic limbs used in the medical (magnetic resonance) and industrial fields were created for robots used in space. Thanks to the help of NASA, engineer Adam Kissiah in the '70s was able to continue working on a revolutionary device capable of restoring hearing to people with deep deafness: after some years of research, the first cochlear implant for the deaf was made. The infrared thermometers used in hospitals are based on the infrared technology used to calculate the temperature of the stars.

The Cronidur30 is a special steel alloy originally developed to make space shuttle fuel pumps, extremely hard and corrosion-resistant;it is now used to make some surgical instruments.

3. Advance Plant Abitat, an example of astrobotany within the International Space Station.

But above all, research under microgravity conditions is accelerating medical improvements, such as methods of administration of anticancer medicaments targeted to diseased cells, or research on osteoporosis, that is, the loss of bone mass that affects the elderly (especially women), which is the same that affects astronauts stationed on the ISS. The medical device Warp 10, made thanks to LED technology designed for the growth of plants on board the ISS, is a portable unit that promotes muscle relaxation and increases local blood circulation in the event of arthritis, stiffness and muscle spasms. Warp is also used to relieve the pain of people who have to undergo a bone marrow transplant and will be used to combat the symptoms of bone atrophy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Knowing that these just listed are only a very small part of an endless list of scientific advances achieved through aerospace research, we now flaunt our obtuseness, pretending that they are all worthless or of little interest, and back to the initial question: what about hunger in the world?

4. Landsat 7, in orbit since April 15, 1999, is the penultimate in a network of remote sensing satellites that observe the Earth: the data they collected have been used for over 30 years to study the environment, resources, and natural and artificial changes occurring on the Earth’s surface.

The solution is contained in a letter written in 1970 by the then scientific director of NASA Ernst Stuhlinger in response to a request for explanations from a nun active in Zambia. A glimpse of the letter read: "I even think that by working on the space programme I can help alleviate and perhaps solve serious problems such as poverty and hunger on Earth.At the root of the problem of hunger there are two factors: the production of food and the distribution of food.Food production through agriculture, farming, fishing and other large-scale operations is efficient in some parts of the world, but radically disastrous in many other parts [..] The best tool to improve these factors is undoubtedly the study of the Earth with artificial satellites. Orbiting the planet, satellites can monitor large areas of ground in a short time, they can observe and measure the wide range of variables that indicate the state and conditions of fields, soil, precipitation, etc., and they can send this information to Earth. It is estimated that even a small satellite system with the right equipment can increase the production of fields by many billions of dollars. The distribution of food for those who need it is a totally different problem.The question is not so much linked to the possibility of distributing large volumes, but to international cooperation[..] An efficient relief from hunger, I fear, will not come until all the borders between nations have become more tenuous than they are now.I don’t think space exploration will bring this miracle from today to tomorrow. However, the space program is certainly one of the most promising and powerful elements working in this direction." And how to blame former Director Stuhlinger, seeing international cooperation today for research projects such as those carried out by the International Space Station, bringing together scientists and astronauts from around the world for one common good, for a moment alleviating the political tensions that are created from year to year. Projects that should be taken as a driving example by the world government authorities to find a point of social, political, existential balance between all peoples.

5. ISS Expedition 20 crew in 2009: Left seated: De Winne (Belgium), Padalka (Russia, Commander), Romanenko (Russia), standing: Thirsk (Canada), Barratt (United States), Stott (United States), Kopra (United States), Wakata (Japan).

credit nasa.gov - newsspazio.globspot.com - il post.it - repubblica.it - focus.it - ninjamarketing.it