IN PURSUIT of sending people and objects off-world, Nasa has devised some of the world's finest accidental inventions. <\/p>\n
These everyday objects were built for zero gravity activity but serve humanity well on the ground.<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
The handheld vacuum, or dust buster, was an accidental invention that came to life during the Apollo missions.<\/p>\n
Astronauts needed a small and light motor for operating a hand drill on the Moon.<\/p>\n
Black & Decker, the company behind the Moon drill, reconfigured the technology to power the cordless vacuum and other Earthbound appliances. <\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Frank Rudy left Nasa after the completion of the Apollo 11 mission to file a patent for a sneaker sole that could be filled with shock absorbent air. <\/p>\n
\"The basic idea is to inflate the air cushion with something that simulates what's happening in your lungs,\" Rudy said before his death.<\/p>\n
Sneaker History gave Rudy the admirable title of \"The Father of Nike Air\".<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Astronauts needed to be able to freely use their hands without risk of tangling or unplugging their communication tools.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s, wireless headphones were already in limited use by airplane pilots and air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n
A Nasa blog explains it only took 11 days to fit the tech into an astronauts' helmet and later innovations cleared the headset for takeoff.<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
The soft memory foam mattress was originally invented for a rough landing.<\/p>\n
In 1966, scientists at the Ames Research Center developed memory foam as a shock absorber during takeoff and in the event of an impact.<\/p>\n
Memory foam never found a seat on the space shuttle but it did spur a new era of mattress manufacturing. <\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Nasa doesn't claim to have invented the mouse, but the space agency did provide a grant to the man who did.<\/p>\n
Doug Englebart was experimenting with ways to improve human-computer interactivity when Nasa provided the funding for him to explore ideas to make computing more efficient.<\/p>\n
Through trial and error, Englebart landed on the computer mouse which he first billed as an \"x,y position indicator for a display system\" in a patent application.<\/p>\n
Englebart never earned any royalties for inventing the computer mouse, according to The Smithsonian.<\/p>\n
Nasa's inventions, accidental or intentional, have served not the astronauts but people on Earth looking up at them.<\/p>\n
As more of space travel becomes privatized, large companies will hold the intellectual property behind all their inventions and there may be less public reward for breakthroughs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See more here: <\/p>\n
Five Nasa inventions built for space that can be used in everyday life... - The US Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IN PURSUIT of sending people and objects off-world, Nasa has devised some of the world's finest accidental inventions. Continue reading