During coverage of the recent Columbia space shuttle tragedy, the subject of the importance of conducting medical experiments in space came up. How does performing experiments in zero gravity aid in scientific and medical research? –theremin
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Since the end of the Apollo moon-launch program in 1972, the answer’s gotten vaguer. Depending on who you ask, the rationale might be: (1) Because the space program provides technological spin-offs valuable for terrestrial applications. (2) Because manned space flight advances scientific knowledge. (3) Because it will help us colonize the stars. (4) Because it’s cool. Reasons one, two, and three are dubious, to say the least. You’ll have to be the judge of number four. Here’s the rundown:
(1) Spin-offs. Few and far between. As reported in 1993 by space skeptic Bob Park, who writes a weekly news digest for the American Physical Society, an internal NASA study admitted, “To much of the public, NASA’s technology transfer reputation is based on some famous examples, including Velcro, Tang and Teflon. Contrary to popular belief, NASA created none of these….There have not been very many technology transfer successes compared to the potential.” Park added, “In 1991, during a Senate debate on an amendment to slash funding for Space Station Freedom, Sen. [Howell] Heflin (D-AL) produced a NASA list of 74 ‘space spinoffs’–everything from synthetic teats for piglets to portable ice rinks. [I] challenged anyone to document that a single item on the list actually owed its existence to the space program. There were no takers.”
