NASA Myths and Budgetary Realities

By Rich Kozlovich

(Editor's Note:  The source information came from here....RK)

The need to fully fund NASA is argued because of all the technology that comes from that effort, such as Teflon, Velcro, etc.  However - so much of that is just myth. 

Spinning the Spinoff Myth - "Since the dawn of the space age, both proponents and opponents of the manned space program have used the "spinoff" argument to buttress their respective cases.  Many fans of Apollo, and the space shuttle and the International Space Station, and whatever the NASA manned space program happens to be doing at the time, make grandiose claims about the many benefits showered upon our nation because we sent a few people to the moon, or into orbit"....More....

Teflon was first used not by NASA, but in the Manhattan Project.  Teflon was invented in 1938 - by a DuPont scientist named Roy Plunkett,  who was "fiddling around in the lab one day [and] accidentally discovers polytetrafluoroethylene, soon to be known as Teflon, a slippery substance that will have practical applications in everything from nonstick cookware to a presidential nickname."

Velcro was invented by "George de Mestral, who was born in Switzerland in 1907. Trained as an engineer, de Mestral was inspired to invent Velcro® after examining burrs clinging to his clothing after a hiking trip. He began developing the fabric in 1948 and completed work in 1955, patenting his invention the same year. "  NASA didn't have a thing to do with inspiring the invention of Velcro.

A Brief History of the Microwave Oven. Invented in1947 by Raytheon.  Well NASA surely invented Tang.  No that was done in 1957 General Foods Corporation.  Walkie Talkies? - "The first radio receiver/transmitter to be nick-named "Walkie-Talkie" was the backpacked Motorola SCR-300, created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin Manufacturing Company (forerunner of Motorola). "

Did NASA invent cordless power tools?  "No.  The first cordless power tool was unveiled by Black and Decker in 1961.  In the mid-1960s, Martin Marietta Corporation contracted with Black & Decker to design tools for NASA.  The tool company developed a zero-impact wrench for the Gemini project that spun bolts in zero gravity without spinning the astronaut."

Did NASA invent barcodes, quartz clocks, or smoke detectors?  Barcodes were not invented by NASA.  NASA developed a special type of barcode for inventory of space shuttle and other space system components that could endure harsh environments, but this should not be mistaken for the original barcode.  Similarly, NASA was not the first to use quartz as a piezoelectric material for timekeeping.  The first quartz clock dates back to 1927.

NASA Reevaluated: "The transistor itself had been invented at Bell Labs, independent of a space program, in 1947. The actual personal computer was invented, not just in the private sector, but by a ragtag outfit of hippies in Northern California (which later became Apple Computer). ....Sure, they receive government grants and contracts, but they are not government owned or operated.....

Just like a lot of the...... biological experiments that they came up with to justify is International Space Station, all of which would be conducted more effectively in gravity......Some people think that we will eventually master interstellar travel, but that the only way we will be able to will be to pursue the space program. I'm extremely skeptical that we will ever figure out how to travel to another solar system....

[S]tate-funded science getting a free pass......smacks of treasury-rading and fiscal irresponsibility. No one seems to hold scientific research to a standard of justification. That's why we have the remains of the incomplete Supercolliding Superconductor decaying in Texas, and why a multibillion dollar telescope is about to be decommissioned after simply providing us with some pretty pictures (and necessitating an unplanned space mission and two planned ones, at God-knows how much a pop)."