Spin-Offs from Space

ASIDE from its value in terms of national prestige and scientific knowledge, the U.S. space effort has yielded some important--if not always immediately measurable --benefits on earth. The most obvious fallout has been economic. At its peak in 1966, Apollo employed 400,000 people, from Long Island to Seattle. The technological impact has been less conspicuous. But in scarcely more than a decade, research has produced hundreds of what NASA calls "space technology transfers" that apply everywhere from factory to surgical ward.

New space-age sealants, developed for caulking seams in spacecraft, now plug the gaps between bathroom tiles. Latex paints, developed as a protection against ultraviolet radiation, are being applied to home walls. Filament-wound plastics enable North American Car Corp. to make railway tank cars that weigh nine tons less than cars made of steel but are just as strong.

Any catalogue of spin-offs from space is as wide-ranging as the human imagination. The luminous metallic material that helps in the docking of spacecraft in darkness may eventually free motorists from the need to fumble for their car locks at night. The need for manageable space foods has given impetus to the improvement of freeze-dried fruit, freeze-dried coffee and food concentrates.

Terrestrial Worth

No phase of earthly life has profited more than medicine. By adapting the compact electronic equipment designed to monitor the life functions of space travelers, doctors are now able to watch a wardful of seriously ill patients from afar. By modifying a meteoroid sensor, they can detect minute body tremors caused by such neurological disorders as Parkinson's disease. Another adaptation involves the so-called "sign switch": intended to be actuated by the mere movement of an astronaut's eyes so that his hands will be free, it has already been installed in a motorized wheelchair for paraplegics. The space suits may be useful for lowering body temperature in cases of extremely high fever.

For all that, space technology is only beginning to show its terrestrial worth. Lofted into orbit high above the earth, satellites even now are relaying radio and TV signals across thousands of miles of ocean and gathering a wealth of weather information. In years ahead, they may be used to monitor crops and survey mineral resources. In metallurgy, extremely strong and anticorrosive titanium alloys have moved from the launch pad to the machinery of chemical and power plants. Several utilities are already testing chemical fuel cells of the kind that Apollo carried to the moon to determine whether they might offer an efficient, contamination-free method of generating electricity on earth.

Exciting Promise

Some critics of the space program point out that the potential of such techniques is often exaggerated. Nonetheless, many scientists are convinced that the fresh technical ideas that helped send man to the moon will ultimately make his material life far better on earth. Perhaps the most exciting promise, they say, is not in the technical achievements themselves, but in the mastery and management of the multiple skills that have produced them. Teams of specialists had to harness their disparate talents in order to make so vast an enterprise as the Apollo program succeed. A similar cooperative effort, they contend, could be equally effective in tackling more earthly problems from urban planning to pollution. To be sure, the vagaries of human emotions are far more unpredictable than even the variables involved in a moon mission. Just defining the problems is a more challenging task than spelling out the challenges of spaceflight. For all that, the systems-analysis approach could prove of immeasurable value in the years to come.

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