Giant Leaps in Innovation: A Retrospective on Apollo-Driven Technologies

By Anashe Bandari

In 2022, nearly 240,000 miles from the moon, Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup. One of the stadiums that will be used during the tournament has a new roof made from the same material as a NASA spacesuit. While most people around the world will not be at that facility enjoying this technology, there are several innovations from NASA’s Apollo program that have become a part of our day-to-day lives.

Fabricated and installed by Birdair, Qatar’s Khalifa International Stadium is one of 140 structures in the world that uses roofing material made of woven fiberglass filaments coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, more commonly known by its brand name Teflon). It is the same material NASA developed over 50 years ago to use for spacesuits in its Apollo program.

The space agency needed a fabric that was durable, flexible and nonflammable to protect its astronauts during their missions to the moon. For the same reasons, the material, which is stronger than steel and incredibly lightweight, is ideal for roofing. The material is also very energy-efficient, letting in natural light while keeping out heat.

NASA calls these technologies “spinoffs” -- commercial products and services that have emerged from NASA missions and research. According to the agency, nearly 2,000 new spinoff technologies are developed each year. Through its Technology Transfer Program, NASA ensures its innovations and research are available to the public, maximizing its economic and social impact. The 2013 report, “NASA Socio-Economic Impacts,” published by the Tauri Group for NASA, claimed that in total, spinoffs return between $100 million to $1 billion to the U.S. economy annually.

Even in the later stages of the Apollo program, NASA was developing new technologies that would go on to wider use.

In 1975, after only three years of preparation, the United States and the Soviet Union conducted the first international linkup in space. An American Apollo module and a Soviet Soyuz capsule docked in orbit -- an initial step toward developing a standard for internationally compatible space equipment. With such a short planning period, the two countries needed an efficient way to translate technical documents between English and Russian.

Peter Toma, of LATSEC Inc., had developed computerized Russian to German and Russian to English translation software called SYSTRAN prior to his collaboration with NASA. However, linguists believed machine translations from English into other languages would be impossible due to English language subtleties.

Shrugging off the naysayers, Toma adapted parts of his Russian to English software and added an English to Russian component, creating the first two-way language translation software package, called SYSTRAN II. The program featured a computerized dictionary of terminology, grammatical and semantic rules, and technical expressions.

SYSTRAN software eventually paved the way for the commercialization of machine translation and was used by Google Translate through 2007. The software continues to be an industry leader and used by many national governments.

Though computerized translation software and language learning tools have become a staple, perhaps the most surprising -- and most glowing -- example of an everyday Apollo spinoff technology is the ever-luminescent emergency exit sign.

During the Apollo and Skylab missions, NASA needed a compact yet reliable lighting system with low energy drain and very high output. They created small, bright fluorescent lamps powered by solar cells and a solid-state battery charger. The high reliability of the lights means they typically don’t require any maintenance for eight to 10 years.

Eventually, UDEC Corp., in Waltham, Massachusetts, modified these lights for mass production in various systems -- including illuminated exit signs. Though NASA now uses a line of photoluminescent exit signs in their spacecrafts that illuminate without the need for electricity, the familiar red glow has not changed much since it became an Apollo spinoff.

One of the better-known spinoffs that came out of the Apollo missions is the Black & Decker Dustbuster vacuum cleaner that uses technology spawned from the lunar drills used to examine the moon.

A goal of the Apollo missions was to study the makeup of the moon’s soil. In order to do so, the astronauts were required to gather a diverse sampling of both surface soil and subsurface soil, sometimes far from their base. NASA collaborated with Black & Decker to create a lightweight, compact and efficient lunar drill, which ran off its own independent power source, giving the astronauts the mobility they needed to gather the necessary samples.

Though cordless power tools already existed, Black & Decker designed a method of optimizing the motor’s power consumption, which provided a base for continuing its development of battery-operated tools and appliances, like the Dustbuster and cordless precision medical instruments.

With Apollo spinoffs being so ubiquitous, it was almost inevitable that NASA would occasionally be miscredited for technologies it did not help create.

Velcro -- the brand name for hook and loop fasteners -- is not a NASA spinoff, though its use in the Apollo missions has led to its association with the space program. A Swiss invention from the 1940s, astronauts used Velcro to anchor their pens, food and equipment, but it was not specifically created for this purpose.

Similarly, while NASA used Teflon in the fabrication of its innovative Apollo spacesuit material, Teflon itself was created in 1938, long before its applications in space, and the powdered drink mix Tang was on grocery store shelves years prior to entering orbit.

Though NASA is primarily associated with space exploration, its stated mission -- to “drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth” -- extends far beyond. The Apollo program ended nearly five decades ago, but the technological advances resulting from the lunar exploration program continue to influence our lives daily.

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