In defense of NASA: was Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Fri Jun 9 08:48:01 2000

At 01:16 AM 6/9/00 -0400, R. D. Davis wrote:
>Yes, I remember as a child, there was that new orange powdered space
>age drink mix called Tang, which was marketed as a spinoff of the
>space program, the drink of the astronauts, available in supermarkets
>everywhere. :-) :-) :-)

I knew Tang would be mentioned early in this thread. I may have
been born in 1963, but by what stretch is Tang considered an
invention, never mind a significant one? I'd find it hard to
believe that Kool Aid is more recent than Tang, never mind no doubt
dozens of other flavored powders. So Tang had the sugar built-in?
They couldn't have been the first to try that. Tang has some
sort of extra vitamins in it? That's a big invention?

(As an aside, these "freeze-dried ice cream" globs they sell at
NASA are horrid. Grandma and Grandpa brought some back for the
kids, and even they wouldn't touch them. Tang? Tang? How come
no one is talking about the awful freeze-dried ice cream?)

Velcro was invented by a fellow in Japan, as I recall - "velvet
closure" and burdock seeds were the name and the inspiration.

As for integrated circuits, etc. no doubt space funding might've
paid for the R&D and motivation for companies to improve and
shrink their products, but what - they didn't think there would
be a giant worldwide market for smaller and cheaper radios, lower
battery consumption, better transistors, etc? They wouldn't have
done it on their own, eventually, or perhaps even at the same speed,
as quickly as they could figure it out?

- John
Received on Fri Jun 09 2000 - 08:48:01 BST