Continue with Microsoft TeamsRead About What Came from Space
Vocabulary
Read the vocabulary terms to understand the reading better.
An artificial satellite is a human-made object that orbits around Earth or the Moon.
CAT and MRI technologies are two different ways of looking at the inside of a body by taking pictures of small slices of specific parts of the body.
Gases are substances in a state of matter that is able to expand, or grow in size, to fill a space.
An object orbits when it travels in a curved path around another object in space, such as Earth or a star.
A space station is a large satellite with equipment to support a human crew and designed to remain in orbit for a long time, and serves as a base for scientific research and for space exploration.
It Came From Space
Space exploration is very new in the history of humankind. Space travel began in 1957, when the first artificial satellite was launched by the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth in 1961. In 1962, Alan Shepard became the first American to do the same thing. In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.
Since then, space exploration has advanced very rapidly, and it has produced a large amount of amazing technology that we take for granted today. Technologies originally developed for use in space have found new and sometimes unexpected uses on Earth, in products called spin-offs. Here are just a few of the products we owe to space exploration.
Invisible Braces
Coatings for Lenses
Smoke Detectors
Cordless Tools
CAT and MRI Scans
Memory Foam
Blood Analysis Machine
Invisible Braces
A new material was developed to help track heat-seeking missiles. This new material is now used to make invisible braces.
Coatings for Lenses
A special coating was developed to protect plastic space equipment, such as visors for astronauts. This coating is used today to make plastic lenses that are very hard to scratch.
Smoke Detectors
Smoke detectors like the ones you use in your home were developed to detect fire or gases in Skylab, the first space station.
Cordless Tools
Lightweight, cordless tools were developed to help astronauts collect mineral and rock samples from the Moon.
CAT and MRI Scans
A technology was developed to photograph the Moon’s surface and find a good place to land. CAT and MRI technologies were developed from this. They are used today in hospitals all around the world to produce images of the insides of people’s bodies.
Memory Foam
A special foam was developed to protect astronauts from impact when landing. This foam is now used in many places such as airline seats, pillows, mattresses, and cushions for wheelchairs.
Blood Analysis Machine
Technology was developed to create a compact lab instrument that analyzes blood in 30 seconds rather than 20 minutes. This is used by doctors and hospitals today.
All of these technologies and many more help make our lives better.
To learn more about technologies that came from space, watch the video by Nick Uhas on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1mcYIzg1GT8
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