5. Joysticks
Spin-off from: Apollo lunar lander
Mission: Apollo 15 – 17
Date: 1971
Unlike smoke alarms, joysticks were in use before NASA picked up the invention, but they were unrecognizable to the devices we see today. Indeed, it was only through NASA ‘s work on joystick technology as a control mechanism for its Apollo Moon Rover–which would be used in the last three Apollo Moon Missions–that we have the digital joystick and thumbstick technology that we use in vehicles, aircraft and video game control pads.
The lunar rover controller was a T-shaped joystick and operated through a series of engines, four for drive and two for steering. Moving the stick forward, the rover turned forward, left and right, the vehicle rotated left or right, and the brakes rotated backwards. Activating the switch on the joystick before pulling it back would turn the lunar rover back while pulling the handle all the way back triggered the parking brake.
5 thoughts on “5 NASA Inventions Everyone Has in Their Home”
I worked for Nasa many years ago, i have seen many things i would never have seen in my lifetime.
I have said for years and years that NASA, and the space industry, need to make public all the “spinoffs” that have come from, and been generated by, the industry. I don’t believe that John Q. Public has any idea the number, and the importance and the benefits, derived from these discoveries in their daily lives. These include everyday items in the medical, technological, military, and many other areas which have filtered down, and benefited us all, but of which the average person is unaware,
If the person on the street became aware of how easier, safer, and in some instances, life-saving, our lives had become, they would put the space industry and its importance at or near the top of the budget list for America!
You are so correct! Our space program and NASA should be right at the top os list of programs to be funded!
It’s all about R & D, Research and Development. Figuring out how to accomplish something, and then building it in a way that consistently works. Research needs motivation, NASA and the space race provided it. The rest was great work by smart people.
NASA has been fighting for its budget for years, and it gets cut all the time.
My husband worked for NASA for many years under private contractors. I saw all the benefits of the Space Program from the 1960’s on. Thus, the benefits we gain from these programs and researches outweigh the costs of them. Science leads to more discovery. We need to fund it.