It's been 40 years since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched into space in Apollo 11, with the historic moon landing occurring four days later exactly 40 years ago today. Here are our favourite technologies inspired by the space programme.
Scratch-resistant lenses: A highly abrasion-resistant coating developed by NASA's Ames Research Center helped protect plastic surfaces of aerospace equipment from harsh environments.
Foster Grant used this technology in the '70s and '80s to produce its Space Tech Lens, which provided five times more scratch resistance than regular eyeglass lenses.
What about Tang, Teflon or Velcro? These three products (and others, like magnetic resonance imaging) were around at the time of the space programme, and were not invented by, nor inspired from, the space programme.
NASA says Tang, invented by General Foods in 1957, was used by John Glenn in 1962 when performing eating experiments in orbit. Teflon, material invented for DuPont in 1938, was used by NASA for heat shields, space suits and cargo hold liners, the agency says.
And Velcro, invented by the Swiss in 1940s, was also used by NASA to anchor equipment for zero-gravity environments.
Comments
Si said: Ive never seen it in the UK only on my travels to Asia
Paul Urban said: Was this on sale in the UK I grew up in the 70s and have never heard of it
dragon said: Tang is just like the lemonade and orangeade powders we had as children - she says showing her age A subtle concoction of sugar artificial colouring and artificial flavouring it was truly dreadful when mixed with water Most of us licked it off a damp finger straight from the bag It was sold loose from a sweet jar 2oz at a time was the normalpurchase Getting the yellow or orange stain off your finger afterwards required the services of a pumice stone Bear in mind this was just after WW2and there wasnt much fresh fruit sugar or sweets about Rationing was still in force
Si said: Tang is like orange squash but in powder formTruely disgusting
Paul Urban said: WTF is Tang Is it tango