All the things that surround us were once invented by someone. James King created the first washing machine that facilitates our daily routine. We are able to talk to our friends over the ocean because Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Did you ever imagine that you should thank NASA for the isolation in your walls, camera on your phone, and such a comfortable mattress that you dive into at night? Here is the list of eight things you might use every day that were created by NASA.

1. Precision GPS

A few decades ago GPS wasn’t as perfect at determining your position. Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees began developing precise GPS software that could correct these errors in the middle of the 90s. It is helpful not only for sailors and pilots. Precision GPS is also used by phones, cars, and even self-propelled agricultural equipment.

2. Healthy baby food

Developing nutritional alternatives for astronauts that will travel to Mars, researchers accidentally discovered a form of omega-3 fatty acids. Those acids were found only in breast milk and they are really vital for child development. Omega-3 fatty acids are added to over 90% of baby food on the market. 

3. LED light bulbs for night and day

The dual-tone light bulbs were created to enhance daytime attentiveness and to calm down when you need to turn off the lights. The National Space Biomedical Research Program team created a prototype in 2015 and found that light of different colors or wavelengths can help people stay alert or feel sleepy.

4. Plant-air purifier

Plants emit gas and it usually accumulates in the closed conditions of the space station. So NASA developers created an ethylene scrubber that is used in the International Space Station. Now similar technology is common for many industries. It helps to keep food fresh for a long time in grocery stores and prevent waste in winemakers.

5. Safe food storage

NASA, in partnership with Pillsbury, has developed a new standard that keeps freeze-dried foods safe and healthy. This standard is now used all over the world and is profitable for almost everyone. The standard prolongs the shelf life of food and reduces the risk of infection by chemicals and different bacteria. 

6. Scratch-resistant glasses

Most of us take the scratch-resistant eyeglass coating for granted. But some fundamental studies on it were done at NASA's Ames Research Center. The researchers were trying to improve the visors of helmets for astronauts and membranes of water cleaning systems. In the 1980s this science was applied to glasses, sunglasses and protective masks for security and color enhancing.

7. Transparent braces

You certainly know about Invisalign Bronx and the Direct Smile Club. Invisible transparent braces became an opportunity to avoid the Brace-Face shortcut. So everyone who transformed their smiles thanks to those bracers should be thankful to NASA and 3M Products for developing the transparent ceramics.

 8. The handheld vacuum

The famous Dustbuster was also kindly provided by NASA. They developed battery-powered instruments for collecting samples from the lunar surfaces in partnership with Black & Decker. The device was so good and so convenient for this task that it was immediately adjusted for hospitals, industry, and home needs. This is where portable cordless tools come from.

Thanks to Rosie Croft from Pen & Sword for sending me an early hardback copy of this book, which I freely chose to review. What a blast!

There are events that become fixed on people’s minds, either because they witnessed them and felt they were momentous, or because the impact of the news when they heard them made them remember forever the moment when they heard about it and what they were doing at the time. Some become part of the collective memory. The first manned mission to land on the Moon is one of those. As I was a very young child (four years old, if you want to know), I don’t remember it, but I do remember my father recounting having gone to a neighbour’s to watch it as we didn’t have a TV at home at the time. And I’ve watched the images, seen pictures, and read articles and watched documentaries about it over the years, but no, I didn’t experience it live at the time. So, on this year of the fiftieth anniversary, I couldn’t resist this book. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The author collects an incredible amount of information from a large variety of sources (there is a bibliography at the end, which includes the sources although not the specific details of each and every one of the articles and news items, as that would have taken more space than the book itself), and manages to select the most informative, wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and entertaining materials, creating a fun and gripping reading experience that, although we know where it’s going, never gets boring. He is also at pains to try to provide a balanced view of the facts, collecting as well the voices of those opposing the project for a variety of reasons (mainly economic, to do with poverty and conditions in the USA, but also some for religious reasons, and others due to the fear of what that might mean for humanity and the likelihood of space’s exploitation for war purposes).

Passingham lets the materials speak for themselves in most instances (and it is a joy to read the opinions of the general public at a time before social media gave everybody the tools to share their voice with the rest of the world), and he does so while creating an easy to read and compelling account of events that evidence his professionalism and his experience as a journalist. Where some authors would feel tempted to butt in and make explicit their points of view, here we are allowed to make our own minds up.

After a first chapter called ‘Race to the Moon: 1957-69’ highlighting the USSR’s successes in what would become known as ‘the space race’ and the USA’s determination to turn things around (spurred on by JFK’s promise, in 1962, to get to the moon before the end of the decade), the book takes on the format of a count-down, from Wednesday, 2^nd of July 1969 (launch minus fourteen day) to Splashdown day (24^th of July) and a final chapter looking at what has happened since. This format makes us share in the excitement of the team (and the whole world), at the time, and, although we know what took place, we get to feel a part of it.

I have marked many items in the book that gave me pause, and the description also gives a good hint of some of the gems readers can find in the book. If I had to choose some, perhaps the comments by Michael Collins about how he felt about the possibility of having to leave his two fellow astronauts behind if things went wrong with the Moon landing; the advancements on computer sciences and technology brought up by the project (when looking at the data it sounds underwhelming today, but it’s incredible to think they managed to do what they did with the equipment they had) and the same applies to the cameras they took with them and used; the mention of Amy Spear’s role in developing radar systems used for landing and docking the module; worries about what would happen to all the people who had been working on the project once the flight was over, many of whom had come from other states (would the new jobs be maintained?). I loved the enthusiasm and the optimism of people convinced that in ten years there would be hotels in the Moon and humanity would be settling other planets (oh, and they were phoning aviation companies to book their flights already!); the sad comments by US soldiers in Vietnam who contrasted the public support the  Apollo 11 enjoyed with the general opinion about the Vietnam war; I was very sad about the fate of a monkey they sent into orbit (alone! Poor thing!);I was interested in the opposing voices as well, in the fact that Russian women had gone into space but at that point there were no women in the programme (and due to Navy regulations, Nixon’s wife couldn’t even accompany her husband when he went to welcome the astronauts aboard USS Hornet…), and a mention that the astronauts had access to a microwave oven in the Mobile Quarantine Facility (they had been in existence for a while, but they were large and only used in industrial settings at that point), and, oh, so many things.

I enjoyed the book, which also contains many illustrations, all from NASA, and apart from making me feel as if I had been there, it also gave me plenty of food for thought. Many of the things people imagined didn’t come to pass, although it is not clear why (yes, it would have been very expensive, but that didn’t seem to stop them at that point. And why did the USSR pull back as well?), there were many advances due to it, but space exploration has remained controversial, perhaps even more so now than before. I wonder if there will be some positive event that will pull so many people together again in the future, rather than the catastrophes and disasters (natural or man-made) that seem to have become the norm in recent years. I guess only time will tell.

I cannot imagine there will be anybody who won’t find this book enjoyable (OK, people who believe the Earth is flat or conspiracy theorists might not care for it, and experts on the subject might not find anything new in its pages), and I’d recommend it to anybody who either remembers that event and wants to re-experience it, or wasn’t there at the time and wants to learn all about it. A joy of a book.

I finished this book earlier this year, and I've thought about it quite a lot. I must confess it did take me a long time to finish it, maybe a couple of months, but I wouldn't say that was a bad thing – it was more the kind of book you pick up once in a while, read a chapter, and put down satisfied. 

Chris Hadfield, the well-known Canadian astronaut, has had an amazing life to read about. I'm a bit biased –I love space stuff– but I think most people would enjoy reading the crazy training astronauts have to go through and the unbelievable routine of life in space. From his beginning as a pilot to how he became an internet sensation in space, Chris Hadfield narrates his journey of hard work and big dreaming.  

Some of the reviews I've read complain that he is too proud or has "too big an ego", but I don't really agree with this view. Yeah, the guy describes how he won awards, did great, and got important jobs – but it's true! It must be pretty hard to sound humble when you've got to narrate all your big achievements, and this is a man who has many. 

Still, I won't go around saying it's perfect. As you can see, I rated it three and a half stars. As much as I enjoy reading on how people brush their teeth in space, or the life-like simulations of space travel at NASA, there's a lot of the book spent on giving life advice. And it may be a bit too much. 

I don't know how to fully explain it, but many times I just felt the advice was not relatable. I just didn't feel like it could apply to me. Or, on the other hand, it felt like some random quote you read on Pinterest – a bit cheesy or overused. I'm not trying to say Chris Hadfield is not a genius or that I didn't learn anything from his book, not at all, but sometimes his constant advice or metaphors made the reading slow down.

Still, pretty awesome book! I always enjoy reading about space, and NASA must be one of the coolest organizations ever. 

Andy Weirs Karriere ist ein Märchen der Schriftstellerei. Sein Debütroman „The Martian“ wurde ursprünglich von allen Verlagen abgelehnt, weshalb Weir das Buch 2011 als Selfpublisher veröffentlichte. Er bot es kostenlos auf seiner Website an. Als Fans ihn baten, eine Kindle-Version zu erstellen, verlangte er auf Amazon 99 Cent, der niedrigste mögliche Preis. Die Verkaufszahlen schossen durch die Decke. Der Rest ist, wie man so schön sagt, Geschichte. 2013 verkaufte er die Buchrechte für einen sechsstelligen Betrag. Ich finde, in dieser Anekdote steckt eine inspirierende Botschaft an allen jungen Autor_innen: gib nicht auf und glaub an dein Werk. Andy Weir beweist, dass der Erfolg manchmal bloß etwas länger braucht, um sich einzustellen. Nachdem das Buch zwei Jahre auf meinem SuB versauerte, wollte ich 2017 endlich wissen, ob es wirklich so gut ist, wie alle behaupteten.

Werde Astronaut, haben sie gesagt. Geh zur NASA, haben sie gesagt. Flieg zum Mars, haben sie gesagt. Schönen Dank auch. Was sie Mark Watney nicht gesagt haben, ist, wie er auf dem Mars überleben soll, falls ihn ein schrecklicher Unfall von seinem Team trennt und sie gezwungen sind, ihn allein zurückzulassen. Nun ist er der einzige Bewohner eines Planeten, der sich redlich bemüht, Mark umzubringen. Alle Kommunikationswege sind zerstört. Seine Vorräte sind begrenzt. Er ist auf hochsensible Technik angewiesen, die stetig ausfallen könnte. Er könnte ersticken, verhungern, verdursten, erfrieren oder in der hauchdünnen Atmosphäre explodieren. Die nächste Mission wird in 1425 Tagen eintreffen. Bis dahin muss sich Mark auf seinen Einfallsreichtum, seine Fähigkeiten und seine sture Weigerung zu sterben verlassen, um dem angriffslustigen Planeten ein Schnippchen zu schlagen. Es ist Zeit, ein für alle Mal herauszufinden, ob menschliches Überleben auf dem Mars tatsächlich unmöglich ist.

Unter extremen Bedingungen sind Menschen zu erstaunlichen Leistungen fähig. Wir alle kennen die Geschichte der Mutter, die einen Kleinwagen mit bloßen Händen stemmt, weil ihr Baby darunter eingeklemmt ist. Mark Watneys Überlebenskampf auf dem Mars ist ein hervorragendes Beispiel für diese wundersame Leistungsfähigkeit. Ja, werdet ihr sagen, der ist ja auch nur fiktiv. Ich antworte: das spielt überhaupt keine Rolle, weil er nicht fiktiv wirkt. Er wirkt so real wie ihr und ich. Ich habe während der Lektüre von „The Martian“ vergessen, dass Mark Watney eine Romanfigur ist, die der Fantasie des Autors Andy Weir entspringt. Von der ersten Seite an entwickelte ich enorme Sympathie für den Biologen, Ingenieur und Astronauten, denn er ist ein extrem zugänglicher Charakter, der mit selbstironischem Witz überzeugt. Ich hätte ihn gern auf ein Bier eingeladen. Er neigt überhaupt nicht zum Selbstmitleid, obwohl seine Lage beängstigend aussichtslos erscheint und eine gewisse Verzweiflung absolut verzeihlich gewesen wäre. Es zeugt von einer beeindruckenden Geisteshaltung, allein auf dem Mars nicht alle Hoffnung fahren zu lassen. Stattdessen treibt ihn sein außergewöhnlich starker Lebenswille zu Höchstleistungen an, die sein analytischer Verstand in praktikable und für die Leser_innen gut nachvollziehbare Überlebensstrategien verwandelt. In Logbuch-Einträgen beweist er sein bemerkenswertes Talent zum Problemlösen und ließ mich an all seinen Gedankengängen teilhaben. Dadurch fungiert das Logbuch zusätzlich als Marks Absicherung gegen den Wahnsinn; indem er den Leser_innen erklärt, welche Herausforderungen er wie meistern muss, bewahrt er sich selbst vorm Durchdrehen. Demzufolge enthält „The Martian“ viele äußerst spezifische Beschreibungen aus der Physik, Chemie, Biologie und allgemein den Naturwissenschaften, die zwar anspruchsvoll sind, mich aber niemals überforderten, was an sich bereits ein schriftstellerisches Kunststück darstellt. Ich habe unfassbar viel über den Mars gelernt und konnte gravierende Wissenslücken schließen. Ich musste jedoch ziemlich aufmerksam lesen, was sich in meinem Fall auf das Lesetempo auswirkte. Ich kam langsamer voran als in einem Durchschnittsbuch, störte mich allerdings kaum daran, weil „The Martian“ trotz dessen unglaublich spannend ist. Angesichts dessen, dass auf dem Mars nichts ist und Mark die Handlung fast ausschließlich durch seine Persönlichkeit vorantreiben muss, da Weir seine strikte Ich-Perspektive lediglich in recht großen Abständen aufbricht und die Leser_innen seine Unternehmungen niemals direkt erleben, ist diese konsequente Spannungskurve verblüffend. Ich fieberte auf jeder Seite mit und feuerte Mark in Gedanken lautstark an, nicht aufzugeben und dem blöden Planeten zu zeigen, wer der Boss ist. Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass er tatsächlich eine Überlebenschance hat und war überrascht, wie viel Hoffnung er mir vermittelte, wie sehr ich daran glauben wollte, dass er es schafft, obwohl die Lage alles andere als rosig aussieht. Nimm das, Mars, Mark Watney is in da hooooouuuuse!

„The Martian“ ist die glaubhafte Chronik eines außerordentlichen Überlebenskampfes. Es ist eine irrwitzige Mischung aus „Apollo 11“, „Cast away – Verschollen“ und „Schiffbruch mit Tiger“ von Yann Martel. Ich freue mich über den gerechtfertigten Erfolg dieser Geschichte und gratuliere Andy Weir dazu, dass sich all seine Arbeit auszahlte, vom reinen Schreiben bis hin zu seinen erschöpfenden Recherchen. Er verdient es.
Meiner Meinung nach ist „The Martian“ ein Science-Fiction-Roman, der selbst Genreskeptikern wie mir gefallen kann, weil er sich sehr dicht an der Realität bewegt und mit einem Protagonisten aufwartet, der kaum menschlicher sein könnte. Mark Watney ist der nette Typ von Nebenan, mit dem man sich ein Footballspiel ansieht. Er ist der Typ, mit dem man einen trinken geht. Und zufällig ist er auch der Typ, der unverhofft den Mars kolonisiert, in MacGyver-Manier mit Kleber, Spucke und vielen kreativen Ideen – eben ein echter Weltraumpirat.

Yesterday the trailer for Hidden Figures was released. You can watch it here if you haven't yet (or if you want to rewatch). The movie is based on the book Hidden Figures written by Margot Lee Shetterly. It will be released on September 6, 2016. You can pre-order it here.

It is a nonfiction book about African American women who worked at NASA specifically Katherine Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. K. Jackson started working at NASA in 1953. She is still alive, currently 97 and her 98th birthday is in 11 days. Vaughan started working at NACA (pre-cursor to NASA) in 1943 but sadly she passed away in 2008. M. Jackson started working at NACA in 1950 but passed away in 2005. They were all incredibly smart women and were key parts of the Space Race and beyond.

I will definitely be buying the book when it comes out. Probably won't see the movies in theaters because I just absolutely hate movie theaters. I prefer watching movies alone at home.

The book I am currently reading, Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt is also about the history of women at NASA, just 99.99% about white women. Really. Despite covering the same time period as Hidden Figures, there is only one African American woman in the entire book and her name is Janez Lawson.