13 Consumer Products Originally Designed for Space Travel

Radar magazine has a gallery of thirteen consumer products that were originally developed by space exploration programs. Among them is the ear thermometer:

In an effort to identify newborn suns, NASA replaced standard mercury-filled thermometers with infrared-sensing cameras to detect tricky heat signatures. And now doctors use the same technology to take your temperature in your ear.


Link via The Corner

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From the article:

"Besides providing musicians with enhanced tone and sturdier instruments, the lightweight material [for guitars] emits sound 11 times faster than wood."

What on earth does that mean?
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Cordless power tools certainly predate the space programme - I've seen them in Popular Science from the 50s somewhere.
Ordinary pens turn out to work just as well in micro-g by capilliary effects.
Electrically heated gloves were certainly around for airgunners during the second war.

Some of the others are a bit dubious, too.
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