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The heavens have inspired art, innovation, and philosophical musings since the dawn of humanity. Over the course of the past century, the first human voyages into space have led to concrete impacts here on Earth — including the introduction of a variety of inventions that are now woven into the fabric of our daily lives.
Over the past half-century, dozens of technologies developed by NASA and other global organizations have landed in our homes. Think: insulation, memory foam, and cordless vacuums. Technologies like OpenStack, the open-standard cloud computing program deployed by hundreds of research and corporate entities for data management, was originally developed by NASA and Rackspace Inc. Tech created for use in space — a monitoring headset to track eye movements and discern how weightlessness affects optical function — is now a key part of laser eye surgeries like LASIK.
Today, there’s potential for space-travel-inspired innovations to transcend mere convenience and help solve some of the most daunting challenges facing humanity — including protecting our pale blue dot from the impacts of climate change.
