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> I don't really care if any of these things originated in NASA or had previously been invented—the bigger question for me is if they would have been widely use
by tivert 3y ago
> I don't really care if any of these things originated in NASA or had previously been invented—the bigger question for me is if they would have been widely used if NASA had not put the effort into making them practical.
Probably.
IMHO, the US military was and is probably far more effective at making emerging technologies "practical" than NASA is. Their budget's bigger and they buy more stuff, often mass-produced. NASA does a lot of one-off and small-run projects.
- ke88y 3y agoThe US military as a guaranteed purchaser, maybe. The US military as an organization, definitely not.
- tivert 3y ago> The US military as a guaranteed purchaser, maybe. The US military as an organization, definitely not. What do you mean? The military will ask for pretty aggressive improvements in capabilities, then be willing to pay essentially infinity dollars to get what they ask for. That was especially true during the Cold War. For instance, my understanding is the military played a crucial step in productizing semiconductors, because they were willing to buy them at volume when they were far too expensive for nearly every civilian use case. That volume allowed for the R&D to drive prices down and make civilian use practical. If the military hadn't been interested, things would have gotten to a much slower start.
- chrisco255 3y agoWe're on the internet which originated as a DARPA project, DARPA is part of Dept of Defense.
- fooker 3y agoThe US military and NASA enjoy a fairly flexible revolving door for technology and talent. For example, see the Hubble vs the two prior spy satellites having the exact same tech.