Hey there, Welcome to Life Noggin.
Space travel has given us a lot more than just some pretty pictures of Mars and a few
footprints on the moon.
It’s taught us so much about the universe, shifted our perspective and changed how we
live here on Earth.
But what if we never traveled to space?
You may not realize it but there’s a lot of things we use in our day to day lives that
might not be around if we hadn’t ventured out into the unknown.
There’s one set of pretty basic space tech that we definitely take for granted here on
Earth.
Satellites.
The area surrounding Earth is full of satellites from various space agencies like NASA, JAXA
and the ESA.
These under-appreciated heroes give us GPS navigation, more detailed storm warnings and
cosmic weather forecasts.
GPS relies on real-time satellite data that streams down to GPS receivers.
No satellites, no GPS.
Imagine having to use maps to get around!
Maps, real maps!
No thank you.
In a world without satellites, a lot of extreme storms like hurricanes and tornadoes wouldn’t
be forecast at all!
They’d just come out of nowhere, taking unsuspecting lives and causing more damage
to unprepared areas.
Without satellites, we wouldn’t be ready for geomagnetic storms either.
These are when radiation from the sun hurdles towards Earth threatening our global electrical
power systems.
Satellites send storm warnings to Earth, allowing the electric power industry to prepare and
avoid massive outages.
In just 3 years, these warnings are estimated to have saved about $450 million.
If we never sent those satellites up there, you’d be in for a lot of candlelit, no-wifi
nights.
Without advances made in the space industry, air travel would be more time-consuming and
more expensive too.
NASA created the backbone of modern air traffic control, and without it, you’d better believe
it’d take us even longer to get up into the sky.
Plus, NASA engineers figured out that turning the tips of the plane wings upward reduces
drag, saving airlines billions in fuel costs Without these advances, saving billions in fuel costs.
We can also thank space travel for countless breakthroughs in the field of medicine.
JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, played a lead role in developing the digital imaging
technology that’s now used for CAT scans and radiography!
So many illnesses and broken bones would go undiagnosed without this tech!
You know that memory foam mattress you sleep on?
You got that thanks to NASA’s advances in space travel!
Wireless headphones?
NASA.
Tech to ensure clean drinking water?
ESA.
Safe land mine removal?
ESA & NASA.
Futuristic self-driving tractors?
NASA.
Space travel obviously hasn’t just given us these life-changing inventions.
It’s taught us so much about space, like that the universe is expanding, that it’s
14 billion years old, and about what it looked like 10 billion years ago.
It’s taught us so much about our planet too, like the long-term implications of global
warming, changing ocean and weather patterns, and our atmosphere.
Space travel has done even more than all that.
It’s changed our perspective of our planet, our universe and for many of us, our perspective
on life itself.
Space travel feeds the curiosity of so many of us stuck here on Earth.
Making us question what else is out there, are we alone and if not, when will we meet
them?
Space travel is crazy expensive and whether or not it’s worth the money is heavily debated.
Do you think it’s worth it?
Let us know in the comments.