We all know about NASA and SpaceX - both companies are working on space-related technologies.
But it’s not entirely true, as SpaceX is mostly within innovation in rockets but NASA has much more to do than just improving space technologies.
Actually, we use many technologies by NASA in our day to day life.Some of them are Water Purification Systems, Computer Mouse, our laptops, Athletic Shoes, and LED Bulbs - to name a few...
Not only these, but NASA is also helping farmers by providing them the satellite data of the upcoming days for rainfall and drought.
Some people misinterpret the work of NASA and SpaceX and believe that one is better than the other but that’s entirely not true. Let’s discuss “How is NASA different from SpaceX” in today’s video of DiscoverZen.
Launching things into space used to be the domain of government agencies working with large aerospace contractors. But in the past two decades, startup space companies have shown that they can compete with and in some cases upstage their larger counterparts.
There’s no better example of this than SpaceX, which lands their used rocket boosters to create scenes straight out of science fiction.
In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts to orbit, and they are currently building a giant new rocket system named Starship that could one day carry people to Mars.
SpaceX is a private company under the direction of one person—Elon Musk—that currently builds and launches two rockets: the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The booster stages of these rockets usually return to Earth for refurbishment, which saves money and helps SpaceX undercut competitors’ prices.
SpaceX also builds and flies the Crew Dragon, a space capsule that can carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
The company is also deploying a massive constellation of small satellites called Starlink, which is intended to provide global high-speed internet access.
The satellites, which number around one thousand at present, have sparked controversy because of concerns they might create light pollution and interfere with astronomical research but SpaceX has said that they will take care of all these concerns after the full launch of Starlink in public.
Now let’s look at NASA.
NASA is a taxpayer-funded U.S. government agency with more than a dozen locations around the country.
It reports to the executive branch and the president appoints its administrator.
Congress legislatively authorizes NASA’s activities and provides its annual budget.
NASA’s budget is set through a political process and is not distributed evenly.
Nearly half of NASA’s budget goes to human spaceflight programs.
For much of the public, the most visible of these programs is the International Space Station - a permanently crewed, multinational space laboratory in low-Earth orbit.
They are also working on sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars through its Artemis program.
About a third of NASA's budget goes to its science division, which includes planetary science, Earth science, astrophysics, and heliophysics.
They launch space missions to research and explore planets and other worlds, study Earth’s climate, answer fundamental questions about the nature of the universe, and study the Sun.
NASA also conducts aerospace research and funds various space technology development efforts.
Studies show the agency provides the U.S. a broad range of social and economic benefits.
So, now we might think that these two companies must compete with each other.
The answer is NO!!!
They don’t.
They work in conjunction with each other for better innovation in space technologies.
We can even say that SpaceX and NASA heavily rely on each other for most of their work.
Without the investment of NASA, private spaceflight today would look very different.
In 2006, NASA began investing in private space companies with the hope that they could one day provide cargo and crew transportation to the International Space Station.
SpaceX was one of the first companies to receive money from NASA; the company was just 4 years old at the time.
NASA paid for roughly half the cost to develop SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
In 2008, SpaceX received a multi-billion dollar contract to fly cargo to the ISS.
The company was on the verge of bankruptcy and would likely have run out of money without NASA.
Today, SpaceX generates revenue from a variety of customers, but a significant portion of its funding comes from flying crew and cargo to the ISS as well as launching NASA science spacecraft.
SpaceX also flies payloads for the U.S. Department of Defense, another taxpayer-funded entity.
NASA did not have a replacement ready when the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
Despite having 7 years to prepare, the agency never received the funding necessary to finish construction of the ISS and develop a new human-capable spacecraft and rocket system, all while continuing to fly the Shuttle—which by the end of its lifetime cost $3.5 billion per year.
Anticipating the need for an alternative to sending cargo and crews to the ISS, NASA turned to the aerospace industry with a novel proposal: rather than paying companies to build NASA-owned vehicles at NASA-owned facilities, what if NASA paid companies to build their own vehicles, and then bought flights on those vehicles?
In 2008, the agency signed contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation—now Northrop Grumman—to build and fly their own cargo vehicles to the ISS.
The plan worked: not even a year after the Shuttle program ended, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft made the first commercial berthing with the ISS.
In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to send NASA astronauts to the ISS.
Without SpaceX, the only U.S. company currently capable of carrying cargo to the ISS would currently be Northrop Grumman, and NASA would still be reliant on the Russian Soyuz for crew transportation.
It should be clear at this stage that NASA is currently the biggest customer that SpaceX has.
SpaceX has even embarked on several spaceship building projects and their focus has always been to colonize Mars.
Elon Musk has a vision of transporting space tourists in the near future.
Now, let’s look at some work done by NASA for earthlings that are not technically space travel.
Since they have discovered a lot of technology, we can’t talk about it all; so here, we are sticking to NASA’s projects for the environment
Quality air is essential for healthy living.
If you move to areas where air pollution is high, you will notice that a large number of people living in such places are unhealthy.
However, hydrocarbons and other pollutants such as sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter have long been affecting human beings, crops, and even sea animals.
NASA is making use of observational technology, which is a high-tech observation system.
This tech helps to tracks and can also provide useful information for a better understanding of the earth’s air quality.
This observational tech from NASA is called the HSRL (High Spectral Resolution Lidar).
The organization, in conjunction with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), is using this high technology to conduct a study.
The study is to measure smoke aerosols produced during a wildfire.
The study will help both organizations to understand how wildfire affects air quality and steps that can be taken to keep the air clean.
Eco-concerns are giving governments and health bodies across the world sleepless nights.
Issues of global warning keep on appearing on the front pages of newspapers across the globe.
Citizens have started to feel concerned about issues surrounding global warming.
And like many scientific bodies, NASA has stepped in to provide a helping hand.
The organization is fueling climate-change study by using sophisticated technology.
One of them is the airborne radar devices, which are testing devices.
They are being deployed in a space-based radar system to study the flow of glaciers, among others.
The findings from this project will help scientists to answer some of the mind-boggling questions about the issue of global warming.
It will also help scientists to understand what may happen to the ice masses of the world in the future.
NASA is leading this project, and that’s good news for those who have been calling for urgent intervention.
The organization does have the technical ability to make things happen. But we can only hope for the best.
We all agree that fossil fuels aren’t doing the world any good.
They fill the atmosphere with harmful greenhouse gases that are serving as the primary cause of global warming.
So, the focus is to develop clean-energy that will replace fossil fuels.
This clean energy will help to make our atmosphere cleaner and safe for all living things.
NASA has already set the standards high.
Impressively, the NASA scientists have made an exciting discovery and are working on several other related projects.
They have developed means of getting clean-energy from algae.
So, it is clear that NASA has lots to do even if they are primarily known as a space company.
Also, SpaceX and NASA are not rivalries but they share their technologies with each other.
Next, let’s discuss “The Differences between Blue Origin and SpaceX”.
Well, that sounds like a different scenario to investigate on DiscoverZen.