Out-of-this-World Inventions Close at Hand

(NAPSI)—Chances are, you’re not among the roughly 600 people who’ve been into outer space—but you can still learn about some of the products and discoveries of those who have.

For example, according to NASA, many products firms made for space travel have their earthly uses today. These include:

•Memory foam: It was originally designed by NASA-funded researchers to keep test pilots cushioned during flights. Now, it’s used in beds, couches, shoes, and many other everyday items.

•CMOS image sensor: When NASA needed miniature cameras for interplanetary missions, it created the CMOS active pixel sensor. Today, it can be found inside your DSLR camera, cell phone cameras, and in medical imaging and dental x-ray devices.

•Scratch-resistant glass: Created to protect astronaut helmet visors and increase their ability to filter out UV rays and enhance colors, it’s now found on sunglasses, ski goggles and welder masks.

•GPS: No one wants to be lost in space, or anywhere else, so NASA created the satellite navigation system called GPS with an accuracy of up to five centimeters. 

•Cold weather wear: NASA found a way to make light warm clothing, often used by hikers.

How To Get Into A Sticky Situation

Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc., the makers of the world’s best-selling OTC Salonpas pain relieving patches, applied their patented patch technology to help astronauts keep objects from floating around in zero-gravity conditions. They proposed a product called Fixpace® to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) application for ideas for daily necessities, and it was adopted. It was recently installed on the International Space Station where it keeps knives, forks, pens, scissors and similar stuff from floating around in outer space, because their adhesive properties enable items to stick to the patches on the wall or other surfaces.

What’s Next

As for the future, the comforts of space that you can have around the house may just be getting started. NASA expects its engineers will develop new technologies to meet the challenges of advanced space exploration and that will improve air transport and much else here on Earth.

Learn More

Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc will work towards developing products to solve issues for living in Space and living on Earth via the company’s 176 years of experience and expertise in developing patches whether for adhesion purposes in outer space or effective OTC pain relief around the world here on planet earth. For a deeper look into the patches used for space and here on planet earth, go to us.hisamitsu.

 "The next time you need to keep something close at hand at home, you can use a product created for outer space."