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Space explorationBenefits of space exploration

Space exploration has benefited many areas of science and technology including satellites and GPS. It carries significant risks including radiation, extreme temperatures, and high-speed impacts but these can be managed with technological solutions.

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Benefits of space exploration

The story of exploration

Many areas of science and technology have made advances due to technological breakthroughs resulting from the manned exploration of space.

To get into orbit, powerful engines are required to provide thrust and hence . Survival in space requires excellent environment control systems.

NASA has created many inventions to help its astronauts, and some of these have been tweaked to help people outside NASA. Some examples include:

  • water filters
  • ear thermometers
  • scratch resistant lenses
  • memory foam beds
  • shoe insoles
  • long distance communication devices
  • smoke detectors
  • enriched baby food
  • battery-powered cordless tools
Smoke detector
Image caption,
Smoke detector

Other benefits have included the development of satellites and associated technologies. With satellites we can communicate with anyone at almost any point on Earth. We can monitor weather systems to help predict the weather and we can monitor environmental conditions such as temperature and water content as well as and the Earth's .

We can also navigate ourselves with GPS (global positioning system). This system uses three satellites at any single to pinpoint your location, and because there are many hundreds of satellites now orbiting the Earth, people can pinpoint their location from almost anywhere. This makes travel much safer whether it's trekking through a mountain range or flying a plane across a desert.

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