NASA products, by-products and innovations - swim suits, skates and shoes are better, faster, safer

Speedo's LZR Racer uses NASA
research  - 40 world records have
been set

Part one of this series (Today in history, May 25, 1961, Kennedy wants to put man on the moon)  shared some of the "myths" of NASA and space age innovation - Tang anyone?  But here are some of the ways that our athletes and everyday fitness folk benefit from technology invented for the space program.

Truly space age marvels:

NASA did invent the memory foam
Memory foam, also known as temper foam, was developed under a NASA contract.   The origins date back to 1966 when it was developed to absorb shock and, thus, offer improved protection and comfort in NASA’s airplane seats, has paid its dividends to Earth repeatedly, and in many different ways.

It has padded the helmets of the Dallas Cowboys throughout the 1970s and 1980s, protected bedridden patients from bedsores, and comforted the feet of thousands wearing stylish shoes that incorporate the cushioning material in their insoles.

Space age swimsuit reduces drag,

A space shuttle and a competitive swimmer have a lot more in common than people might realize: Among other forces, both have to contend with the slowing influence of drag. Because of NASA’s experience in studying the forces of friction and drag, SpeedoUSA asked the Agency to help design a swimsuit for racing.

The resulting suit reduces skin friction drag 24 percent more than the previous Speedo racing suit. The research seems to have paid off; 94 percent of gold medals in swimming at the 2008 Olympics were won in the new Speedo suit and 40 World Records have been set by athletes wearing the Speedo LZR Racer

Golfers benefit from space research

In the late 1980s, Dr. Benjamin Dolgin of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a concept for a high-damping graphite/viscoelastic material for the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). Dolgin drummed up this concept with the intention of stabilizing weapons launch platforms in space, where there is no solid ground to firmly support these structures.

His proposal for a high-damping graphite/viscoelastic material actually lay dormant for nearly 5 years after he conceived it, until it became the topic of doctoral studies for Dr. William Pratt, a Brigham Young University scholar who discovered a practical method for manufacturing "wavy" graphite composite technology to dampen, or restrain, structural vibration resulting in  the"Wave Shaft" golf shaft that helps golfers hit the long ball even longer.

Speed skaters go gold

In 1999 Goddard Space Flight Center's Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) met with the U.S. Olympic Committee  to offer assistance in transferring NASA technologies applicable to Olympic sports. One outcome of that meeting was a mirror polishing technique for speedskating enhancement.  Jim Lyons, a 16-year optical engineering veteran of Goddard, and the Goddard TCO team eventually came up with a polishing process that  U.S. speedskater Chris Witty used in skating her way to victory with a world-record time and a gold medal in the 1,000-meter race at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics.

Better athletic shoes
AVIA Group International, a subsidiary of Reebok International Ltd.--created a major shoe advancement through application of space technology. An external pressurized shell applied from space suit technology was incorporated into the shoe. Stiffness and cushioning properties of the midsole were "tuned" by varying material thickness and styling lines. A stress free "blow molding" process adapted from NASA space suit design was also utilized. This resulted in a "first step" toward a durable, foamless, non-fatiguing midsole.