What Do You Mean It’s Been A Year Since I Posted That Silly AU Ramble?

Athletes Go for the Gold with NASA Spinoffs

NASA technology tends to find its way into the sporting world more often than you’d expect. Fitness is important to the space program because astronauts must undergo the extreme g-forces of getting into space and endure the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body. The agency’s engineering expertise also means that items like shoes and swimsuits can be improved with NASA know-how.

As the 2024 Olympics are in full swing in Paris, here are some of the many NASA-derived technologies that have helped competitive athletes train for the games and made sure they’re properly equipped to win.

The LZR Racer reduces skin friction drag by covering more skin than traditional swimsuits. Multiple pieces of the water-resistant and extremely lightweight LZR Pulse fabric connect at ultrasonically welded seams and incorporate extremely low-profile zippers to keep viscous drag to a minimum.

Swimsuits That Don’t Drag

When the swimsuit manufacturer Speedo wanted its LZR Racer suit to have as little drag as possible, the company turned to the experts at Langley Research Center to test its materials and design. The end result was that the new suit reduced drag by 24 percent compared to the prior generation of Speedo racing suit and broke 13 world records in 2008. While the original LZR Racer is no longer used in competition due to the advantage it gave wearers, its legacy lives on in derivatives still produced to this day.

Trilion Quality Systems worked with NASA’s Glenn Research Center to adapt existing stereo photogrammetry software to work with high-speed cameras. Now the company sells the package widely, and it is used to analyze stress and strain in everything from knee implants to running shoes and more.

High-Speed Cameras for High-Speed Shoes

After space shuttle Columbia, investigators needed to see how materials reacted during recreation tests with high-speed cameras, which involved working with industry to create a system that could analyze footage filmed at 30,000 frames per second. Engineers at Adidas used this system to analyze the behavior of Olympic marathoners' feet as they hit the ground and adjusted the design of the company’s high-performance footwear based on these observations.

Martial artist Barry French holds an Impax Body Shield while former European middle-weight kickboxing champion Daryl Tyler delivers an explosive jump side kick; the force of the impact is registered precisely and shown on the display panel of the electronic box French is wearing on his belt.

One-Thousandth-of-an-Inch Punch

In the 1980s, Olympic martial artists needed a way to measure the impact of their strikes to improve training for competition. Impulse Technology reached out to Glenn Research Center to create the Impax sensor, an ultra-thin film sensor which creates a small amount of voltage when struck. The more force applied, the more voltage it generates, enabling a computerized display to show how powerful a punch or kick was.

Astronaut Sunita Williams poses while using the Interim Resistive Exercise Device on the ISS. The cylinders at the base of each side house the SpiraFlex FlexPacks that inventor Paul Francis honed under NASA contracts. They would go on to power the Bowflex Revolution and other commercial exercise equipment.

Weight Training Without the Weight

Astronauts spending long periods of time in space needed a way to maintain muscle mass without the effect of gravity, but lifting free weights doesn’t work when you’re practically weightless. An exercise machine that uses elastic resistance to provide the same benefits as weightlifting went to the space station in the year 2000. That resistance technology was commercialized into the Bowflex Revolution home exercise equipment shortly afterwards.

Want to learn more about technologies made for space and used on Earth? Check out NASA Spinoff to find products and services that wouldn’t exist without space exploration.   

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Me

Jumping onto the pride month train >:D (PLEASE DONT HIDE THIS TUMBLR PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE)

hello! i would like to bring attention to a fundraiser campaign. i have been talking with leena who is stuck in gaza with her family. she's over 2/3 through her goal (11,202/15, 000€) and we only need a little more! she's asked me to share for a final push, and i believe we can reach her goal quickly together.

this campaign is verified by @90-ghost. donate if you can and share it widely!

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Me and my Family to evacuate from Gaza ASAP, organized by Leena M

Dear compassionate souls, I am Leena , reaching out from the heart of Gaza, … Leena M needs your support for Help Me and my Family to evacu

It is shameful that after months of pain and despair, Gazans now have to deal with being humiliated on tumblr. The way it is so easy to otherize a whole population because they cannot navigate tumblr like every other average blogger ; please remember that they have been forced onto this unfamiliar online space because they have to fundraise through a genocide! They are being bombed! They have no desire to go blog to blog and reduce themselves by begging to people, who might try to be a racist cracker to them.

There is no doubt that there are good people here. And it is with their help that Siraj Abudayeh ( @siraj2024 ) has reached his short term goal of $20000 CAD. I am requesting you to not to turn away now! Siraj still has a long way to go! He was so happy yesterday, thinking that soon he would be able to start rebuilding his home. Today however he is a bit sad to hear that there are people who are accusing his community of being scammers. He is not surprised though

This is why I am telling you to not turn away. To not treat Gazans as Zionists treat them! Do not humiliate them.

Thanks to you Siraj has raised 20k!! But this is not the end! Pease keep boosting and donating!! Let us get him to 30k

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Siraj's Family in Rebuilding Their Home, organized by Ahmad Abudayeh

hi, my name is ahmad and I'm raising a fund for my cousin Siraj and thi… Ahmad Abudayeh needs your support for Support Siraj's Family in Reb

Siraj is on Hussein and nabulsi's list at 219

( also yeah fuck the crackers who went "Oooooo we whiteys know better how to vett than diaspora Palestinians" )

CONTENT‼️🗣

I’m officially declaring every Saturday on this blog to be Sea Temple Saturday. It will be the day of the week I set aside to post art, memes, or sh!tposts about anything relating to the Sea Temple or Vos. (I will of course be posting MCSM art and memes other days of the week, but you can always count on me posting at least one on Saturday.) Get ready for a gratuitous amount of joking that the temple is a brita filter, or that Vos canonically makes calls and texts from a walkie-talkie, or some other unhinged 3am thought I have. P.S. if y’all want to use this tag too, be my guest I think it’s amazing-

Anyways, happy Sea Temple Saturday everyone! I have a little something in the making already-

Shout out to the Sea Temple. Gotta be one of my favorite in-game locations-

Thanksgiving lock in so real (I'm doing the exact same thing)

Hey guys, apologies for the lack of art these past few weeks. I’ve been having lingering headaches, but I think it’s subsiding. That being said, I would like to practice drawing apparel so please send me character requests along with an autumn outfit you think they’d wear and I’ll do my best to get to as many as time allows at the end of the month! (Outfits can be either images or a general description.)

+The next two chapters of “Old Keys, New Doors” are in progress and should be done by month’s end for anyone waiting. ^^

This is so peak

The Vos Possession AU turns two years old today so I sketched a little something! ^^

May try and finalize this some other time-

#y'all

Reblog if you say "Y'all"

Ten years of "Beautiful Cinnamon Roll Too Good For This World, Too Pure"? Ooh, so close! 💖 Lena "Tracer" Oxton was first revealed on November 7th, 2014!

gay daughter and thot son family photo