CHICAGO (Reuters) - The people who gave you the space shuttle want the business community to rent a gravity-free environment, license government-owned technology for new products and, one day, reserve a flight into space.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration set up two booths amid the other gadgets displayed at this week's Manufacturing and Design Show convention in Chicago to market NASA's wares. The four-day convention drew more than 50,000 industry professionals from around the world.
"We provide access to microgravity. For those who don't want to share their discoveries, they write a check," NASA spokesman Blake Powers said. NASA already licenses several of its hundreds of patents, usually for an up-front fee and subsequent royalties.
], one of three crew aboard a Soyuz rocket on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station. The cost of Tito's space adventure is a secret but is believed to be $20 million. Powers would not estimate what a U.S. space flight might cost.
A mock-up of a commercial spacecraft, complete with cubbyholes for a shower, exercise machines and cooking, was available to walk through at the NASA exhibition for those wanting to experience the claustrophobia of space flight.
It was not clear whether there will be rooms available at the space station, which is still under construction.
One promising area of research developed in the microgravity of space is a fire-fighting water mist that has caught the interest of fire extinguisher manufacturers, NASA scientists said. Micron-sized water droplets would rob the fire of oxygen and heat, dousing blazes in confined areas such as the cargo hold on an airplane or ship.
The concept was tested in the nearly gravity-free environment on board the space shuttle, where scientists could see how a ball of flame reacted to the mist without the distortion of convection currents.
Roses in space still smell sweet
A fragrance maker put a blooming rose on board another shuttle flight to see if its oil secretions changed in the absence of gravity. The experiment resulted in a new scent.
Another firm refined its water purification system on the shuttle, where the gravity-free environment encouraged bacteria to grow faster than on Earth, posing a greater challenge. And NASA has its own advanced systems that recycle astronauts' sweat and urine.
In another experiment conducted on NASA's reduced gravity plane, a flying laboratory that makes 40-second dives to reproduce the microgravity experienced in orbit, an auto manufacturer troubled by the unevenness of its aluminum engine block came up with a better casting technique.
New composite ceramics created in a furnace aboard a shuttle flight may one day be used to replace missing bone or provide an anchor for a hip replacement. Natural bone would grow into the porous material, which would gradually dissolve.
"If we can learn how to do it in space ... we can bring that knowledge back and make the materials on Earth," said Colorado School of Mines physicist Franklin Schowengerdt, who works with a NASA program.
Sorry, Tang
The airless vacuum in space also holds promise as a dust-free environment to build even more intricate computer chips, NASA scientists said. And the solid rocket fuel used to propel the shuttle into orbit is being employed to disable land mines safely in war zones.
The space agency is also working on engines powered by fission or fusion that are certain to have commercial applications. The new engines could eliminate the costly fuel tank mounted underneath the shuttle, which is discarded over the ocean after its eight-minute supply is exhausted.
While the agency did not invent Velcro or the Tang orange drink, as is sometimes rumored, it did develop a gadget the size of an electronic pager that detects the loss of cabin pressure in a plane aloft, potentially saving lives. NASA also develops detectors for poisonous gases and radiation to alert space travelers absorbing the sun's cosmic rays.
Finely tuned robotics such as the arms on the space shuttle and unmanned missions also have commercial possibilities. For example, a harness and treadmill that provide a workout for astronauts' legs while in space may be adapted for people with spinal cord injuries.
And, some day, astronauts themselves may be replaced by biological robots made from proteins armed with senses as well as detection systems, NASA scientist Jim Weiss said.
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