Topic

Inventors

Wed, February 17 2016

Inventing Underwater Training for Walking in Space

Training underwater for extravehicular activity (EVA)—popularly known as spacewalking—is now critical for preparing astronauts to work in weightlessness. But when cosmonauts and astronauts first ventured outside their spacecraft 50 years ago, in 1965 and 1966, they had no such training. Spacewalking did not appear difficult, nor did space program officials think that underwater work was needed. In the United States, it took Eugene Cernan’s June 1966 Gemini IX EVA to change attitudes. Fighting against his pressurized suit, while trying to do work without adequate handholds and footholds, Cernan quickly became exhausted and overheated. Only afterward did NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston reach out to a tiny company outside Baltimore: Environmental Research Associates, Inc. (ERA). Funded by another agency center, it had been experimenting with EVA simulation in a rented school pool on nights, holidays, and weekends. That project became the foundation for Houston’s first underwater training facility.

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G. Samuel Mattingly in the Orbital Workshop mockup
Showing 1 - 5 of 5
Fri, May 22 2015

Glenn Curtiss Motorcycle

You may know the name Glenn Curtiss in association with early aviation, but did you know he was a pioneer in motorcycle design too?

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Cutiss V-8 Motorcycle
Thu, April 16 2015

Remembering Marat N. Tishchenko

Marat Tishchenko developed helicopters that have affected the course of international affairs around the globe for five decades.

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Marat Tishchenko
Mon, January 12 2015

Paul Garber’s Target Kites

Paul Garber (1899-1992) is a legend around the National Air and Space Museum, and rightly so.

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Paul E. Garber
Tue, June 4 2013

Solar Impulse

What flies using power from the Sun, at the speed of an ultralight, on wings longer than a Boeing 777 airliner? Answer: Solar Impulse! A team of Swiss entrepreneurs, engineers, pilots, and enthusiasts began to design the Solar Impulse in 2003 with the goal to demonstrate flying day-and-night powered only by the electricity that more than 11,000 individual solar cells generate. The electricity is stored in batteries when not used, and spin the propellers on four 10-horsepower electric motors when in flight.

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Solar Impulse
Sat, August 7 2010

Thirtieth Anniversary - First Public Demonstration Of Solar-Powered Gossamer Penguin

On August 7, 1980, 30 years ago today, Janice Brown flew the Penguin almost 3.5 km (two miles) that day in 14 minutes, 21 seconds. This was the first sustained flight of a solar-powered aircraft and the longest Penguin flight since development had started on the aircraft two years earlier.

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Gossamer Penguin