6 space technologies we can use to improve life on Earth
Space holds many secrets.
Danielle Wood leads the Space Enabled research group at the MIT Media Lab. She identifies six technologies developed for space exploration that can contribute to sustainable development across the world. Some of these things are so ingrained in everyday life that few people remember their cosmic origins.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAJvzV9j-o&list=PLOGi5-fAu8bGsFoV_NJQiIyC6sD3N58YS&index=1
1. Which of the six technologies do you consider being the most significant and why?
2. Do you know other space technologies that help life on Earth? Briefly describe some of them.
3. Which of the goals of the United Nations strategic plan mentioned in the video do you consider the most important and why?
Comments
2. As far as I know IoT applications were developed by NASA to enable conducting experiments remotely on the ISS. Accessing devices remotely gets a lot of interest in applications such as smart homes or even drones, which are observing polution in big cities.
3. For me the most important ones are good health and well-being, as health is the most important and fundamental thing, and climate actions. Climate has great impact on our health and Earth, which is our home, so it seems obvious that we need to keep it in good condition.
From my point of view, they are all very important. Almost all of them today use various options and capabilities that artificial satellites provide us with. In general, I think the principle of satellite communications is still at the stage of improvement and there is no limit to it. One of the latter is the one that Elon Musk uses to implement the global Internet. Of course, the financial side of the issue is still unknown, but the very idea of a global unlimited Internet on our planet sounds great. But of these six, I especially like the idea of collecting statistics on climate change and environmental indicators. You can conduct a deep analysis using this data, make forecasts and of course, think about the consequences and methods of solving these problems.
2. Do you know other space technologies that help life on Earth? Briefly describe some of them.
Of course, one of these technologies is solar panels. They were developed in the 80s in the laboratories of NASA. At that time there was a question of solving the energy needs of a satellite station, and just at that time they were invented. Today, such solar panels are used as you know in the modern world quite often, but so far not everywhere unfortunately.
Further, these are portable breathing apparatus, which were also originally designed for astronauts. Today they are successfully used by firefighters in some countries of the world. And much more was invented thanks to new space technologies.
3. Which of the goals of the United Nations strategic plan mentioned in the video do you consider the most important and why?
It seems to me the problem indicated by number one on the speaker slides. No poverty. If you solve this problem on a global level, you can solve the rest. More precisely, it will be easier. It is very difficult to do, I agree, but it would be great to implement it.
In my opinion Satellite Communication is the most important and breakthrough technology. It let us contact between continents in few seconds and helps with information and news flow around the world. Nowadays, this is very important because of wars and natural disasters.
2. Do you know other space technologies that help life on Earth? Briefly describe some of them.
In some way space travels helps us understand and explore cosmos and maybe in the future it will let us settle down on the other planet in case of the end of the world.
3. Which of the goals of the United Nations strategic plan mentioned in the video do you consider the most important and why?
I think the most important is access to water and medical care because this is foundation of human well being and safety. After ensuring first needs human is able to work, get food and educate.
1. I believe that all six technologies are the most significant. We need to explore space and Earth with the various technologies available. I believe that thanks to multi-variability we will be more accurate in exploration and we should not give up on it.
2. I do not think that I know other space technologies that help life on Earth. Rather, I knew those presented in the film and described in the presentation.
3. Medical care, no doubt. Because our future depends on it. We must be healthy and full of strength.
1. I think it would be satellite communication. In the extreme conditions as mentioned in the presentation it would be key to properly react to such cases. Communication is also highly important in our everyday lives. It is difficult to imagine the modern world without communication.
2. I can't think of any right now. I'm very sure there are a lot of them, which I just find hard to notice unfortunately.
3. I think elimination of extreme poverty is the most important. Many of us have never experienced or seen on our own eyes such things. It is hard to imagine to live on average for like a 2 PLN a day.
2. Unfortunately, I don't know any space technologies that would help life on Earth, or at least I haven't heard of such, after all, this is not an everyday topic. The only example I could cite here is the concept of Elon Musk to create a global Internet network based on many satellites around our planet. Everyone on Earth would then use the same Internet that would reach unbelievable speeds and would be available in literally every corner of the world. As far as I know it was only the idea of a concept that will obviously not be created in the near future.
3. From a personal point of view, I would say that the most important goal of the United Nations strategic plan is number 13 - Climate Action. The climate of our planet at the present time is in an unpleasant condition, which is why all people should be interested in this topic as much as possible. I think that all the other goals listed on the slide would have no meaning if the climate of our planet were brought to a state from which it couldn't go back to better times. A bad climate would mean a failure for all other ideas.
2. I am not expert in this field and I don't think I know other space technologies that could be used on Earth.
3. I definitely think that our health is the most important goal of the United Nations Strategic Plan mentioned in the film. In my opinion, the future of our civilization depends on that if we will be able to live in health and strength as long as possible. If we don't improve our health, we will not achieve nothing more.
2. Global positioning systems such as GPS, GLONASS, INMARSAT or GALILEO contribute to safe travel for millions of people nowadays. Outer space labs on ISS are capable of producing, albeit in limited amounts, extremely clean materials and compounds that can be used in medicine, metallurgy or electronics for example.
3. The first goal, which is complete reduction of worldwide poverty. It is a disgrace that in the 21st century there still are communities that struggle to survive as they lack any reliable and efficient food source all the while in the developed countries large amounts of foods are wasted.