2007 Space Technology Hall of Fame Inductees
Published on Feb 21, 2007 at 3:19 pm.
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The Space Foundation is a private organization dedicated to promoting space exploration and utilization. In keeping with a stated goal of fostering awareness among the public of the usefulness of space exploration, the Space Foundation honors individuals, companies, and technologies that have made strives to take technology originally developed for space exploration and making it useful to humans here on Earth. These are honored in their Space Technology Hall of Fame.
This year, two technological advancements are honored by inclusion into the Hall of Fame. They are the Microbial Check Valve (MCV) and the Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI) Treatment. They will be inducted into the hall of fame April 12 in Colorado Springs. In addition, 14 individuals will be inducted, being recognized for their contributions in making space technology accessible. I didn’t find their names on the press release, but they should be available on the Hall of Fame’s web page afterwards.
The Microbial Check Valve was developed by Water Security Corporation of Sparks, Nevada, for use with the Space Shuttle. It uses an iodine-based system to disinfect and recycle the limited water supply aboard the Shuttle, reportedly eliminating 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.99% of viruses in the water. The MCV now is used to provide safe drinking water in all sorts of hostile environments all over the world.
The Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron treatment is a technology used for hazardous material cleanup. EZVI was originally developed to clean up environmental contamination near Launch Complex 34 left over from early test work with the Saturn 1-B rockets in the 1960’s. Though Launch Complex is actually located at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, it is adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center and was used in support of the Apollo program. Chlorinated solvents contaminated the ground around the launch pad, and these solvents are very difficult to clean up. EZVI breaks down certain dense non-aqueous phase liquids into non-toxic and biodegradable products. Both the chemicals used and the byproducts have low toxicity and are biodegradable, effectively neutralizing toxic environmental contamination. Naturally, such a useful technology has uses far beyond cleaning up around old launch pads!
So, these are just two examples of how the technology developed for space exploration comes home to help in a variety of other uses here on Earth.
-Astroprof
