from Hacker News

NASA has funded a bunch of early stage technologies

by tectonic on 5/24/23, 2:52 PM with 28 comments

• by throw0101c on 5/24/23, 7:07 PM

  NASA has developed all sorts of stuff over the decades:

  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

  Most of the modern technologies that we use in recent years has had initial funding from government:

  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entrepreneurial_State

  * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17987621

  This includes early bootstrapping of the Silicon Valley ecosystem:

  * https://steveblank.com/secret-history/

• by ortusdux on 5/24/23, 6:09 PM

  Very interesting projects. Some youtubers have been recreating and iterating on the electroaerodynamic thrusters in the solid-state propulsion project:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftKjkZHirc

• by dvh on 5/24/23, 6:50 PM

  I really want to see Titan's lake before I die. It's the only stable, landable liquid in solar system (besides Earth), how it is not a priority?!

• by cushychicken on 5/24/23, 8:06 PM

  > The US government has funded a bunch of early stage technologies

  Regarding title: FTFY

  The US government is probably the most successful venture capitalist in history.

  Scott Galloway defends this thesis admirably: https://www.profgalloway.com/welfare-queens/

  I have a sneaking suspicion that the semiconductor industry as we know it would not exist without copious and frequent government funding.

• by abrahms on 5/24/23, 9:36 PM

  Astopharmacology sounds so cool, especially the use of microorganisms to synthesize medicines. I wonder how those drugs will mutate as the organisms go through breeding cycles..

• by nso on 5/24/23, 5:46 PM

  I initially misread the title as "NASA has FOUND...", and my mind went spiraling for a little bit.