SPACE TECHNOLOGY

Space technology is technology that is related to entering space, maintaining and using systems during spaceflight and returning people and things from space.

Space technology has a huge impact on the everyday lives of people; and something as simple as checking the weather or watching satellite television or receiving a parcel guided by satellite, it touches most people's lives on any given day.

The universe, exclusive of Earth, is such an alien environment environment that attempting to work in it requires new techniques and knowledge. New technologies originating with or accelerated by space-related endeavors are often subsequently exploited in other economic activities. This has been widely pointed to as beneficial by space advocates and enthusiasts favoring the investment of public funds in space activities and programs. Political opponents counter that it would be far cheaper to develop specific technologies directly if they are beneficial and scoff at this justification for public expenditures on space-related research.

Technologies such as weather station satellites and GPS systems, satellite television, and some long distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure and these technologies touch the vast majority of lives in the Western world and very many people elsewhere, every single day.

Computers and telemetry were once leading edge technologies that might have been considered "space technology" because of their criticality to boosters and spacecraft. They existed prior to the Space Race of the Cold War but their development was vastly accelerated to meet the needs of the two major superpowers' space programs. While still used today in spacecraft and missiles, the more prosaic applications such as remote monitoring (via telemetry) of patients, water plants, highway conditions, etc. and the widespread use of computers far surpasses their space applications in quantity and variety of application.
Specific space technologies
Ablative heat shield
Aerobot (Planetary probe suspended in atmosphere.)
Atmospheric braking
Booster See also ICBM
Centrifuge
Gantry
Human staffed missions
Interplanetary Internet
Isolation chamber
Lander
Launch pad
Reentry
Real time
Rocket
Rocket sled
Rover
Lunar Rover
Mars Rover
Satellite
Communication satellite
Earth observation satellite
Navigation satellite
Space observatory
Satellite television
Telecommunications satellite
Weather satellite
Spacecraft
Spacecraft propulsion
Space probe
Aerobot (Planetary probe suspended in atmosphere.)
Space shuttle
Space station
Space suit
Space capsule
Splashdown
Telemetry
Thruster

[edit] Future space technologies
Asteroid mining
Single stage to orbit
Solar power satellite
Non-rocket spacelaunch
Space manufacturing
Suitport

[edit] See also
Centennial Challenges NASA prize contests
Exploration of Mars
Human spaceflight
Space exploration
Space colonization
Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes