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A comment on Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade. Parent comment

Re:Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade by scg on Tuesday June 14, 2011 @04:42PM (#2654669)
> A) Because every dollar invested in the US space program since inception has created about $7 of economic benefit to the consumer economy.

This is intriguing. Do you have a reference and/or can you provide an explanation for this?

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Re:Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade by ericd on Wednesday June 15, 2011 @05:49AM (#2656496)
There were myriad new materials and other technologies developed to defeat the challenges of getting into and surviving in space, many of which launched companies and industries.

Some commonly cited examples: memory foam (TempurPedic Mattresses), better water filters, freeze-dried food, cordless power tools, various plastics, useful solar cells, carbon fiber epoxy.

On top of that, there are all of the benefits of having satellites (telecommunications, GPS, satellite TV, etc).

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