subject: How a Dallas Radiant Barrier utilizes NASA knowledge [print this page] Companies often adopt scientific-sounding claims to lend an air of legitimacy to their products. It's akin to the idea of having Hugh Laurie pitch headache medicine and say "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV." Companies think you will buy their products if they tie in a bit of science.
Remember that the Space Age officially began when the former Soviet Union launched its Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957. In the ensuing decades, the United States and USSR entered a space race, with each country attempting to outperform the other. That led to rapid advances in science and technology.
The Space Age peaked with the Apollo program, which sent men to the moon, and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Thus, a claim that a product uses "space-age technology" basically is a claim that the product is based on technology about 20 to 50 years old. If you are old enough, think about the computer you had back in 1991 (if you had one). It was state-of-the-art at the end of the Space Age.
To be entirely fair, a claim that something is "based" on space- age technology could mean simply that it is derived from technology developed in the Space Age. One could say the Internet, based on the Defense Department's ARPANET of the early 1960's, is space-age technology. It may not have been related to the space race, but certainly the technology was developed during the period of time known as the Space Age.
Moreover, something touted as relying on "space-age" technology simply could be claiming that a small part was developed 30 years ago. Pretty tangential, but not explicitly false.
I personally have tried a Tempur-Pedic mattress, using the foam NASA developed in the 1960s to improve safety in aircraft cushions, and released to public domain in the 1980s. It was a good mattress. The same might be true of any or all of those products.
Be skeptical: The companies are trying to trick you into buying their products -- good or bad -- using your gullibility. Make purchases based on relevant facts rather than through relying on "space-age" product claims. Energy Improvements is the premiere Dallas Radiant Barrier
How a Dallas Radiant Barrier utilizes NASA knowledge
