[jen_slc]

The Mars Viking space probe. NASA's research to miniaturize satellite components and technology based on a design used in the biological lab of the Mars Viking space probe made the creation of a small, implantable insulin pump reality. NASA’s work on communication was the key to how the device is programmed. In November 1986 the first programmable implantable medication system was implanted in a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Quoted from Technology Innovation, NASA's magazine for business and technology.

Maybe I'm alone here, but I had no idea! Current external insulin pumps are based on a design of the biological laboratory that was flown on the Viking landers and used to detect life on Mars. What nifty little pipes and valves!

[MamaCat]

And I thought all they gave us was Tang!

[AGMSD]

That's something new to know

[spike]

Originally Posted by jen_slc

Quoted from Technology Innovation, NASA's magazine for business and technology.

Maybe I'm alone here, but I had no idea! Current external insulin pumps are based on a design of the biological laboratory that was flown on the Viking landers and used to detect life on Mars. What nifty little pipes and valves!

Actually Dean Kamen is the inventor...
he gave us the Segway scooter, too.

http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/222.html

[duck]

Lots of space technology has been parlayed into helpful, even life-saving real life applications...as you see here, the insulin pump. Or the CD-rom (arguably one of the top inventions of the latter-half of the 20th Century). Or lightweight, reflective insulation.

So for all those people who complained that we should be doing something more worthwhile with our money, there ya go.