NASA emailed a wrench to space

While I think the story is pretty cool itself, I was a bit perturbed that a technology publication didn’t capitalize each letter in NASA – as in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) .

But after a bit of research, I noticed this was posted on the UK version of the magazine, and a lot of times in those publications they don’t capitalize each letter in an acronym.  As for a reason why, the best I could find was something on The Straight Dope message board in which someone emailed the BBC about their practice of not capitalizing each letter in an acronym and this was their response, “Where acronyms are concerned News Online’s editorial style is to use upper and lower case letters for those that are pronounceable eg Nasa, Aids etc. We capitalise those that are not pronounceable such as BBC, RSPCA etc.”

NASAtitleWiredCapture

 

When International Space Station commander Barry Wilmore needed a wrench, Nasa knew just what to do. They “emailed” him one. This is the first time an object has been designed on Earth and then transmitted to space for manufacture.

Made In Space, the California company that designed the 3D printer aboard the ISS, overheard Wilmore mentioning the need for a ratcheting socket wrench and decided to create one. Previously, if an astronaut needed a specific tool it would have to be flown up on the next mission to the ISS, which could take months.

www.wired.co.uk

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2 Responses to NASA emailed a wrench to space

  1. Grizz says:

    I've seen that funny spelling of acronyms by the British before and have wondered if it was a mistake. You cleared it up.

    The 3D printer concept made me think of space travel and future exploration by somehow re-imaging robots on distant planets by transmitting them, similar to Star Trek's transporter system.

  2. Larry says:

    The 3D printers are the first step to Star Trek replicators. Once they learn to replace the building materials with proteins and such, they will be able to replicate food products. Exciting times.

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