Advanced metal alloys that are lighter and corrosive resistant. Fire protection, lighter more thermal resistant insulation, advanced ceramics, and carbon fiber.

Go into any modern building and hundreds of items from the paint on the walls to the ceramic infused concrete foundations has been effected from NASA sponsored research.

ever hear of plastics? Computers? Pacemakers? Artificial hearts? Smoke detectors?

The push of money into research and development (R&D) of the technologies that made the trip to the moon possible have had so many spinoffs into everyday life that it is impossible to name them all.

Without those billions of dollars spent on basic R&D, we would not have nearly the level of technology we have today… those billions would have had to come from somewhere and they weren’t coming from private industry without a push.

Geesh, digital cameras, frs family radios, integrated circuits, solar cells, I can go on and on.

The standard argument you will use to counter mine is that this R&D would have been done anyway, just not for space. This argument is fallacious because Space was a big thing back then (were you alive back then? I was) and the U.S. Government poured BIG bucks into a ton of places that looked like they had promise, but, and this is a BIG BUT, no one else was putting money into.

Thanks and enjoy your microwave oven and the computer you are currently working on thanks to NASA and the space race.