"From Liftoff to Kickoff" is the name of a five-part special report that SPACE.com is issuing about how the space program has helped the National Football League (NFL) in recent years. This first article focuses on the players' equipment.
For example, did you know that NFL is using titanium, like NASA with its X-15 rocket plane?
This year an increasing number of players for the first time will be wearing helmets outfitted with titanium face masks instead of the steel bars that have been around for decades.
"Titanium is a big deal. It's probably not as strong as steel, but it's so much lighter," said Tony Egues, head equipment manager for the Miami Dolphins.
And in a game where every edge over your opponent helps, players lucky enough to have the more expensive titanium bars attached to their polycarbonate plastic composite helmets -- another space-age material -- are grateful.
And what about the influence of NASA's spacewalking suits?
"Believe it or not, the shoulder pads have incorporated a lot of NASA technology," Egues said.
Layers of shock-absorbing material used in shoulder pads and the way pads are engineered to allow the player freedom of movement come from the same studies that led to the astronauts' spacewalking suits, he said.
NASA also uses materials able to reflect heat. Do you know how NFL is using it? In helmets.
Creative Football Concepts, Inc.. has developed a heat-reflective material based on NASA research that can be layered into a football helmet. It's a thin sheet of industrial grade aluminized polyester, which reflects 97 percent of the heat that might otherwise build up in the helmet.
The material doesn't actually keep the player's head cool when he's on the field, it just keeps the sun from making conditions inside the helmet worse, said Drew Hampton, head equipment manager for Jacksonville. "Anything you can do to keep your players cooler, keep your core temperature where it needs to be, is what everyone is striving for."
Here is an image of one helmet using this technology (Credit: Creative Football Concepts, Inc.).
And here is a link to a larger image with additional legends.
For the next articles of this special report, "From Liftoff to Kickoff: Space Medicine in the NFL,", visit SPACE.com these coming days.
Source: Jim Banke, SPACE.com, September 1, 2003
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