Any Space in Formula 1?
- 9th Jul 2023
- Author: Emma Mosley
Many industries and extreme sports are at the forefront of technology, pushing the boundaries of knowledge. These can enhance our lives when the technology transfers across into other industries and into everyday use - like memory foam, which was invented to protect the astronauts in the Apollo capsule returning to Earth. It is now used in insoles, car seats and mattresses. Here are four pieces of technology that have made their way from space to F1.
Spacesuits to Race Suits
In the early days of Formula 1 many drivers chose to wear whatever they found to be the most comfortable for driving. After numerous deaths of drivers within motorsport, drivers felt they needed protection, especially from fire. From the late 1950s, some drivers wore homemade race suits soaked with flame-resistant chemicals, with varying results.
In 1967 Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad, who was an amateur racer, met Bill Simpson, a professional racer who made safety equipment. Pete suggested to Bill a flame-resistant material called Nomex that NASA was working with for the Apollo programme. Nomex had been invented and developed by DuPont in the 1950s and marketed commercially in 1967. It is a lightweight and flexible synthetic fibre that can withstand high temperatures. It chars when burnt, creating a carbon barrier layer to the fabric, delaying the spread of heat. At the same time, DuPont was testing race suits made from Nomex with a company called Hinchman. Both Simpson’s and Hinchman’s racing suits were made with one layer of Nomex, with the drivers also wearing Nomex undergarments for added protection.
In 1975 the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) standard regulation stated that drivers must wear fire resistant race suits. A few drivers, like Niki Lauda, wore racing suits that had five layers of Nomex sewn in a NASA style of construction. These were quite bulky and sweaty, weighing up to 2kg in comparison to the lighter three-layered Nomex suits most of the drivers wore. Drivers now wear a lighter 750g, three-layered Nomex race suit with tight fitting collar, wrists, and ankles. Sewn with flat seams and give in the suit for movement where needed. Under the suit the drivers wear a layer of Nomex made up of a long-sleeved top, long johns, and socks providing essential seconds of extra protection.
Monitoring the Drivers
At the start of the Space Race, NASA scientists needed to monitor the vital signs of the astronauts during their missions. This had never been done before and NASA worked with engineering companies to create a monitoring system. Sensors were attached to the astronauts with readings transmitted back to Earth for monitoring and analysis. Some of these companies, such as Spacelabs Healthcare Inc. and Mennen Medical Inc., expanded on the knowledge gained. They went on to create multi-patient health monitoring systems for hospitals. They sold these machines across the globe, revolutionising healthcare, gaining the two companies a place in the Space Foundation Hall of Fame.
F1 cars have been getting faster, bringing more physical and mental demands on the drivers. This makes the monitoring of driver’s vital signs, like heartrate and blood oxygen levels, important for their health.
As technology has advanced there are now much smaller sensors and since 2018 they have been sewn into the palm of the driver’s gloves. The readings are sent wirelessly from their cars so the FIA, teams and medics can see how the drivers are coping. Also, if there is a crash, they can instantly assess the driver.
Did you Check your Tyre Pressure?
A flat tyre is a nightmare for all drivers, let alone what it would have been like for the crew of the Space Shuttle during landing. The Space Shuttle had six tyres in total, two on the nose landing gear and four on the main landing gear. The tyres were filled with nitrogen to a pressure of 300-340 PSI. My car tyres are only 33 PSI! Should one of these tyres be at a very low pressure or even fail on landing, the Space Shuttle could veer off the runway at high speed or worse.
To monitor the tyres, the engineers mounted an external strain gauge. This only gave a rough estimate and would tell you if the tyre was flat but not at a low pressure. If there was low pressure from a slow puncture, how would they determine the tyre pressure accurately?
A solution was needed. While upgrading the design of the tyres in the 1990s, NASA worked with a company called NovaSensor. They used Micro-electromechanical System piezoresistive technology (which converts pressure into electrical resistance) to create a pressure sensor. This incredibly tiny sensor was fitted onto a silicon chip which was housed with a battery and a transmitter to send readings through a radio frequency. These were fitted onto the tyres giving the crew and the engineers on the ground instant readings.
This technology then flooded the automotive market with many companies going on to develop it further. Giving a range of Tyre Pressure Management Systems (TPMS) for all types of vehicles today. F1 Teams and the Tyre Manufacturer use TPMS on F1 cars to monitor tyre pressures, warning them of any issues and providing real time data to study.
Picture This...
In the 1990s, NASA wanted to develop ‘faster, better and cheaper’ spacecraft and to do so they researched new technologies. At the Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL), Eric Fossum invented a Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. This was revolutionary as it needed less power to function and was more compact than the Charged Couple Devices (CCDs) which was the main imaging technology used at the time. This made it very marketable with many uses in industry and commercial applications, leading JPL to patent and licence the technology.
CMOS image sensors became the main imaging sensor used in cameras from the late 1990s. Companies like GoPro used the advantage of less power and less space to produce smaller, portable cameras. This imaging technology can now be found everywhere today from the camera in your smartphones to the cameras filming the race. It's even used in the multiple cameras inside the cockpit of an F1 car!
The contributions from the Space Race and space exploration to the world is vast, radically changing our lives. In the future could we see more out of this world technology in F1 and maybe even an F1 race on another planet?...
Full references / credits:
(Banner image) The 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix. Credit: Morio - CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2015_Malaysian_GP_opening_lap.jpg
(1) Juan Manuel Fangio (left) famously wore his work jacket, polo shirt and slacks. Argentina Grand Prix 1953. Credit: Photographic library "Benito Panunzi", National Library of Argentina (public domain)
(2) A Biobelt monitoring Buzz Aldrin during Apollo 11. Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
(3) Space Shuttle Atlantis landing 3rd December 1985 at Edwards Ari Force Base, California, USA. Credit: NASA
(4) A Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. Credit: Filya1 CC BY-SA 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active-pixel_sensor#/media/File:Matrixw.jpg
