http://www.hobbyspace.com/ has collected blurbs and links to just about everything space related.
I also recommend you read "The High Frontier" by Gerald K O'Niel, and "The Rocket Company"
by Patrick J. G. Stiennon & David M. Hoerr

Emulsion coating technology. Kodak was good at making media coated with chemicals. This tech is used in blood analyzing machines. Old tech had blood samples going through tubes, mixed with reagents then analyzed optically. Newer tech puts sample onto reagent coated film.

This has been discussed on the a-rocket list http://exrocketry.net/mailman/listinfo/arocket
There are active members who are employees of several space companies.
http://www.hobbyspace.com/ is probably the best collection of resources about space, get to know the companies and people.
read "The Rocket Company" http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/SpecialTopics/RocketCom/titlePage.html

This was tried in 2004 http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/demaray.php
TFA goes into detail on the reasons and shows actual experiments with prototypes.

A bigger loss from the patent wars was Kodak's instant TRANSPARENCY film. I still have a sample. This was at the height of corporate multi-projector AV shows, digital projectors were not common nor good enough quality. Having a slide in hand in 5 minutes rather than the 45 it took for E-6 processing would have had a major impact on the industry.

That why I like linkagogo.com because every week i get my bookmarks automatically emailed to me

put one pin on a random lane in a bowling alley. Blindfold yourself at the entrance to the alley, then walk to the lane and bowl the pin down.
It's kinda like that, only the pin is also moving at 7,000 mph

I'd love to see Google Ventura Publisher

Here is her story, with the broadcast from 31 years ago.
Jerry Pournelle proposed to Reagan how we should prepare for these things.
quote "In 1967 I proposed to Reagan that California create an oil spill recovery service, something like a fire department, to be financed by separation taxes from the oil industry. I later proposed it as a National Service, possibly a branch of the Coast Guard or Civil Defense. It would have a corps of professionals whose job was to learn all that was known about oil spill containment and cleanup, and others who would do research into what we don't but ought to know: what chemical detergents will aid in dispersing the oil with the least damage to the environment?
......The main lesson of the BP runaway gusher is that we must rebuild the Civil Defense organization. There are predictable potential disasters in every region, and it is clear that FEMA in particular and Washington in general is not competent to handle them. Yes, the oil disaster is a national disaster and would be were it in California or in the Gulf; but the organization of the resources of the region needs to be done in advance, and with local chains of communication and command. Yes, there needs to be research and development done before the disasters, but again, those who live in the areas will have thought more about it then someone in the old NASA building in Washington. FEMA is a disaster waiting to happen. Make that, FEMA is a disaster that has happened, is happening, and is waiting to happen again. We will always be disappointed in FEMA."