NASA = High Tech, NOT!!

[RobRich]

I was reading through some old news at a tech site, and stumbled on some topics about NASA.

It refreshing to see that old hardware still is alive a kicking, plus it's operating extremely costly NASA projects. Nasa recently (Dec.) did a planned upgrade and maintance of the Hubble Space Telescope. What type of upgrade, you ask. Changing the main proccessing unit from an aging 386, to a nice and shiny Intel 486. Long live the 486!!

What's even wierder: My TI-92 has more power than the Space Shuttle's onboard navigational computer. Nasa actually includes a HP-48SX calculator (reprogrammed) with the mission's flight data as part of the carry on equipment. It's used as a back-up, since it can be easily hooked up by means of it's data transfer port.

And I complain about my k6-2 500 being slow!! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 01-03-2000).]

[bkehoe]

This is because of the frequent radiation bursts in spaces, such as gamma bursts, e.t.c. which would interfere with unprotected chips such as an Athlon. Here on Earth the atmosphere protects us and the chips, but up in space each chip needs to have a protective "shield" around it to protect it.

This is hard to do, and requires liscensing of the chip's core. NASA did this a year ago with the Pentium, and are probably currently trying to make one with radiation shielding.

The Galileo spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, has already lost a chip due to the radiation from Jupiter and because it wasn't shielded quite as good as the others.

386s and 486s are fast enough for what NASA wants anyway.
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Brendan


[This message has been edited by bkehoe (edited 01-03-2000).]

[BBA]

Let's see you take that Athlon to the moon, Then you can complain about it's lack of performance!

[narayan]

I think that the Space Shuttle only has 486's also. great topic for an Athlon commercial! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[Axel]

just goes to show you that it's not the cost of the parts - it's all the labor that'll get ya ......

[cyphen]

bkehoe is right - except i heard that intel wouldn't license pentium technology to NASA.

kinda makes you wonder why they don't just encase the processor with a thin lead shield...

i heard a similar story where NASA spent several hundred thousand dollars to make a pen that would work in space - since the ink in pens flows due to gravity. Another solution was later proposed, though.
Use a pencil.
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Axel]

Pencils mean shavings from the sharpener - I think the solution was a slightly presurized ink cartidge. Just a few fractions of a pound over cabin presure is enough. - remember all of the ads about getting your very own space pen so you too could write up-side down.....

[DaveLewis]

The old science fiction stories - even in the 50's - had pilots figuring out orbit vectors with slide rules! That dates back to the days when a "computer" was a person who used a mechanical calculator to work out artillery firing tables.

If you look at the early sci-fi its really interesting to note that most of the authors completely missed the concept of the PC. If they had electronic computers at all they were simply bigger and more complex versions of the mainframe. When I look up a phone number on my Palm I'm using a device that the greatest imaginations of the early 50's (the same time as I was born) had no clue would ever exist.

[Banti]

I think NASA is doing a major overhaul to the shuttle. I believe the article I read was in Sept. Popular Science. The old **** is now hard to come buy, so they are replacing pokey CRTs with touch TFTs. Along with some computer upgrades.

RobRich- If it was not for MS we would not need procs like the Athlon and the Coppermine.


Banti

Ralph "I broke my Wookie"

[U-96]

Hmmm that could make a good thread in it's own right... I like that.

HG Wells predicted aerial bombardment
George Orwell got CCTV and electronic surveillance on the button, albeit 10 years late
Arthur C Clark invented the telecommunication satellite...

not bad going so far......

Of course maybe those 50s SF writers figured PCs would be unnecessary in the world of tomorrow http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

What I really want to know is whether they have cleaners on the Enterprise with dusters to get all those fingerprints off the TFT touchscreens....

U-96

[Banti]

Asimov, Asimov, Asimov.....

Everything that Star Trek tried technology wise was Asimov...Positronic Brain, Neural Nets...The man coined the word Robotics...

At this moment, R&D people are trying to bring his ideas to life...

U-96- the pads probably cleaned themselves... or was the strange motion, that Riker did when he walked, clean the pads??


Banti

[U-96]

robot was coined by a Czech guy in the 1930s, can't remember the etymology.

However you are quite right about Asimov - quite a visionary. His contribution to robotics was to create/popularise the fundamental ethics of robot/human interaction in anticipation of sentience.

The Three Laws of Robotics are:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

From Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D., as quoted in I, Robot.

In Robots and Empire (ch. 63), the "Zeroth Law" is extrapolated, and the other Three Laws modified accordingly: 0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. Unlike the Three Laws, however, the Zeroth Law is not a fundamental part of positronic robotic engineering, is not part of all positronic robots, and, in fact, requires a very sophisticated robot to even accept it.

Asimov claimed that the Three Laws were originated by John W. Campbell in a conversation they had on December 23, 1940. Campbell in turn maintained that he picked them out of Asimov's stories and discussions, and that his role was merely to state them explicitly.

from the Asimov FAQ

William Gibson was also pretty correct - there's a British scientist who this year will hardwire up his brain to a computer and allow it to try to affect his mood. Also the pioneering surgery Stevie Wonder is having to restore his sight is kind of related to that.

What really makes me wonder is if people "foretell" these innovations, or if these innovations arise because one of these writers thought of it first...?

One that I hope won't come true though....
"What is Soylent Green?"

U-96 likes good sci-fi! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

PS I think a movie of The Bicentennial Man is out soon too!



[This message has been edited by U-96 (edited 01-06-2000).]

[Banti]

Yes I know about 'robot' it means worker or something, Asimov was the first to use the word robotics. The movie is great. A little departure from the orginal work, but I told my wife after watching it for ten minutes that I had to buy it...(we do not buy many movies to own)

William Gibson.....hmmm let's see Neuromancer right?? Loved that book as well... inspired Johnny Nuemonic(sp?).. also inspired ShadowRun -Pen-and-Paper-RPG- (but a lawsuit was filed I think) http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif.

Banti

[This message has been edited by Banti (edited 01-06-2000).]

[Ygor]

I once heard that it takes the federal government 7 years to actually get something new that it wants to buy and implement, mostly due to paperwork and necessary approvals. Never thought about the radiation shielding necessary in space...

[reddog4629]

I read in a newsletter I received that a 486 is ALL the telescope requires. If that's the case, then what's there to complain about? Works good-lasts long time. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[U-96]

Hehe well done Ygor, sorry got a bit off topic there http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif


Environmental Characteristics of RAC-100:
Temp. Operating: -20 degrees C to +55 degrees C; Intermittent: -20 degrees C to +65 degrees C, continuous operation at +65 degrees C with optional High Temp. Intel Processor
Temp. Storage: -30 degrees C to +71 degrees C
Humidity Operating & Storage: MIL-STD-810E 100% including condensation
Vibration Hard Mount: MIL-E-5400T, 0.2 G2/Hz 15-2000 Hz
Shock Operating: MIL-STD-810D, Method 516.4, Proc. I, 15G's 11ms 1/2 sine
Explosive Atmosphere: MIL-E-5400, Para. 3.2.2.4.10
EMI / RFI: MIL-STD-461, Class 3
Drip Proof: MIL-STD-810E
Altitude: 40,000 ft. operating MIL-E-5400T Para. 3.2.4.3 and Table 1


Try chucking that lot at a Gateway PC http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

check out this company for drastic solutions - http://ivpgi.com/ - or try "rugged" and "computer" on a search engine! Oooo a Pentium Pro! Bleeding edge tech!! You can prolly nuke it though http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

U-96

[RobRich]

Nice to see this post actually caught some attention. At any rate, some of you got my idea: when properly utilized, old technology lives on. I esp. like the statement about MicroSoft(tm). Software vendors are the ones that make us buy ever increasing technology. If companies would actually streamline their code, and thoroughly test their software, then we wouldn't need an Athlon 800 to play pong http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif.

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 01-08-2000).]

[BBA]

I think until we actually get 100% real time life like resolution virtual reality processing and displaying, no CPU is fast enough!

[RobRich]

I understand natural evolution of hardware and software must continue. I love seriuous computing power. But when I drop by EB, and some cheezy atari looking game requires a p3 450, 128meg of mem, and a v3, there's a serious problem somewhere. I want cool graphics and powerful systems, but this pathetic coding inorder to meet deadlines is really getting annoying.

Oh well, just my rant for today, we're allowed a few from time-to-time, aren't we? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 01-08-2000).]

[KillerBug]

I think if I was building a system for the space shuttle that I would make a case with the sheet metal replaced with sheet lead or something, or perhapse put it under some lead bench, and put a dual Alpha setup in the sucker!