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DVDs On The International Space Station

Posted by michael on from the write-stuff dept.

DrGoon writes: "The BBC has reported that "After docking, the shuttle crew of five astronauts delivered supplies and gifts to the Alpha crew, including a computer, cables for the laboratory, food, water, clothes and about 20 DVD movies. " in this story, which raises the interesting question: what DVD region is the International Space Station?" So, either they have a region-free DVD player - which is theoretically illegal according to Hollywood - or only the U.S. crew gets to watch movies.

22 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. A very serious question by evil_one · · Score: 4

    I am aware that CDs and DVDs have very little mass compared with the rest of the station, but what effect would these discs have on the station when they start and stop spinning? Could the usage of discs onboard the station require thrusters to compensate for them?
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    Desperation is a stinky cologne
    1. Re:A very serious question by cybercuzco · · Score: 3
      The short answer, yes, the long answer, No, not really. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, according to newton. So as long as the player is firmly fastened to the station, when the motor starts the disk spinning, the station will react in the opposite direction. Angular momentum of the system is conserved. Since the station is huge(about 140 tons) and the disk is tiny, the amount of movement is imperceptible. Technically it does move, but you wouldnt be able to notice it.

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    2. Re:A very serious question by DavidBrown · · Score: 3

      Actually the solution is obvious. The Region 2 DVD player is mounted opposite the Region 1 player. Both players are run at the same time, and counteract each other's angular momentum.

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      144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
    3. Re:A very serious question by gilroy · · Score: 3
      Um, something has to exert a torque on the disc to get it moving. Maybe a physical rod, maybe an electromagnetic grapple, maybe telepathy... but it's not gonna move unless something exerts a torque on it. By Newton's III, that will create an oppositely-directed torque on the "something" that will cause it to rotate the other way.

      Now, you could prevent the ISS from rotating by not clamping the DVD player to the station hull. In that case, the DVD player will start to rotate -- perhaps noticeably, since the mass ratio is not so severe. Or you can clmap it to the hull and impart that angular momentum to the station (where it would probably be negligible).

      I don't know what you mean when you say

      The space station is a mechanically insulated (autonomous) system,
      but the fact of being isolated causes this linkage. If ISS+DVD starts off non-rotating, and if they form an isolated system, then their angular momentum must remain zero no matter what they do to each other. So if the disc spins (and picks up angular momentum), the station counter-spins (to cancel it out in the system total).

      That's just the way it works.

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      The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
  2. Linux+DVD+Laptop+ISS by Odinson · · Score: 3
    Linux was supposed to be used by NASA on ISS laptops.

    Did this happen? Wouldn't "We at NASA need to play our DVD's on ISS on Linux, because it was to expensive to ship the extra weight of seperate DVD players up into space. DeCSS was the only logical way" be an excelent argument in the 2600 appeal.

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    Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
  3. So, is it theoretically possible... by TDScott · · Score: 4

    ...to circumvent the DVD region restrictions by playing the DVDs on an orbiting satellite, and beaming down the picture?

    (I said theoretically possible, not cheap...)

  4. Heh, Russians don't get DVDs at all by hatless · · Score: 3

    Don't worry about the Russians. They're probably stuck watching VHS tapes on a dusty old multisystem VCR. There aren't a whole lot of DVDs being made with Russian translations. In Russia, a typical solution is to watch an American or Western European DVD with the sound turned off, and simultaneously play an unofficial MP3 dubbed translation downloaded from the net.

    Unfortunately, they don't have fast Internet access in space, so they can't download the MP3s up there. And it seems unlikely an American space shuttle crew would think to burn some CDs of the Russian audio dubs to bring along.

    Maybe they have a cheap off-brand DVD player like an Apex, so the Russians can play pirated VideoCDs.. that's one video format for which one can get movies dubbed in Russian that are playable on a DVD player. Either way, they likely have to wait for a Russian crew to fly up to bring them any such pirated stuff. Hollywood would have a fit if illegal VideoCDs and unofficial dubbed soundtracks were being transported on an American spacecraft.

  5. Region 8 by bigdavex · · Score: 5
    The appropriate one is region 8, the one used by the airlines. See the faq:

    1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
    2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt)
    3: Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
    4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
    5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
    6: China
    7: Reserved
    8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

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    -Dave
  6. They do have a multi region player by Kithran · · Score: 5

    According to their website, UK company Techtronics (www.techtronics.com) supplied 2 Sony FX1 players to NASA which had been modified to be multi-region. These players were also delivered by Atlantis.

    Kithran

  7. You have to be wrong. by Paul+Crowley · · Score: 3

    Imagine for a moment that the disk in the DVD weighed *far more* than the ISS. Imagine it's a huge disk, floating in the vacuum of space on perfect bearings, and the ISS is just a thin shell around it. Now motors attached to the thin shell introduce torsion on the bearings: surely the shell will spin, not the disk?

    The earlier answer was correct.
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    Xenu loves you!
  8. Wow, what a whiny little shit... by luge · · Score: 4

    Not to be an arrogant ass or anything, but "what has slashdot come to" from someone with a > 300K user ID is pretty damn funny, since you clearly have no idea what /. once was. So, a little history lesson: Once upon a time /. actually used to be about Malda having fun and posting whatever shit he thought was cool. This article falls pretty damn squarely into the "I think this is cool" category (which, if you ask me, is probably the best category on /.) If you don't think that this is interesting, take your "serious and important news" and go write for CNet. I mean- every other news source on Earth has something about the Human Genome Project this weekend... go read about it there. I'll stay here and continue to read things like this that I wouldn't have noticed anywhere else. In short: you go Rob, michael, etc. keep posting whatever the fuck you want to. Some of us still appreciate the weird and the different, and don't want to see this place become CNN.
    ~luge

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    IAAL,BIANLY

  9. Re:Region 8 by Kris_J · · Score: 3
    Future expansion of what?!? Does the MPAA expect Altantis to rise from the sea, or does it think DVDs will be around long enough to see civilians on the Moon?

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  10. Re:Illegal my ass by mpe · · Score: 3

    Right so now these damn Americans are assuming they own space and can push their laws out there too?

    They can hassle someone in Norway, so this would hardly be a surprise...

  11. Abiding by laws... by BMazurek · · Score: 4
    which is theoretically illegal according to Hollywood

    Yes, and we all know that U.S. Government agencies never break any laws...

  12. Re:Theoretically Illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3
    US jurisdiction, of course. Like the rest of the world.

    At least that's how th US State Department sees things.

  13. Re:Several Players? by drsoran · · Score: 3

    Small cost of buying them? The US Government *never* buys anything for a "small cost". I would expect each DVD player to have been purchased for at least $12,000 dollars. While YOU may see them as identical to the $200 model you see at Circuit City, they are actually structurally reinforced and radiation proofed for special hazardous ops on the ISS.

  14. Several Players? by The+Wing+Lover · · Score: 3

    With all the billions of dollars that the International Space Station is costing, I would assume that they could afford one player for each region.

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    - In Capitalist America, law violates YOU!

  15. Dr. Strangelove: Or how I learned to love DVD by BIGJIMSLATE · · Score: 3

    I still want to know what movies they brought up there. Rocky IV perhaps? ;)

  16. Re:Herez a little history (PLAGIARIMS again) by gallir · · Score: 4

    Yeap, another plagiarist eager for. This document was copied from previous Slashdot articles:

    http://slashdot.org/articles/00/05/23/2021213.sh tm l

    http://slashdot.org/articles/00/08/12/1528230.sh tm l

    --ricardo

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    sgis ddo ekil t'nod i
  17. The classic /. story by sulli · · Score: 3

    Really, only Slashdot could get over 200 comments in response to this totally silly and arcane question. It's space! It's video! It's a loophole in the DVD region-code rules! And it's yet another threat to Your Rights Online! I must say I'm impressed and amused.

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    sulli
    RTFJ.
  18. Illegal my ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    "theoretically illegal under US law"

    Right so now these damn Americans are assuming they own space and can push their laws out there too?

    Last I heard it was not owned by anyone and was without *any* laws.

  19. Re:Who Says Space is Under a Particular Set of Law by lildogie · · Score: 5

    > So, who's laws apply in Space?

    Locally, Newton's.

    Globally, Einstein's.