802.11b Space Suits

Saint Aardvark writes "The BBC has an article here about WearSat, the new generation of space suits: embedded RISC processor, 802.11b networking, VGA heads-up display, and 1GB microdrive. I want one for my rec room."

Comments

They might still need a radio

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If this device ends up running XP-Embedded, astronauts will need a way to contact Redmond to get an activation key ...

The real test will come when...

[Tsar]

...Earthlink finds out that one of our astronauts is illegally sharing his wireless access with everyone in LEO.

Bad idea..

[EvilStein]

The LAST thing we need are astronauts floating around looking at all of the porn they hid on their microdrive...

"Ahh....nobody up here but you and me, Britney.."

Geez, I can just hear the comments now...

Re:And this is what's wrong with NASA

[quantaman]

I want to see NASA become synonymous with "technical progress" like it was when I grew up

What makes you think it isn't? Just because we haven't found e.t. or colonized the moon yet doesn't mean we aren't making technical progress.

right now, it is synonymous with "wasted tax money" and that is not a favorable label to have during such a terrible recession.

On the contrary one of the better ways to get out of a depression is known as Keynsian economics (I probably misspealt it) where the government spends money with the effect of creating jobs and stimulating the economy. While this is somewhat beside the point as it is usually done with blue collar workers is this case the result is somewhat the same. For every dollar spent on Nasa I've heard estimates of everywhere from $12-$20 being generated in the ecomony. That's not to mention the huge technical advances derived from the space industry (how common do you think sattelite communicaton would be if it wasn't for the pioneering experience from the space industry, not to mention numerous innovations that have come from the space program. I recall a while ago I found a link to a site on /. (Im sorry but I'm on a slow connection now and don't have the time to look it up now) that listed many of these innovations (I believe velcro may of been among them although I may be mistaken). Still it is important not to realize that advances must not be obvious to be important, it would be foolhardy to throw away so much future knowledge over anxieties over a downturn in the economic cycle. Right now the fields of research being explored by Nasa and increasingly by the international community are relatively new to are species are we still understand little of what we may learn to do, can we afford to risk trowing away so muchin the long run to ease short term suffering.

p.s. Sorry for the ramble;)

Re:And this is what's wrong with NASA

[Dr. Manhattan]

Back in 1969, I watched with amazement as we first landed on the moon, and I wondered what would come next. Space colonies? Lunar waste disposal? The discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life? ...if they can't produce useful results, innovations, and profit within a few years, we need to start cutting projects and staff.

First off, NASA has produced thousands of spinoffs, and I guarantee you use several of them every day.

But even aside from that, NASA isn't a corporation and not everything should be run as one. You need some "blue-sky" research that isn't focused on a specific goal. You don't know what you'll find, but you'll find something.

Now, incompetence and dumb mistakes (why didn't they use a second intererometer to check?) need to be dealt with, but overall I'd keep NASA. What we really need is some revisions in space law so that private companies can do more space research and run their own launches. Then we get the best of both worlds (no pun intended).