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RAID for Zero-G?

Posted by Cliff on from the betcha-space-ghost-has-a-beowulf-cluster-of-these dept.

Cujo asks: "In all seriousness, I need a RAID that supports at least level 3 and stores > 500 GB, and I need to it work in zero-G (but not in a vacuum), and be able to take a fair bit of vibration and noise when turned off. I don't want to spend huge sums: I'm thinking well less than $50,000. I've looked at Apple's XServe/XRaid products, and they look great (about $10,000), but are they rugged enough and who is their competition? Some people make hardened RAIDs for military use, but I'm unfamiliar with the best candidates in that field (and do I really need mil spec?)."

4 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Uh oh! by icemax · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey just because NASA has a tight budget doesn't mean you guys can use Slashdot for your R&D!!!

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    __________
    Love conquers all... except CANCER
    1. Re:Uh oh! by DingoBueno · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ask Slashdot: Converting feet to meters...

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      ascii art
  2. Heat and Radiation by ka9dgx · · Score: 5, Informative
    I see three main challenges in this scenario:

    • Heat
      Convection cooling gets assumed into almost everything, so you'll have to make sure the gear gets some air forced over everything to keep it cool. Inside the hard drives, you've got those nice platters pushing the air for you, so that should be ok.
    • Air pressure
      You indicate that there will be air, but not the pressure. You should test your system at the operating atmosphere and pressure for an extended amount of time. This is critical because the hard drives typically float on a cushion of the ambient atmosphere.
    • Radiation
      Since you're outside the 50 or so miles of air which filters out most of the radation common in space, make sure you have hardware ECC RAM, etc. It would also be good to make sure there is a hardware watchdog in place to protect the OS from hanging do to an induced CPU error.
    Testing tip:
    I'd suggest you test the unit, then run the same test with the unit operating upside down, and on each of it's other 4 faces, as a minimum.

    You've got an interesting project, good luck!

    --Mike--

  3. You may want to talk to these guys by joehoya · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have worked with these guys before and they are a great group. They have a lot of experience building rugged mass-storage solutions for airborne and military applications. In addition, they are a relatively small company, with a lot of engineering capability, so they should be able to give you personal attention and help you work through the various issues involved in this type of system.