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Astronauts Get Tricoders (Almost)

Posted by michael on from the dr.-mccoy-was-playing-tetris dept.

AzrealAO writes "Space.com is reporting that The Expedition 9 crew aboard the International Space Station are equipped with HP iPAQ PocketPC's, which they are using as mobile productivity tools to record crew procedures, personal memos, check e-mail and calendars. The crew can also listen to music, view photos from home and read e-books. The iPAQs will be left on the station and reconfigured for future crews, and two additional iPAQs will be sent up on the next flight for a total of four."

7 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Cost? by Inominate · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So how much does it cost to put an ipaq into orbit?

    1. Re:Cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Certainly not more than sending an entire car to the moon. I wish we could return to that era, instead of the times we live in now, where everyone goes worried about tiny costs that aren't even worth thinking of. Mankind can travel anywhere in space, it's just a matter of how much we want to do it. Apparently, not that much, judging from the health of any space program anywhere.

  2. hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why don't they take up one of those performance gaming laptops and we can send them new game CDs every now and then. It's not like every man-second up there is worth thousands of dollars.... they can have a bit of fun.

    You'd be pissed if you forgot the battery charger though.

    1. Re:hmmm by maelstrom · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Those chips are not rated for space. Radiation hardening is important from what I understand.

      --
      The more you know, the less you understand.
  3. connection? by jponster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Check emails? view photos from home? what sort of connection do they get in space?
    I remember the trouble I had getting ADSL cos I live in the middle of nowhere, but this is something else - surely they cant be using dialup??

    1. Re:connection? by TheRoachMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In theory, they could get way more than 15kb/sec. There's always numerous sattellites within range, so connectivity and bandwidth shouldn't be a problem. Problem is, I don't think they can use commercial satellites, because their communications are supposed to be secret. NASA doesn't want people eavesdropping :)

  4. Don't tricorders scan things? by CanadianCrackPot · · Score: 1, Interesting

    These don't scan (unless they have a digital camera), I would think this is more like a padd from the shows. A nice handy little data storage and display device.
    Now I'll be really impressed if they can replicate the function where you can control the entire station from one padd (theoretically).

    --
    Good programmers drink beer to relieve job stress.
    Great programmers drink hard liquor and work best hungover.