Slashdot Mirror
Astronauts Get Tricoders (Almost)
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."
So how much does it cost to put an ipaq into orbit?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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.
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??
My thought exactly. Compare:
Tricoders
TricoRders
Last one gives more relevant results.
Right here
I thought the whole point of a tricorder was a portible package of a ton of sensors and a little computing power to run analisys of the data. Tricorders are used to measure stuff, not take notes. These things are more like the star trek data tablets if anything.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
I wrote a paper for school on something like this, and also this a few years back, pretty interesting stuff.
While many /.'ers may be crying for a Sharp SL-5600 or CL760 to be on board the ISS, the iPAQ isn't a bad choice. It is fairly rugged (for the every day man) and user-friendly enough.
My first choice would have been the Dell Axim X5 400MHzsince it can accept CF and SD cards (and PCMCIA is an adapter is purchased) and it costs considerably less with a 512MB SD card and a WiFi card than the current equivilant iPAQ (the iPAQ 5555). Of course they probably need those biometric security features. Wouldn't want some complete stranger (or the owner) to actually be able to access their weekly calendar. God knows, they're doing some topsecret stuff up there....
Can be found here:
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/333/C2797/
The iPaq being used in space is another example where the benefits of technology can be felt as it would reduce the effects of "asthenia" where astronauts experience phases of fatigue, low motivation, hypersensitivty and irritability with the change in environment and lack of social communication. The iPaq obviously aims to provide a solution to that problem to a great extent.
Does it make the funky beep beep whirr that Spock used to get it to do?
Geeks. A personal organizer is no more a Tricorder than my interstellar spacecraft is the Enterprise.
They may have such functions as this PDA, but they'd be so far below the level of a tricorder's usual function that they wouldn't be worth mentioning, and, being tools for work, never be used as such.
that the RIAA, MPAA and Microsoft have formed an alliance to go after the X-Prize.
we need warp engines, and photon torpedoes!
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Jesus Christ, that's one of the stupidest headlines ever to appear on this site. First, it's spelled wrong. It's "Tricorder" and not "Tricoder."
Secondly, these things are not anything even resembling the functions of a tricorder. I read the headline and was instantly thinking, "Wow, a handheld scanning tool. That should be cool." But no, I read on to find it's a stupid unmodified iPAQ. They don't do sensing, they don't take readings, and they don't scan anything. It's not a tricorder, and it's not ALMOST a tricorder. It's a goddamned PDA.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
No, definitely not. I'm absolutely certain he was referring to TriCoders.
Monday: Float about and do stuff
Tuesday: Float about and do stuff
Wednesday: Float about and do stuff
Thursday: Float about and do stuff
Friday: Float about and do stuff
Saturday: It's the weekend! Float about and do stuff
Sunday: Float about and put next week's calendar in
lol :) I can't believe on slashdot of all sites this slipped!
You must be new here.
I believe the term is "a fucking PDA"
TOS has taught me that one can never underestimate the power and many uses of the Mark II phaser.
Tricorders are for all those Next Generation do-gooders. Hand me a hand phaser, and I'll explore space the Kirk way.
One dead alien at a time.
While they don't have a full complement of sensors, the practical limit being perhaps sensing some coded IR signals, their display technology far outstrips any tricorder's. HP should rework them into a version where the TFT display is removed, and replaced with a random assortment of LEDs and bargraph displays which convey information via flickering coded signals.
...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Good, now maybe they can scan the structural integrity of the ISS to find out exactly what part of it is falling apart and detaching into space or perhaps what the loud metallic noise is.
What? They will listen to mp3s? Will RIAA raid ISS for pirated music?
Workarounds:
1. Stock each PDA with a 1GB mem card
2. Dock early and often (automatic backup on docking)!
3. Wifi to the ISS servers.
Finally an obligatory Trekkie comments: They're more like PADDs not Tricorders, you insensitive p'tahks!