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The Tech Aboard the International Space Station
CNETNate writes "With its own file server for uploaded Hollywood blockbusters, a 10Mbps Internet connection to Earth, and around a hundred IBM ThinkPad notebooks, the consumer technology aboard the $150 billion International Space Station is impressive. It's the responsibility of just two guys to maintain the uptime of the Space Station's IT, and they have given CNET an in-depth interview to explain what tech's aboard, how it works, and whether Windows viruses are a threat to the astronauts. In a related feature, the Space Station's internal network (which operates over bandwidth of just 1Mbps) and its connected array of Lenovo notebooks is explained, along with the tech we could see in the future."
It's very sad, with the real high tech shit aboard the ISS, that consumer grade electronics are featured as 'the tech of ISS'.
the better question is why they have a hundred laptops for a crew of 3-6 max.
except that the "high-latency" networks now are really not that high-latency. When we go to Mars, the latency will be several minutes at best.
Each module probably has it's own laptop per experiment. Not to mention stored laptops for when the space shuttle crew comes on board.
These systems are most likely being used for data input/output and monitoring of experiments. It would be silly to do everything from one computer.
Maybe a combination or redundancy and price/power ratio? When you're sending something in to space the weight is more important the price, so it may cost them similar amounts to send up 100 laptops vs 1 huge server, but it's also a lot harder to break 100 laptops and much easier to "fix" a laptop if you have 100 spares (leave the old one in a pile and replace it when you land). One factor might be that laptops are already designed to be light, while weight isn't really a factor for most servers (so they'd have to design their own). Laptops are also designed to deal with bumps, so they may survive re-entry better.
the better question is why they have a hundred laptops for a crew of 3-6 max.
3-6 crew maybe, but hundreds of experiments. I think just about every one of the experiment racks has a laptop controlling it these days.
Except it would 'spill' into a sphere, floating slowly toward the laptop. But you're right in that it would still ruin the computer.
Sure I sold you robot insurance. But you were attacked by a cyborg. Not covered.
Using it to transport water, food, and air quickly and cheaply would be nice too.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Point 1; the ISS completes an ENTIRE orbit in 90 minutes. That means that if you had an antenna pointed straight up, and say you used a moderate gain antenna with a 5 degree beam, you will get just over ONE minute of access before you need to adjust the antenna. You would need a pretty sophisticated ground tracking mechanism to have any hope of keeping the connection alive for more than a minute.
That would be true if you looked at the orbit from the center of the Earth. From the surface your time window would be in the order of 10 seconds.
Rather than speculate about whether you're likely to have remembered accurately, you could look up the maximum distance from earth to mars, which is around 250 million miles, which is 22 light minutes.