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The International Space Station Is Getting Its First Printer Upgrade in 17 Years (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the IT-upgrade dept.

Lance Ulanoff, writing for Mashable: Somewhere, 254 miles above us, an astronaut is probably printing something. Ever since the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed its first residents in November of 2000, there have been printers on board. Astronauts use them to print out critical mission information, emergency evacuation procedures and, sometimes, photos from home. According to NASA, they print roughly 1,000 pages a month on two printers; one is installed on the U.S. side of the ISS, the other in the Russian segment. ISS residents do all this on 20-year-old technology. "When the printer was new, it was like 2000-era tech and we had 2000-era laptop computers. Everything worked pretty good," recalled NASA Astronaut Don Pettit, who brought the first printer up to the ISS. But "the printer's been problematic for the last five or six years," said Pettit who's spent a total of one year on the station. It's not that the Space Station has been orbiting with the same printer since Justin Timberlake was still N'Sync. NASA had dozens of this printer and, as one failed, they'd send up another identical model. But now it's time for something truly new. In 2018, NASA will send two brand new, specialized printers up to the station. However, figuring out the right kind of printer to send was a lot more complicated than you'd probably expect. NASA has turned to HP for its IT supply and needs. The agency requires the following things in its printer: print and handle paper management in zero gravity, handle ink waste during printing, be flame retardant, and be power efficient. HP, Mashable reports, has recommended the HP Envy 5600, its all-in-one (printer, scanner, copier, fax) device that retails for $129.99. The model has been modified, according to the report.

6 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. What the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why?

    WHY?

    I mean, really....

    WHY!?!?!?!

    1000 pages per MONTH? For WHAT?!?

    That seems patently absurd. This is 2017, when printers are all but obsolete, for ANYTHING. Who prints photos anymore? Who prints ANYTHING anymore? Seriously, a 10" tablet does everything paper can do and more.

    There is just no need for this senselessness.

    1. Re:What the... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah yes, the 'paperless office'. Ain't ever seen one those critters despite presumably validated sightings for decades.

      I'd believe in Sasquatch before I believe in the death of printers.

      And, of course, fax machines. I wonder if the ISS has a fax machine?

      --
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    2. Re:What the... by magarity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who prints ANYTHING anymore? Seriously, a 10" tablet does everything paper can do and more

      Well, here we are hundreds of miles above the Earth and a catastrophic solar flare has whacked all the computers on board including the tablets. How do we get life support started up again? Oops, can't look up that PDF... if only there was a way to keep information in some non-electronic retrieval system..,

  2. This 17 years old printer... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    is still probably better than our newest retail printers sold in supermarkets.

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  3. And they were close to regretting it by Wdi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    on multiple occasions, the lead broke, and they had small conductive graphite particles floating around the control panels.

  4. Crapware? by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah i would expect it to be a lot more complicated than to turn to the most notorious supplier of "crapware", that breaks, or simply refuses to work because you didnt upgrade your service contract to Platinum or Plutonium, or even dared to use unapproved paper or ink...

    Epson (the old printer) and HP (maybe the new printer) are both capable of building top-notch commercial quality printers. Look at the POS equipment next time you buy something in a store: Epson thermal receipt printers abound - and for good reasons, like their dot-matrix machines, they're pretty damned near unstoppable. And HP is HP. HP invented and popularized the desktop laser printer by strapping a Motorola 68000, a laser, and a spinning mirror onto a Canon photocopier engine. HP is the IBM of printers - like, for all their prowess in computers and typewriters like the Selectrics, even IBM isn't the IBM of printers.

    The ISS printers may benefit from the experience of mass-produced cheap printers made of lightweight plastic, festooned with Energy Star stickers, and getting relatively low product return rates at big-box retailers like Best Buy - all of these things are what NASA would want.

    But those cheap mass-produced plastic printers probably won't be getting stock firmware, Windows drivers [shivers in horror at the thought of using Microsoft crap on the ISS], and probably won't be getting stock ink or toner cartridges. They'll be getting something better. They'll be getting the "Yes, Sir, Mr. Mission Commander" Service Contract.

    "Oh, Mr. Mission Commander, you need to refill the ink cartridges with human urine? Here's how to disable the error message."

    1000 pages per month is nothing for any modern printer, if you have the toner/ink, and you're using good quality paper. Throw a few separator pads and transfer rollers onto the next replenishment launch, and you're good to go to print War And Peace anytime you want.

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