Computer Servers 'Stranded' in Space (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @04:17AM from the out-of-the-world dept.

A pair of Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers sent up to the International Space Station in August 2017 as an experiment have still not come back to Earth, three months after their intended return. From a report: Together they make up the Spaceborne Computer, a Linux system that has supercomputer processing power. They were sent up to see how durable they would be in space with minimal specialist treatment. After 530 days, they are still working. Their return flight was postponed after a Russian rocket failed in October 2018. HPE senior content architect Adrian Kasbergen said they may return in June 2019 if there is space on a flight but "right now they haven't got a ticket." The company is working with Nasa to be "computer-ready" for the first manned Mars flight, estimated to take place in about 2030. The company is also working with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

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Strange experiment by Brett+Buck · 2019-02-27 04:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

I am not sure what they are trying to prove with this experiment. The environment inside the space station is hardly any more daunting than sitting on a table in Cupertino. The real issue is when you get above the Van Allen belts and get a few zaps from solar flares.
I am sure they know this, but, also, processors for the space environment are also a perfectly well-known quantity. Analysis alone should get them a very reliable answer on life time, upset rate, etc.