The shuttle comm mostly goes through TDRS satellites which are in geosync. So it has the delays associated with that distance. Sometimes UHF or a ground-based S-band is used for a direct link but that is not a typical setup.
i LIKE Vista. It automatically found all the drivers it needed for my peripherals (and some were obscure, like the Dream Cheeky missile launcher), has really fast searching, boots faster than XP, and the aero stuff looks pretty good.
Vibration and pressure feedback has been tried many times. People do learn the patterns and can relate them to position and velocity. However, the learning process is long when there are more than just a few sensors (35 would be daunting to say the least), the donning/doffing procedures are a daily hassle (and if you bump it or even sit down abruptly, you have to reposition it), you can't go swimming or take a shower or bath with it on, there are frequent maintenance issues, so it is in the shop as much as it is on your back, a fairly large surface area is needed (making it harder to don/doff because it is usually located on your back), skin irritation is a big problem, especially with interfaces that provide feedback with an electrical tingle, the range of intensity of vibration and pressure is insufficient to cover the range of movement without being uncomfortable. There are many other issues as well.
In the end, there has to be a better way. It is actually pretty easy to develop a prosthesis with many degrees of freedom and smooth motor movement from a joystick. The hard part is the prosthetic-human interface.
This arm is very unlikely to ever get used by more than a few people.
The problem is that the feedback of position and force is via vibrating pads. This is way too crude.
Studies of patients who have lost sensation in their arms but retained motor control (so they can move the arm and hand fully but cannot feel where it is) reveals that most of those patients undergo elective amputation within a few years. So building a prosthesis that has tons of degrees of freedom is simply not the answer. Many such devices have been developed and subsequently rejected by patients.
The real breakthrough will come with tactile and positional feedback that is fed directly into neurons in the nerve stump.
The ethical overrides will be removed by the side that thinks they might be losing the battle.
As long as humans control the robots, robotics ethics cannot surpass human ethics.
Sure, it is easy to check-- the whistling attempt was during the first EVA on STS-72. Story Musgrave was the CAPCOM and I reported the attempt to him as an interesting tidbit.
Altitude is different than underwater. Nobody remains conscious more than about 60 seconds after sudden decompression at 40,000 feet. Not even the guys who go up Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen. Most people are unconscious in 15-20 seconds. Try an altitude chamber sometime-- it is an enlightening experience.
With regard to deep free dive-- you can hold your breath to go down and come back up to the surface, no problem, however, if you breathe pressurized air at 90' depth and surface without exhaling, it will kill you.
I've done 4 spacewalks and during vacuum chamber training we open our suit purge valve, allowing the pressure in the suit to drop a bit (from nominal 4.3 psi) and I did feel the sensation of the saliva bubbling; it is similar to the sensation of soda pop on your tongue. I haven't seen the movies mentioned (other than 2001), but my guess about vacuum exposure is that you are more likely to be injured by the flying debris (including your own velocity as you impact a wall or whatever) associated with sudden decompression through a hatch than by a very short exposure to 0 psi.
During one chamber run, I had a water line poppet valve stick open when I disconnected from the chamber wall. The water stream broke up into droplets that immediately froze, producing an impressive shower of ice particles. Over about 5 to 10 seconds, the icing point traveled up the water stream and formed a clump around the poppet valve, sealing the leak. Oh, by the way, I tried whistling while EVA and even the nominal suit pressure is too low to produce an audible sound.
Record an average lifespan ( 2 G sec) with reasonable quality ( 1 Mb/ sec).
So we'll have to wait for a 2000 TB system.
Or just get a little older so we don't have so many seconds left..........
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correct no internet on board and this is just an upgrade to the existing setup
oops, also true for ISS
The shuttle comm mostly goes through TDRS satellites which are in geosync. So it has the delays associated with that distance. Sometimes UHF or a ground-based S-band is used for a direct link but that is not a typical setup.
i LIKE Vista. It automatically found all the drivers it needed for my peripherals (and some were obscure, like the Dream Cheeky missile launcher), has really fast searching, boots faster than XP, and the aero stuff looks pretty good.
Vibration and pressure feedback has been tried many times. People do learn the patterns and can relate them to position and velocity. However, the learning process is long when there are more than just a few sensors (35 would be daunting to say the least), the donning/doffing procedures are a daily hassle (and if you bump it or even sit down abruptly, you have to reposition it), you can't go swimming or take a shower or bath with it on, there are frequent maintenance issues, so it is in the shop as much as it is on your back, a fairly large surface area is needed (making it harder to don/doff because it is usually located on your back), skin irritation is a big problem, especially with interfaces that provide feedback with an electrical tingle, the range of intensity of vibration and pressure is insufficient to cover the range of movement without being uncomfortable. There are many other issues as well. In the end, there has to be a better way. It is actually pretty easy to develop a prosthesis with many degrees of freedom and smooth motor movement from a joystick. The hard part is the prosthetic-human interface.
This arm is very unlikely to ever get used by more than a few people. The problem is that the feedback of position and force is via vibrating pads. This is way too crude. Studies of patients who have lost sensation in their arms but retained motor control (so they can move the arm and hand fully but cannot feel where it is) reveals that most of those patients undergo elective amputation within a few years. So building a prosthesis that has tons of degrees of freedom is simply not the answer. Many such devices have been developed and subsequently rejected by patients. The real breakthrough will come with tactile and positional feedback that is fed directly into neurons in the nerve stump.
The ethical overrides will be removed by the side that thinks they might be losing the battle. As long as humans control the robots, robotics ethics cannot surpass human ethics.
I will be a panelist at the upcoming Symposium for Personal Spaceflight, Oct. 24-25 in Las Cruces, NM. Stop by and say hi.
nicely done, congrats!
Sure, it is easy to check-- the whistling attempt was during the first EVA on STS-72. Story Musgrave was the CAPCOM and I reported the attempt to him as an interesting tidbit.
Altitude is different than underwater. Nobody remains conscious more than about 60 seconds after sudden decompression at 40,000 feet. Not even the guys who go up Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen. Most people are unconscious in 15-20 seconds. Try an altitude chamber sometime-- it is an enlightening experience. With regard to deep free dive-- you can hold your breath to go down and come back up to the surface, no problem, however, if you breathe pressurized air at 90' depth and surface without exhaling, it will kill you.
I've done 4 spacewalks and during vacuum chamber training we open our suit purge valve, allowing the pressure in the suit to drop a bit (from nominal 4.3 psi) and I did feel the sensation of the saliva bubbling; it is similar to the sensation of soda pop on your tongue. I haven't seen the movies mentioned (other than 2001), but my guess about vacuum exposure is that you are more likely to be injured by the flying debris (including your own velocity as you impact a wall or whatever) associated with sudden decompression through a hatch than by a very short exposure to 0 psi. During one chamber run, I had a water line poppet valve stick open when I disconnected from the chamber wall. The water stream broke up into droplets that immediately froze, producing an impressive shower of ice particles. Over about 5 to 10 seconds, the icing point traveled up the water stream and formed a clump around the poppet valve, sealing the leak. Oh, by the way, I tried whistling while EVA and even the nominal suit pressure is too low to produce an audible sound.
Record an average lifespan ( 2 G sec) with reasonable quality ( 1 Mb/ sec). So we'll have to wait for a 2000 TB system. Or just get a little older so we don't have so many seconds left..........