The Tech Aboard the International Space Station 183
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by
kdawson
from the networking-in-circles dept.
from the networking-in-circles dept.
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."
Re:Issues with such networks generalize to Mars (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
"Crew members aboard the ISS can request specific films and TV shows to be uploaded to a central file server, which they can then watch on any of the Station's laptops."
Space pirates!!
Re:Interesting thought (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine a Beowulf satellite constellation of those.
Pentium 4... (Score:5, Funny)
housing 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops from 2002, each boasting a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB RAM and a 40GB hard drive.
It turns out these double as the main heat supply for the ISS as well.
Re:Issues with such networks generalize to Mars (Score:5, Funny)
We already have networks with latency comparable to round trip Earth/Mars connections. Its called Time Warner Cable.
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
"NASA, can you beam up Zombieland.2009.R5.ScENeGr0up.avi? That shitty TS is driving us nuts!"
Re:One server? (Score:3, Funny)
the better question is why they have a hundred laptops for a crew of 3-6 max.
One Tang spill could render several laptops useless. Perhaps this is a redundancy measure.
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Funny)
ISS colocation facility? (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, I have an idea! Maybe thepiratebay.org could relocate their servers to be colocated on the ISS. I think the upper stratosphere is out of the Swedish court's jurisdiction! ;)
Re:ISS spotting (Score:4, Funny)
a few minutes? you will at least be able to see it for several degrees.