NASA Buys 48 Nikon D2xs For Upcoming Spaceflights.

All BS
Most likley they were given to them so Nikon could say
Nikon Only in space.
Then there is no reason why they would not work in space. More BS.

 

NASA uses *core memory*, in the name of the Goddess, for their
5 onboard shuttle computers!

NASA hast just recently approved of 80386 (aka Intel 386) --- as
in 2 generations BEFORE the original "division bug" Pentium ---
for space flight!

Shall we now all switch to 80386 computers? I still have a 386SX,
20MHz --- that's 0.02GHz for you --- from 1990, back when they
started to replace 286 in expensive home computers. It had a
full loadout of a luxorious 4MB RAM (that's 0.039 GB RAM) and a
huge 40MB MFM-disk. That's 40 MB, as in a "0.04GB hard drive",
to you 100-750GB hard drive users. That's so small, you have to
buy a 32MB (not GB, MB!) CF card to be smaller.
If you still _can_ find so small a card, that is.

To give you a perspective: That was the time of Windows 1.0.
Of MS-DOS 3.x and later of the catastrophy called MS-DOS 4.01
(4.0 was _so_ crashy and broken, they had to do a bugfix release
--- and still it crashed very often).

To give you another perspective: There was no 'accellerated'
graphics card. Not 3D, not even 2D. We were lucky to *have*
enough memory on the card for a 400x320 resolution graphics.

-Wolfgang

 

Ah, yes, space is sooo cold that one of the first things the
space shuttle does is open the bay doors to expose the radiators
so they can get rid of excess heat.

Additionally, the astronauts in the space shuttle usually do _not_
contract frozen fingers, ears and toes.


Space is not "cold", space is a very good insulator --- it's the
"vacuum" in "vacuum thermos bottle". Getting rid of 100W
heat from the average human being is a real problem.

-Wolfgang

 

It ain't that bad, unless there's a solar flare (and then even
down here problems can appear). After all, the shuttle stays in
LEO, well inside the magnetic field of the earth (polar routes
may be more of a problem near the poles) and _well_ this side of
the van Allen belt.

Inside the manned parts of the shuttle there should be not
even soft vacuum, as that is considered somewhat unhealthy for
biological lifeforms. Now, if you were to EVA with the camera,
that's be different.

-Wolfgang

 

Thats why there is on SEX in space, the heat would be really high.

 

If it works in these mission critical applications while protecting the
safety and lives of the crew, why use generic garbage?

Smart move! You'll never see an AMD or Cyrix chip leaving the earth's
atmosphere.

Absolutely! The 80386 is still alive and well in a lot of mission critical
boards. I think I still have mine. Hell, I even had a math coprocessor and
a pair of Seagate ST-225 drives. In its day that system was cutting edge
and indestructible.







Rita

 

LOL!




Rita

 

Do you have _any_ idea how hard it is to find people even
able to thread core memory these days? You know, that's the
stuff that was well-tested in 1972, and has not been produced
in decades now, except on order, by hand.

You are quite probably wrong.
You may want to check all the laptops and electronic gear that
has been flown as "personal items" or noncritical or entertainment
hardware. Don't forget e.g. Spaceship One.

In it's day, the sword was a cutting edge weapon.
It's still in use by some people, mostly for ceremonial
reasons or historic reenactments.

Try a larger hammer.

-Wolfgang

 

That's rather a political problem of the NASA than a heat problem
--- any strenous activity wil produce more heat.

Additionally most techniques -- from tightening screws to using
the toilet -- need gravity to work, so different techniques have
to be learned and used. Humans are _very_ adept at overcoming
problems, so consider that a mostly solved problem, or use Google.

-Wolfgang