iPhones in Space


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First iPhone in space to launch with last shuttle mission

When the final space shuttle mission launches later this year, two iPhone 4s will be on board.

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Rishikof emphasized that the iPhones were being used as an experiment, not for any mission-critical guidance systems.

SpaceLab?s four experiments:

A ?limb tracker,? which lets astronauts take a picture of the Earth?s limb (its curved edge). The app then estimates the iPhone?s altitude.

A sensor calibration tool that uses camera images plus multiple sensors to calibrate the phone?s gyroscope and accelerometers.

Latitude and longitude estimation using photos of the Earth and matching them to wireframes of coastlines.

A test to see if space radiation affects computer memory by watching for unintended changes to single bits in the iPhones? RAM.

SpaceLab for iOS is also available for Earthbound civilians. In the public version, some features of the app will be simulated, since we unfortunately suffer from the effects of gravity. The app is $1.

NASA has tentatively scheduled the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, for a July 8 launch.

And in case you were wondering, yes, the iPhones will be put into airplane mode before liftoff.

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Not that I'm aware of, but they do have 68 older IBM ThinkPad A31 and 32 newer Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, all specially adapted for use in space. Changes include bigger fans, the ability to use ISS's 26 volt power, radiation hardened RAM etc.

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heh distortion field...

all they have are old notebooks? jeez, what do they do for fun? i mean, they do get terrestrial TV and radio, plus they now have broadband of sorts, right? must be a lot of book reading going on up there when they're not doing science or going on one of their EVA's.

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heh distortion field...

all they have are old notebooks? jeez, what do they do for fun? i mean, they do get terrestrial TV and radio, plus they now have broadband of sorts, right? must be a lot of book reading going on up there when they're not doing science or going on one of their EVA's.

They are working or sleeping pretty much all the time while on a shuttle mission. Its the guys stationed on the ISS that actually have the down time. (Older) laptops are fine for checking email, writing reports, reading the news, etc. Its not like they are playing some MW2 up there.

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Not that I'm aware of, but they do have 68 older IBM ThinkPad A31 and 32 newer Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, all specially adapted for use in space. Changes include bigger fans, the ability to use ISS's 26 volt power, radiation hardened RAM etc.

I've got a thinkpad from around that time, they don't need hardening :D Those badboys could probably handle rentry on their own ;)

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