Re: Uncle Sam Wants YOU!

[Dan Hollis]

On Sun, 1 Jul 2001, William T Wilson wrote:
> My understanding is that astronauts going up on the shuttle take turns
> bringing a laptop computer so they have actual computing power available
> to them.  The shuttle computer is not adequate for many tasks because it
> is something like 30 years old, but that's what they use because it is
> certified.  So somebody has to bring along a non-certified system in their
> "personal effects" allowance to get real work done :}

No.. the laptops are certified too. Not all the software on them I think,
but the hardware is definitely restricted and often modified.

The shuttle computers are designed for ONE task -- flying the spacecraft.
They are not designed to read email or play quake3. FWIW I do not think
you would WANT the shuttle computers doing anything else - these are
specially designed hard realtime triple redundant systems quite different
from laptops.

FWIW if you read the public records of space station and shuttle logs,
it's downright scary how often m$ stuff causes big problems up there.

-Dan