[X4U] Recycling Mac's

[Chris Long]

On Feb 12, 2007, at 7:36 AM, Mark Des Cotes wrote:

>> 	A few months later I found out NASA was looking for just the  
>> stuff I threw out.  It seems that the space shuttles have old  
>> computer equipment in them.  Since everything in those vehicles is  
>> so tightly integrated with everything else, it's difficult to  
>> replace just one component.  So they keep finding replacement  
>> parts for these ancient systems.  Or at least, that's how I got  
>> the story.
>
>
> Am I the only one who finds this unnerving?

You have to remember that the shuttles were designed in the 1970's,  
and most of that equipment has to be thoroughly tested before going  
into space.  I remember reading that many satellites, and even the  
Mars rovers use older chips that were already proven at the time of  
their design... I think the rovers use some version of the PowerPC  
604 if I remember correctly.  What I find unnerving is the comment I  
remember hearing once during a shuttle flight on NASA TV.  "We are  
having trouble getting Outlook to connect to download today's e- 
mail." and later "Our printer seems to be offline."  I thought to  
myself, if NASA is sending a Windows PC running Outlook on the  
shuttle for our astronauts to communicate, they probably need to  
delete and reinstall their printer and its drivers... does Windows  
Update work on the shuttle better than it does on the ground?  I wish  
they would call me to go on each shuttle flight to troubleshoot those  
problems for them... I'd take my MacBook Pro along and make them  
jealous like I do with the PC techs around me!

Chris