Ground control to Major Tux: Space station dumps Windows, now uses Linux

[Wilikon]

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/iss-linux/

For reasons involving reliability — which is semi-kinda important in low-Earth orbit, apparently — our fellow nerds living aboard the International Space Station have made the switch from Windows to Linux for astronauts’ laptops.
The space nerds will get training from the Linux Foundation for the upgrade to Debian 6. The foundation has actually customized two courses specifically for NASA astronauts’ needs, including a basic Linux user course and more advanced coursework on how to develop applications for Linux.
Previously, the laptops aboard the ISS had been running Windows XP.
The United Space Alliance manages the NASA/ISS computers. A United Space Alliance spokesperson told press the switch was made because ISS astronauts and cosmonauts needed an operating system “that was stable and reliable.”

Ouch!

The foundation also says the first humanoid space robot will also get a fresh Linux install. Called Robonaut (R2), the bot was created to “take over some of the astronaut’s responsibilities. … Running on Linux, the robot can be manipulated by onboard astronauts with ground controllers commanding it into position and performing operations. The Linux training from the Linux Foundation will help NASA developers ensure that R2 can be a productive addition to the ISS. Still in the fine-tuning phase, R2 will eventually carry out tasks too dangerous or mundane for astronauts in microgravity.”

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(I am a Windows 8 user, but this is too funny and GREAT for the linux OS)

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[myrkul]

I wonder how long it will be before astronauts get their own custom Distro?

[Raoul Duke]

Windows XP? And it haven't fallen out of orbit? Remarkable indeed!

[Wilikon]

Debian, oh blah!  Shoulda gone with "Scientific Linux".  At least then you could run multi-gpu card mining rigs...

Though the heat buildup might be hard to deal with.  Do they have air conditioners? 

Air conditioner? I would guess sticking the rig outside the station would give you enough err... cold space.

[myrkul]

Air conditioner? I would guess sticking the rig outside the station would give you enough err... cold space.

Well, provided they could keep it in the shade. Radiative cooling like that is only effective if there isn't a stronger source radiating back.

[01BTC10]

There is no heat dissipation via convection without atmosphere.  

[myrkul]

There is no heat dissipation via convection without atmosphere.  

Nor did I imply there would be.

[Raoul Duke]

So you could dangle the mining rig away from the station with a long extension power/Ethernet cable.  That should work, right?  The heat would be contained to the unit but it wouldn't bother the humans.  Not sure what the cost of electricity is up there... might not be cost effective to mine.

Rofl.

The cost of collecting electricity with solar panels without having atmosphere interference? I bet it has a better price/power ratio than any of the systems used on Earth.

[Wilikon]

I get the feeling someone is going to say the best place for that mining rig would be on the dark side of the Moon.. Oh wait! I just did.

[myrkul]

I get the feeling someone is going to say the best place for that mining rig would be on the dark side of the Moon.. Oh wait! I just did.

The Moon doesn't have a dark side. It's tidally locked with the Earth, not the Sun.

[Gabi]

I get the feeling someone is going to say the best place for that mining rig would be on the dark side of the Moon.. Oh wait! I just did.

/facepalm

[Wilikon]

I get the feeling someone is going to say the best place for that mining rig would be on the dark side of the Moon.. Oh wait! I just did.

/facepalm

Tough crowd :-))

[crumbcake]

Bah!  Reliability   Now that NASA's budget has shrunk to one tenth the size it was in '66 (thanks, wikipee!), they simply want to dodge Win licence fees

[myrkul]

Bah!  Reliability   Now that NASA's budget has shrunk to one tenth the size it was in '66 (thanks, wikipee!), they simply want to dodge Win licence fees

You got a problem with government programs cutting costs?

If they can get greater reliability, at a lower cost, why shouldn't they?

[crumbcake]

Bah!  Reliability   Now that NASA's budget has shrunk to one tenth the size it was in '66 (thanks, wikipee!), they simply want to dodge Win licence fees

You got a problem with government programs cutting costs?

If they can get greater reliability, at a lower cost, why shouldn't they?

No problem at all with cutting costs, though decimating the budget != cutting costs.  (and i wasn't being entirely serious  )  I hear we're planning another moooon shot?  Suppose we can pull it off again after half a century now that we've got Linux?

http://s20.postimg.org/706tftt19/cows_moon_larson.gif

[myrkul]

Suppose we can pull it off again after half a century now that we've got Linux?

I've said it before, I'll say it again: When the next government funded astronauts reach the moon, Richard Branson will be there to welcome them to his new luxury hotel.

[crumbcake]

Suppose we can pull it off again after half a century now that we've got Linux?

I've said it before, I'll say it again: When the next government funded astronauts reach the moon, Richard Branson will be there to welcome them to his new luxury hotel.

* highlights  Richard Branson, right-clicks & picks "search google with"*
"Tie-loathing adventurer and thrill seeker, who believes in turning ideas into reality."
Got it.  The cows picked up some healthy competition!

[Wilikon]

Suppose we can pull it off again after half a century now that we've got Linux?

I've said it before, I'll say it again: When the next government funded astronauts reach the moon, Richard Branson will be there to welcome them to his new luxury hotel.

SpaceX Spends 320 Times Less on Building the Dragon Than NASA Does on the Orion

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was in the news once again when NASA announced that it passed a design review for a manned launch. NASA is expecting Dragon — and at least one other of the three capsules it selected for its commercial crew development program (CCDev2) — to be ready for its first mission in 2017. In the meantime, the U.S. is depending on Russian spacecraft to get our astronauts into orbit. At $60 million-a-seat, the aging Russian Soyuz program will hopefully soon be eclipsed by the $20 million-a-seat Dragon.

The news about Dragon came only a couple weeks after NASA had news of its own with the unveiling of the Orion capsule in its early stages. Built primarily by Lockheed Martin (but to NASA specifications, in contrast to the Dragon capsule which is fully developed by the private sector), the olive drab hull was shown off at the Kennedy Center surrounded by NASA employees and congressmen. The capsule is scheduled to make its first unmanned flight in 2014, with the Space Launch System (the rocket for taking Orion to the moon or beyond) scheduled to test launch in 2017.

It is good to see NASA on track for some big spaceflight milestones once again. But despite the progress, something stands out as a problem: The total NASA funding for the CCDev2 program was around $270 million. That’s $270 million for the development of four different vehicles to bring people into orbit. NASA will then have to pay per flight once the vehicles are functional, but it’s still not bad.

Especially when compared to the Orion capsule.

Compared to the SpaceX CCDev2 program, the Space Launch System that Orion is a part of is expected to cost $38 billion. Between $17 to $22 billion is needed just for development. That is 80 times the cost of the development of four manned crew vehicles by the private sector, i.e. 320 times more per vehicle.

Now, I understand that creating a system to go to the moon is much more complicated and expensive than going to orbit. But 320 times more? I think not.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has said he could do it for a grand total of $3 billion, not all of which would have to be footed by the government. That would be less than one quarter of the $13 billion NASA spent on the defunct Constellation moon program that never even produced a flyable rocket. I think it might be wise for NASA to consider refocusing its budget (side note: a survey showed that most Americans thought NASA got 25% of the federal budget while it actually gets less than half of 1%).

Looking at the state of the aerospace industry, it is hard to be surprised by the inefficiency. The aerospace industry is one of the most concentrated in the country, fed by consistent government contracts. Programs are always going over time and over budget, which is unsurprising when “cost plus” contracts pay the contractors more the longer they take, and there are only a couple of companies to choose from.

It may seem bizarre that I am bashing one system of contracting in favor or another, but CCDev-style programs are fundamentally different than the normal system. CCDev contracts for the service of transporting people and goods to space, as opposed to the current system of contracting for the construction of a NASA product. Private companies are then free to accomplish the task as they see fit, instead of merely building a capsule to NASA specs.

Commercial space companies are very new and have yet to prove themselves entirely capable of human spaceflight. While I do think NASA has serious spending problems, I would not advocate immediately overthrowing the current system in favor of an industry that only took its first baby step a couple months ago. Hopefully by the end of this decade, or maybe even within five years, we will have seen multiple private launches of astronauts to orbit. Until then, NASA should continue its work, but focus more on enhancing the development of the private sector.

NASA’s vital role in this country has and always will be to spur technological progress beyond what the general private sector will accomplish on its own. It has been wildly successful in doing so thus far, but the advent of cost efficient private space companies will allow NASA’s dollar to go much further towards technological advancement. It would be better for everyone if they pursued that path.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/11354/spacex-spends-320-times-less-on-building-the-dragon-than-nasa-does-on-the-orion

[Foxpup]

There is no heat dissipation via convection without atmosphere.  

Nor did I imply there would be.

If you didn't, then you implied that laptops have radiators instead of heatsinks, which they clearly don't. Although a heatsink can function as a radiator, it does an extremely lousy job of it. Almost all of the heatsink's surface area is in the fins, which are all facing each other, and so are radiating into themselves rather than into space (not that they would be radiating into space anyway, as the heat is blocked by the laptop's case, which is made of plastic, a poor conductor to put it mildly). The only thing a heat sink is good for is transferring its heat to a large volume of air before blowing that air away with the fans. And fans aren't known for their usefulness in a vacuum.

[naypalm]

If you didn't, then you implied that laptops have radiators instead of heatsinks, which they clearly don't. Although a heatsink can function as a radiator, it does an extremely lousy job of it. Almost all of the heatsink's surface area is in the fins, which are all facing each other, and so are radiating into themselves rather than into space (not that they would be radiating into space anyway, as the heat is blocked by the laptop's case, which is made of plastic, a poor conductor to put it mildly). The only thing a heat sink is good for is transferring its heat to a large volume of air before blowing that air away with the fans. And fans aren't known for their usefulness in a vacuum.

lol Freefall 

[myrkul]

There is no heat dissipation via convection without atmosphere.  

Nor did I imply there would be.

If you didn't, then you implied that laptops have radiators instead of heatsinks, which they clearly don't.

Nope. All I implied was that the mining rigs would be working via radiative cooling, and that they would need to be in the shade to do so effectively. You and 01BTC10 are the ones who assumed they would be using standard heatsinks, which, as you point out, make lousy radiators.

You further seem to assume that they would be using the Linux laptops as mining rigs. When was the last time you could profitably mine on a laptop?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Somebody needs to send the OP to Mark as text to be read on his TracFone.

[Wilikon]

Somebody needs to send the OP to Mark as text to be read on his TracFone.

If copy pasting part of the text was a faux pas on this forum, I refrain from doing this in the future. Some people do not like to click on external links posted on a thread and prefer reading the info withing it. I do both, linking the full article and pasting part of it if if it is a too long. The link is also proof of where I found the information and give credit to the original content creators.

Sorry if that was a problem on very small non smart phone screens.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Somebody needs to send the OP to Mark as text to be read on his TracFone.

If copy pasting part of the text was a faux pas on this forum, I refrain from doing this in the future. Some people do not like to click on external links posted on a thread and prefer reading the info withing it. I do both, linking the full article and pasting part of it if if it is a too long. The link is also proof of where I found the information and give credit to the original content creators.

Sorry if that was a problem on very small non smart phone screens.

My post was only meant as humor, referencing an inferior mobile device--TracFone--to further illustrate the problems Mt Gox supposedly has.

[Wilikon]

Somebody needs to send the OP to Mark as text to be read on his TracFone.

If copy pasting part of the text was a faux pas on this forum, I refrain from doing this in the future. Some people do not like to click on external links posted on a thread and prefer reading the info withing it. I do both, linking the full article and pasting part of it if if it is a too long. The link is also proof of where I found the information and give credit to the original content creators.

Sorry if that was a problem on very small non smart phone screens.

My post was only meant as humor, referencing an inferior mobile device--TracFone--to further illustrate the problems Mt Gox supposedly has.

Got it.