drool, the tool kit on the ISS

[mickpah]

Holly shit, i'd actually bu some of these!
http://www.universalmedicalinc.com/Titanium-Phillips-Screwdriver-p/71726-umi.htm

mail some to dave and he will do a magnetic mine teardown tuesday

I wish, sadly they stayed with the machine. - best tools I have ever used light, strong, no corrosion ( I live near the sea so rust spots are a constant problem on infrequestly used tools, even high quality, even with a coat of annoying oil)  If I strike the lotto .......- aside from a bench full of Agilent toys

[calin]

That's it .. it is official .. I am going to buy a big red hammer like that one on ISS .... call the thing Bertha and stop buying sensible meters

[peter.mitchell]

well, $50-60 for a near indestructible phillips is pretty good imho.

[ftransform]

Holly shit, i'd actually bu some of these!
http://www.universalmedicalinc.com/Titanium-Phillips-Screwdriver-p/71726-umi.htm

mail some to dave and he will do a magnetic mine teardown tuesday

I wish, sadly they stayed with the machine. - best tools I have ever used light, strong, no corrosion ( I live near the sea so rust spots are a constant problem on infrequestly used tools, even high quality, even with a coat of annoying oil)  If I strike the lotto .......- aside from a bench full of Agilent toys

Did you ever try a compound called WD40 Long term Corrosion Inhibitor OR froglube?

I saw video reviews of these two products and the anti-rust results they showed were phenomenal, eons ahead of regular things like WD40, house hold oils, etc. The froglube you need to actually heat a part up before you coat it, while the WD40 LTCI is just spray on.

[Rick Law]

I think you'd have a hard time finding an outer space grade guitar.
The laptops are probably high-reliability business grade.

I recall during the early days of the space shuttle, reading scientific/computer journals back then, one problem was the trace (inside the IC) getting too small.   While smaller trace presents a smaller target for stray energetic subatomic particles, the noise to signal ratio is much higher when it does get hit.  So, the larger die CPU's were preferred.  No doubt the traces are even smaller today with 90nm/65nm die technology.

I am not sure what the state of technology is, and stray particle hit is still a problem or not.  If so, I doubt commercial grade laptops will do the job.  They will probably need special shielding.   Anyone with knowledge in that area give us an update?

[muvideo]

Wow, interesting toolbox !!

well, $50-60 for a near indestructible phillips is pretty good imho.

I've never used Ti alloy tools, I'd like some first hand experiences,
just for curiosity
Maybe I'm wrong but I imagine that they are not
more indestrucitble, after all, than good steel tools
Surely are lighter non magnetic and chemically resistant, but a good
CrMoV alloy steel is a very good material, probably somewhere around
1.5-2GPa tensile strenght, and can be made very hard too,
depending on surface threatments.
Also old Beryllium Copper tools are hard and resistant,
i'm amused by the fact that few percent of Beryllium
(well, perhaps i'ts not that easy) turn the soft copper
into a very hard and strong alloy

[mickpah]

Wow, interesting toolbox !!

well, $50-60 for a near indestructible phillips is pretty good imho.

I've never used Ti alloy tools, I'd like some first hand experiences,
just for curiosity
Maybe I'm wrong but I imagine that they are not
more indestrucitble, after all, than good steel tools
Surely are lighter non magnetic and chemically resistant, but a good
CrMoV alloy steel is a very good material, probably somewhere around
1.5-2GPa tensile strenght, and can be made very hard too,
depending on surface threatments.
Also old Beryllium Copper tools are hard and resistant,
i'm amused by the fact that few percent of Beryllium
(well, perhaps i'ts not that easy) turn the soft copper
into a very hard and strong alloy

TI are tools are not used for for strength, at least in my application. Have a look what happens when steel screw driver meets MRI.
I'm pretty sure this is a 1.5 Tesla Machine, 3.0 Tesla is now common in clinical use and higher field strengths in research.

For even more funwatch these guys tring to remove a chair thathad be grabbed by the magnet

The patient is placed in the magnet bore for scanning, magnetic items in a scan room are not exactly funny if you are being scanned.

MRI tech is really cool to work with high power RF, High power linear amps to drive gradients , Phased array transmit/receive sub systems.....  weird mix of power and signal electronics

[Monkeh]

I think you'd have a hard time finding an outer space grade guitar.
The laptops are probably high-reliability business grade.

I recall during the early days of the space shuttle, reading scientific/computer journals back then, one problem was the trace (inside the IC) getting too small.   While smaller trace presents a smaller target for stray energetic subatomic particles, the noise to signal ratio is much higher when it does get hit.  So, the larger die CPU's were preferred.  No doubt the traces are even smaller today with 90nm/65nm die technology.

I am not sure what the state of technology is, and stray particle hit is still a problem or not.  If so, I doubt commercial grade laptops will do the job.  They will probably need special shielding.   Anyone with knowledge in that area give us an update?

They use Thinkpads exclusively.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-35/hires/iss035e022360.jpg

There are seven there alone. All appear to be R/T61s.

E: T61p.

[calin]

OMG .. or I shuld say OMG Big Blue in space !!! .. the crappiest laptop line/brand ever made. Trust me .. I have one from work and these crap-pads are truly absolute junk the literally squeak and crak on you from day 1 you have them. Noticed that they run Win XP also. I bet NASA is stuck in some contract with IBM 

I just hope that IBM does not run the same 2 year service period they do usually

[Monkeh]

OMG .. or I shuld say OMG Big Blue in space !!! .. the crappiest laptop line/brand ever made. Trust me .. I have one from work and these crap-pads are truly absolute junk the literally squeak and crak on you from day 1 you have them.

I've owned mine for five years, it's still going strong. Thanks, but I'll stick with a laptop not made entirely from plastic.

Noticed that they run Win XP also.

Not all of them. And heaven forbid they pick a known quantity for an OS running critical operations on the ISS.

[madires]

OMG .. or I shuld say OMG Big Blue in space !!! .. the crappiest laptop line/brand ever made. Trust me .. I have one from work and these crap-pads are truly absolute junk the literally squeak and crak on you from day 1 you have them. Noticed that they run Win XP also. I bet NASA is stuck in some contract with IBM 

I just hope that IBM does not run the same 2 year service period they do usually

Didn't they sell the PC/laptop business to Lenovo?

[nctnico]

Broken laptops are ejected through the airlock! So instead of a dead dog and the other items from Jules Verne's story there is a whole string of laptops behind the ISS 

[calin]

Yeah they did sold that to Lenovo ... and I think the quality actually improved after they sold it to Lenovo .. so imagine how crappy these are.  I am typing right now on one

These don't even qualify as high quality debris ....

[SeanB]

They did do a software upgrade to Debian recently on the laptops. They are only used for non critical things, like entertainment, experiments and photography. The data on them is going to be backed up if it is necessary, otherwise they are just reimaged if they fail firmware wise.

They have had quite a few fail, and they were placed in a Progress module and sent with the rest of the garbage to a watery fiery burial in the South Pacific. The old battery packs though and other parts that wear like the HDD CDROM and memory though have been cannibalised from them before though to either upgrade or fix others that failed.

Remember that with the cost of the laptop being the cheapest part of the package ( delivery is 100x more of course) they maxed them out on order, and tested them for a few months before sending them up to weed out failures. kinda was hard on the guys who had them on inventory though, as when they went up they never came back, and then come annual inventory they get the query of where is laptop xxx,yyy,zzz and they have to say it went up on mission x.y.z and is on the ISS and they have no idea if it is still working.

[Monkeh]

Yeah they did sold that to Lenovo ... and I think the quality actually improved after they sold it to Lenovo .. so imagine how crappy these are.  I am typing right now on one

These don't even qualify as high quality debris ....

They really are not crappy. They're a hell of a lot more solid than the junk sold by popular brands.

They did do a software upgrade to Debian recently on the laptops. They are only used for non critical things, like entertainment, experiments and photography.

Non-critical things like their interface to the flight controls of the ISS.

[mzzj]

Via Tim Peake @astro_timpeake.


betting mostly titanium too, had small titanium working MRI, light and strong best kit I ever had

craftsman titanium pliers?
Spanners and sockets seem to be Snap-On brand, not too shabby.

[Rick Law]

Yeah they did sold that to Lenovo ... and I think the quality actually improved after they sold it to Lenovo .. so imagine how crappy these are.  I am typing right now on one

These don't even qualify as high quality debris ....

That was almost 10 years ago.  Actually,  Great Wall Computer formed Lenovo Group for the acquisition.  The new name was to let customer focus on the Thinkpad/IBM's PC names as oppose to let customers think of them as the Great-Wall-Thinkpad.  Simply put, while Great Wall machines were selling well in China (number 1 at the time), they didn't think the Great Wall brand will do as well internationally even when compared to a new and unknown name.

[Bored@Work]

They did do a software upgrade to Debian recently on the laptops.

Yes, the money quote was

We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.

 

[SeanB]

More likely they got tired of the slow internet connection being held up always by the laptops phoning home for updates.... I know you can turn it off and have a server push them, but still.........

[Rick Law]

More likely they got tired of the slow internet connection being held up always by the laptops phoning home for updates.... I know you can turn it off and have a server push them, but still.........

This "autoupdate" could have been a good thing, but many companies saw it as a way to ship at merely half-done then fix it post delivery.

Even when it is used right, it is never good to introduce unknowns into a system.  The resource to validate and re-valid every updates is very expensive and disruptive (to production lines).  While most of the patch/updates works but certainly not ALL of them.

Then there is the trouble with net-abuse.  More precisely, it should be call customer abuse via the net.  I'd love to return to the days when apps (those without reason to use the net) be net-free.  I don't want Acrobat reader phones home on when, where, and what document I am reading (you can google "acrobat phone home", this started since Acrobat 6).  I don't want my DVD player to phone home (not sure what it tells mother) each time I try to watch a movie...

[SeanB]

It all started with that piece of spyware called real player........ Thank goodness for the original versions of some firewall ( can't remember at moment but it became bloatware later) having the ability to block outgoing connections on a per program basis, as well as per port or destination IP.

[Rick Law]

It all started with that piece of spyware called real player........ Thank goodness for the original versions of some firewall ( can't remember at moment but it became bloatware later) having the ability to block outgoing connections on a per program basis, as well as per port or destination IP.

Zone Alarm - I think that is the one you are thinking of.  As usual, Microsoft killed that market by incorporating something they called "firewall" for "free".  Now there is no more personal firewall for anyone to use.

[Monkeh]

Windows Firewall can block programs just fine.

[SeanB]

It all started with that piece of spyware called real player........ Thank goodness for the original versions of some firewall ( can't remember at moment but it became bloatware later) having the ability to block outgoing connections on a per program basis, as well as per port or destination IP.

Zone Alarm - I think that is the one you are thinking of.  As usual, Microsoft killed that market by incorporating something they called "firewall" for "free".  Now there is no more personal firewall for anyone to use.

Thanks, I did use it. The built in firewall is only marginally better than a chocolate teapot, it has so many holes in it by design it is pretty much no use at all. Funny thing is that for years I ran my computer directly connected to the internet, no router but a straight DSL modem and a live IP address with no NAT or any port blocks. Then again I was using RH4 and such........

[Rick Law]

Windows Firewall can block programs just fine.

I may be out of date here.   Do you really mean there is a version of Windows Firewall that can block outbound packets by originating program, source and target ports, and source and target IP?