Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 23:52:48 +0200 From: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@fbwi.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> To: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: Brian Handy <handy@lambic.physics.montana.edu> Subject: Re: Hardware in space? Message-ID: <4.1.20000621233928.026e05c0@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10006211313410.50107-100000@athena.lightning one.net> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0006210103060.33677-100000@lambic.physics.montana.edu>
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At 13:18 21.06.00 -0400, Essenz Consulting wrote: > >Brain, > >For a hard drive, you can look at solid state FLASH disks. They make FLASH >IDE "Hard Drives" which connect to a motherboards IDE channel. Drive is >not a drive but FLASH memory. However, I still am not sure if that would >be okay up in space. Also, I imagine temperatures will be very low, like >50 below ZERO. That may also cause a problem. > >Doesnt sound like something you will be able to do with of the shelf >equipment. > Hi! Well, there come several ideas to mind: 1) Avoid moving parts where possible. Flash disks and similar technology (like in digital cameras) are certainly appropriate. 2) Which computing power will be needed? If the power of a 486 will suffice, there should be no need for special cooling, since a run of, say 15 minutes won't overheat the chip. 3) Is it really necessary to have air in? (Except from cooling purposes or movement maker for HDDs) 4) For thermal insulation, is it possible to use something like styrofoam around the computing parts? (Or sometimes for housebuilding purposes there is similar foam for insulation, that you can "spray" from a can) 5) Real problem: Acceleration. If I got you right, we talk about some launch phase of some minutes, then a ~5 minute picture shooting, and then a landing and perhaps some notification via GPS where to pick up the parts. So the shocks and G-Forces during launch and landing have to be considered. Well, some notebook parts (especially those notebooks for industrial usage, or sales reps on tour) were designed to handle high stress. Simply remove the 3,5" and CD-ROM, and replace the HDD with a solid state Flash disk. Then (ok, I don't know about space) use some styrofoam parts or some foam mentioned above, and make sure its quite sealed except for some cables that need to go outside the computer unit (network, camera, battery charger). Regards Olaf Hoyer -------- Olaf Hoyer www.nightfire.de mailto:Olaf.Hoyer@nightfire.de FreeBSD- Turning PC's into workstations ICQ:22838075 Liebe und Hass sind nicht blind, aber geblendet vom Feuer, dass sie selber mit sich tragen. (Nietzsche) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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