Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 23:16:48 -0700 From: "Blake" <humanhunter@connectstar.net> To: <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Hardware in space? Message-ID: <003001bfdc11$736c5ee0$3700a8c0@skyline> References: <Pine.OSF.4.05.10006220859440.4383-100000@isass0.solar.isas.ac.jp>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] try getting a faster CPU and underclocking it.. say a P200 running at 66mghz or something.. get a 100 bus speed mghtz cpu an run it at 66 mghz or 33... that will make cooling MUCH easier ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Handy" <handy@isass0.solar.isas.ac.jp> To: <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 5:17 PM Subject: Re: Hardware in space? > Wow! What a great dose of information! Thanks everyone! > > I've got a bunch of information, and a handful of people to respond to... > so stand by, those of you who know who you are. Anyway, a couple of > clarifications since I stirred up so much interest: > > - This is only the proposal stage of the instrument. The way NASA works > is every year they make "Announcements of Opportunity", which is a thingy > that invites us to write proposals to do work. There are lots of various > categories of this, from data analysis of Solar Flares to theoretical > consideration of pulsar evolution to proposing new instruments for the > Next Generation Space Telescope. If we win, we'd start working on this > sometime next year, probably, with a launch slated for about 3 years after > that. > > - The sounding rocket environment isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The > computer will be grounded to the chassis, but this doesn't mean it's going > to get real cold. We've only got 5 minutes above the atmosphere, and I > think it'd take a fair bit longer than that to get cold enough to matter. > There's a group at Stanford that's taken this to an extreme: > > http://aa.stanford.edu/~ssdl/ > > These guys are trying to get to where they can turn a satellite into a > senior thesis project for a student. (I don't think they've gotten it > down to a year yet, though.) Basically they're working on the level of > re-inventing Sputnik. Amazing stuff, amazingly simple, teaches people a > bunch. Way below the level of sophistication I have to aim for, > unfortunately. I'm told some of their electronics parts come from Radio > Shack! :-) > > -- While getting too cold probably isn't an issue, COOLING certainly is. > As a few people have alluded to, cooling in space becomes an issue because > there's no air. This will be a problem much earlier, because we'll > evacuate the payload several hours before launch. If there's a delay, the > package could wind up sitting on the launch rail for a few days under > vacuum. I've worried about blowing the top off the CPU from the heat. I > imagine it'll probably have to be heat-sunk to the chassis in some manner. > Someone mentioned using a 486; that's not such a bad idea. Mostly I'm > just grabbing data from the RS-232 ports and stuffing it to disk, so I'll > probably wind up doing some experimentation to see just what I'll need. > > > Thanks, > > Brian > [Reporting in from Japan] > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > [-- Attachment #2 --] <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.3017.2400" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>try getting a faster CPU and underclocking it.. say a P200 running at 66mghz or something.. get a 100 bus speed mghtz cpu an run it at 66 mghz or 33... that will make cooling MUCH easier </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From: "Brian Handy" <</FONT><A href="mailto:handy@isass0.solar.isas.ac.jp"><FONT face=Arial size=2>handy@isass0.solar.isas.ac.jp</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To: <</FONT><A href="mailto:freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG"><FONT face=Arial size=2>freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 5:17 PM</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Subject: Re: Hardware in space?</FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> Wow! What a great dose of information! Thanks everyone!<BR>> <BR>> I've got a bunch of information, and a handful of people to respond to...<BR>> so stand by, those of you who know who you are. Anyway, a couple of<BR>> clarifications since I stirred up so much interest:<BR>> <BR>> - This is only the proposal stage of the instrument. The way NASA works<BR>> is every year they make "Announcements of Opportunity", which is a thingy<BR>> that invites us to write proposals to do work. There are lots of various<BR>> categories of this, from data analysis of Solar Flares to theoretical<BR>> consideration of pulsar evolution to proposing new instruments for the<BR>> Next Generation Space Telescope. If we win, we'd start working on this<BR>> sometime next year, probably, with a launch slated for about 3 years after<BR>> that. <BR>> <BR>> - The sounding rocket environment isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The<BR>> computer will be grounded to the chassis, but this doesn't mean it's going<BR>> to get real cold. We've only got 5 minutes above the atmosphere, and I<BR>> think it'd take a fair bit longer than that to get cold enough to matter.<BR>> There's a group at Stanford that's taken this to an extreme:<BR>> <BR>> </FONT><A href="http://aa.stanford.edu/~ssdl/"><FONT face=Arial size=2>http://aa.stanford.edu/~ssdl/</FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>> <BR>> These guys are trying to get to where they can turn a satellite into a<BR>> senior thesis project for a student. (I don't think they've gotten it<BR>> down to a year yet, though.) Basically they're working on the level of<BR>> re-inventing Sputnik. Amazing stuff, amazingly simple, teaches people a<BR>> bunch. Way below the level of sophistication I have to aim for,<BR>> unfortunately. I'm told some of their electronics parts come from Radio<BR>> Shack! :-)<BR>> <BR>> -- While getting too cold probably isn't an issue, COOLING certainly is.<BR>> As a few people have alluded to, cooling in space becomes an issue because<BR>> there's no air. This will be a problem much earlier, because we'll<BR>> evacuate the payload several hours before launch. If there's a delay, the<BR>> package could wind up sitting on the launch rail for a few days under<BR>> vacuum. I've worried about blowing the top off the CPU from the heat. I<BR>> imagine it'll probably have to be heat-sunk to the chassis in some manner.<BR>> Someone mentioned using a 486; that's not such a bad idea. Mostly I'm<BR>> just grabbing data from the RS-232 ports and stuffing it to disk, so I'll<BR>> probably wind up doing some experimentation to see just what I'll need.<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> Thanks,<BR>> <BR>> Brian<BR>> [Reporting in from Japan]<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> To Unsubscribe: send mail to </FONT><A href="mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.org"><FONT face=Arial size=2>majordomo@FreeBSD.org</FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>> with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message<BR>> </FONT></BODY></HTML>home | help
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