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Excuse my ignorance, but how is there radiation up there? I think it's fascinating it has the ability to deplete memory, and interesting they will be able to track it.

Most (but not all) of the radiation up there comes from the nuclear processes going on in the cores of stars, with our sun being the main source for us because of our proximity to it. Cosmic rays (originating from beyond our solar system) play a big role too.
 
Excuse my ignorance, but how is there radiation up there? I think it's fascinating it has the ability to deplete memory, and interesting they will be able to track it.

The sun is practically a massive nuclear fusion reactor which kicks out a ton of radiation. So naturally there's going to be more ambient radiation, we have a layer of our atmosphere I think which deflects a lot of harmful radiation. Also if I'm not mistaken, the sun occasionally kicks out a high levels of radiation every so often which is deadly to humans, the crew of the ISS have shielded areas they can go to when this happens.

So yes, there's lots of radiation in space, more so than on Earth.
 
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Anti-gravity? You mean there's not an app for that? :p

Its going to be a new feature added to the iPhone 5. It will be called "Spacetime". :p
 
Why not iPod Touches? (I doubt they need the magnetometer: I wouldn’t expect it to be accurate surrounded by a metal spaceship!)
 
Why not iPod Touches? (I doubt they need the magnetometer: I wouldn’t expect it to be accurate surrounded by a metal spaceship!)

Might be testing the GPS too. In any case, the iPhone has always come with more features and higher quality parts, so that has to be part of it. Plus, this way they can phone home. "Hi mom! I'm on the ISS! No, really!"
 
NASA should auction off these iPhones after they extract the data from them. That should fund another 30 years of the space program.
 
It's a pity that...

It's a shame that the president has decided to abandon such an important program for our country and its morale.
 
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res1233 said:
Why not iPod Touches? (I doubt they need the magnetometer: I wouldn’t expect it to be accurate surrounded by a metal spaceship!)

Might be testing the GPS too. In any case, the iPhone has always come with more features and higher quality parts, so that has to be part of it. Plus, this way they can phone home. "Hi mom! I'm on the ISS! No, really!"

Would GPS work? Isn't the ISS in a higher orbit, so above the GPS satellites?
 
They should FaceTime from ISS. No need to see that floating microphone, even though it's cool ;)
 
Why not iPod Touches? (I doubt they need the magnetometer: I wouldn’t expect it to be accurate surrounded by a metal spaceship!)

the iPod touch has one too, the iPod touch doesn't however have GPS and also has a very low quality camera and it is my understanding the camera is part of these apps.
 
It's a shame that the president has decided to abandon such an important program for our country and its morale.

Shuttle program is old and is in need of a replacement before its too late. This will just improve future space travels.
 
It's a shame that the president has decided to abandon such an important program for our country and its morale.

The Shuttle program has been dead for quite some time. They are starting to fall apart and the technology is beyond dated. The plan was to replace them with the Constellation program. Unfortunately, testing late in the program showed design flaws that would require a redesign from scratch (They had vibration issues that could not be damped out. There was no way they could get a man rating.)

NASA will eventually come up with a better design. One program that was originally planned to replace the shuttle was the SSTO. It was a great design that had issues with the fuel tanks exploding. New materials might make the fuel tanks survivable. While we are waiting, NASA will do quite a bit with new space telescopes and Mars rovers.
 
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Would GPS work? Isn't the ISS in a higher orbit, so above the GPS satellites?

No, the GPS satellites are FAR higher than the space station. (ISS is around 400 km and GPS is around 20,000 km.) So the phone WILL pick up their signal.

Wether or not it will work or not I have no clue. The phone is moving FAR faster and FAR higher than the designers of the GPS system anticipated.

I doubt it would work even though I guess it's theroetically possible.
 
Probably one of the coolest stories I have read in a while about the abstract application of an iPhone.

I would have brought an iPad 2 for good measure though. :cool:
 
Its good to know that if I'm ever in space, I can find a free WIFI network to join...
The ISS DOES have an internal Wi-Fi network, but the connection to the ground is very, very, very slow. Slower than a 56k modem, and they've got a LOT of data to move around. They do have video capabilities depending on what ground stations they can see.
 
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