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Final Space Shuttle Lifts Off With Two iPhones Aboard

RichardBeer said:
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.
Click to expand...

And the (ionizing) radiation is mainly high energy rays - X-rays, Gamma rays and cosmic rays.

The radiation that we typically think of as harmful (e.g. from Radon, Uranium) is "particle" radiation - Alpha and Beta, both of which are easily stopped by a layer or two of paper, but are very harmful when we breathe in or ingest (eat) radioactive elements, which then release radiation directly into the body.

TBH I think that the inclusion of the Android (conveniently, erm, left out of the MR summary) and iPhone is a cheap attempt to get some media/popular interest in the NASA programme - I'm sure that all of these experiments could have been done better with an Atmel AVR, TI OMAP or Altera eval board and some sensors. But whatever. The application for these apps sounds rather contrived.

"The three-axis gyroscopes and accelerometers in the iPhone 4 are expected to perform very well in zero-gravity, and are being tested as an alternative to much more expensive equipment."

Presumably made by STM or an handful of others. Yeah, using COTS equipment is much cheaper than space-qualified parts. And modern MEMS technology is cheaper than a laser gyro... Can I go work for NASA now?

Meh, at least it's not *my* tax money.

PS FWIW I think we should colonise Mars.
 
notromeel said:
Excuse my ignorance, but how is there radiation up there?
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Because they don't have the earth's atmosphere to shield them, they are exposed to MORE cosmic and solar radiation than we are exposed to on earth. All they have to shield them is the protection given to them by the skin of the Shuttle/ISS.

Nature made is nearly always better than man made.
 
Azathoth said:
PS FWIW I think we should colonise Mars.
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At least start terraforming it! Two things that I've been asking for.

1) Gates (had) enough money to colonize mars, he should have done it, think of the legacy that would leave!

2) Time to terraform it. Take a few ships filled with spores, molds and seeds and have them crash land into different parts of Mars. No need for expensive rockets and such, just get the stuff there and let it do it's mojo. In a few hundred years when we REALLY need to get off of Earth, maybe it will have some life growing there.

(note, #2 isn't done because they don't want to risk destroying any life that may already be there, or at least corrupt it with life from Earth).
 
takatalvi said:
Interesting note about this event: Tech specs state the maximum operating altitude for the iPhone 4 is 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). The ISS is about 173 miles above Earth.
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It's pressurized ;)

That's the caveat not mentioned in the tech specs. If it was 10,000 feet regardless of pressurization, iPhones and iPods wouldn't work on airplanes.

Besides, if you're at above 10,000 feet in an unpressurized environment, your iPhone not working is the least of your problems.
 
CylonGlitch said:
At least start terraforming it! Two things that I've been asking for.

1) Gates (had) enough money to colonize mars, he should have done it, think of the legacy that would leave!

2) Time to terraform it. Take a few ships filled with spores, molds and seeds and have them crash land into different parts of Mars. No need for expensive rockets and such, just get the stuff there and let it do it's mojo. In a few hundred years when we REALLY need to get off of Earth, maybe it will have some life growing there.

(note, #2 isn't done because they don't want to risk destroying any life that may already be there, or at least corrupt it with life from Earth).
Click to expand...

As I understand it, it's an atmosphere problem. There isn't much of one at all. It was blown off long ago by solar wind. Any attempt to add one would be pointless unless you can prevent the solar wind from blowing away what you add. Something to do with a lack of a strong magnetosphere. But I just watch a lot of PBS/Nova and really have no clue. ;)

In short, the spores, seeds and molds wouldn't stand a chance.
 
bengst said:
just wondering.. how are they supposed to touch/operate the iPhone with their hands covered with anti-radiation suit?

also.. can they play Angry Birds in zero gravity environment? :p
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They just have normal clothing while they are in the shuttle.

No, you can't play angry birds; If you don't have gravity, the birds will just keep going up.

:eek:
 
Hope AT&T coverage is good....

<begin sarcastic line>

I think AT&T does not have that good coverage there :D

<end sarcastic line>
 
notromeel said:
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.
Click to expand...

There's radiation everywhere, including your home. In space, there are cosmic rays, solar particles, and the Earth's own radiation belt.

You never know when a charged particle or electromagnetic field is going to change a bit in memory or destroy a section of a processor, either of which could be disastrous.

So spacecraft and satellites use radiation hardened chips, which cost more to make and are usually older designs and smaller memory. They also rely on error correction techniques and polling multiple computers for agreement.

takatalvi said:
Interesting note about this event: Tech specs state the maximum operating altitude for the iPhone 4 is 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). The ISS is about 173 miles above Earth.
Click to expand...

The 10,000 foot limit is about air pressure, due to the need for disk drive heads to ride on a cushion of air above the spinning data platter. Being in a pressurized shuttle or ISS takes care of that.

Of course, you're thinking, wait -- the iPhone doesn't have a spinning drive. And you'd be correct. There's no good reason that I can think of for the limit on an iPhone. The LCD, battery, chips, etc should all be okay. I suppose it's possible that some sealed component has trapped air in it and might pop, but I doubt it. It's probably just the usual Apple lawyer boilerplate phrase.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hmm, does this mean it will be renamed the iSS?
 
RichardBeer said:
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.
Click to expand...

The Earth's magnetic field is what protects us from the radiation of the solar wind. The ionizing particles gather at the poles where they interact with the atmosphere to create the aurora australis and aurora borealis.
 
Azathoth said:
And the (ionizing) radiation is mainly high energy rays - X-rays, Gamma rays and cosmic rays.

The radiation that we typically think of as harmful (e.g. from Radon, Uranium) is "particle" radiation - Alpha and Beta, both of which are easily stopped by a layer or two of paper, but are very harmful when we breathe in or ingest (eat) radioactive elements, which then release radiation directly into the body.

TBH I think that the inclusion of the Android (conveniently, erm, left out of the MR summary) and iPhone is a cheap attempt to get some media/popular interest in the NASA programme - I'm sure that all of these experiments could have been done better with an Atmel AVR, TI OMAP or Altera eval board and some sensors. But whatever. The application for these apps sounds rather contrived.

"The three-axis gyroscopes and accelerometers in the iPhone 4 are expected to perform very well in zero-gravity, and are being tested as an alternative to much more expensive equipment."

Presumably made by STM or an handful of others. Yeah, using COTS equipment is much cheaper than space-qualified parts. And modern MEMS technology is cheaper than a laser gyro...
Click to expand...

What I find interesting is that much of the shuttle's orientation equipment is very dated compared to the current state-of-the-art which the iPhone utilizes. The shuttle's sensors, gyroscopes and accelerometers were state-of-the-art about 5 years before the first shuttle test flight.
 
You all are missing the bigger picture, soon our space program will be just like the SciFi movies like Aliens or you see in the Outer Limits where everything is privatized and is for pure profit. The future isn't far off now :eek:
 
RalfTheDog said:
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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There is your answer. For anything that needs to be rewritten from scratch (the ground up) ask Intuit and the FCP crew:)

Seriously though. The space program in the beginning has led to a lot of discoveries and inventions.

Unfortunately when there is a budget crunch and you can't tax the people anymore some things will have to be postponed.

Let's hope the private sector steps in.
 
Ricky Smith said:
You all are missing the bigger picture, soon our space program will be just like the SciFi movies like Aliens or you see in the Outer Limits where everything is privatized and is for pure profit. The future isn't far off now :eek:
Click to expand...

Ah yes, Weyland-Yutani. Let's hope there won't be any rogue-android science officers. ;)

Ian_Holm_Ash_Alien.jpg
 
Cost of the shuttle to take upper atmosphere pictures, $1 Trillion USD. Cost of a helium balloon, styrofoam bait container, hand warmer, iPhone 4 (with contract), $3000 USD. Priceless!

+1 for Shuttle Mode!
 
I hope the iPhones don't turn out to be Decepticons, and are gonna transform and tear up the ISS when they get on board! That'd be a kick in the teeth...

I'm still convinced my MacBook Pro is an Autobot, but I can't get it to transform... hmm....
 
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