Motorthusiast: "With the U.S. Space Shuttle program coming to an end some weeks ago, here are some very interesting facts that you may have missed out."
Well in the case of the NASA shuttles, it would be too costly to revamp the hardware and software, when the current systems did the job perfectly. They were well above capacity, so no need for Windows 7 yet :P
Its sad to see the shuttle program come to a halt after so long but there's no doubt that they had some seriously outdated tech in these things. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.
You don't need a super computer to run these things, a battle ship runs on an PC 486 machine.
The reason why is you can get parts extremely easy and cheap, so if the ship gets EMPed and knocks out the computer it isn't expensive to fix it, and if there was a major battle you will find it hard to repair a super computer on a ship where as you can pull up at any port and do a search for 486 machines up for sale in the city.
The shuttle will be the same deal you can't have really complex computers as they become easier to break and if your in space when they break your either stuck, or can fix but will have other problems along the way.
How many times has the shuttle had problems in space and had to do a board change etc and reboot the system be far more than a few times.
the next shuttle system is like a plane, a guy from Australia has done the rockets/engines for this shuttle so it takes off like a normal plane but powers up like the shuttle.
I don't think the cost saving was the most prevalent issue, about using old microchips. Built on
micrometer manufacturing processes instead of the nanometer level processes of modern chips, they are much more sturdy in their operation, and much less prone to make critical errors due to radiation and extreme conditions in space.
Hopefully the US start a new space program at a much lower cost.
this is something that calls for an infographic, and the if it aint broke dont fix it b.s is a double edged sword sometimes.
Its sad to see the shuttle program come to a halt after so long but there's no doubt that they had some seriously outdated tech in these things. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.
You don't need a super computer to run these things, a battle ship runs on an PC 486 machine.
The reason why is you can get parts extremely easy and cheap, so if the ship gets EMPed and knocks out the computer it isn't expensive to fix it, and if there was a major battle you will find it hard to repair a super computer on a ship where as you can pull up at any port and do a search for 486 machines up for sale in the city.
The shuttle will be the same deal you can't have really complex computers as they become easier to break and if your in space when they break your either stuck, or can fix but will have other problems along the way.
How many times has the shuttle had problems in space and had to do a board change etc and reboot the system be far more than a few times.
the next shuttle system is like a plane, a guy from Australia has done the rockets/engines for this shuttle so it takes off like a normal plane but powers up like the shuttle.
so cheaper and easier to run and use.
I don't think the cost saving was the most prevalent issue, about using old microchips. Built on
micrometer manufacturing processes instead of the nanometer level processes of modern chips, they are much more sturdy in their operation, and much less prone to make critical errors due to radiation and extreme conditions in space.