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ISS Virtual Tour

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Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#32

Post by torgoguys »

Very cool!

Wow, I never realized how cluttered the ISS was. Stuff all over! Lots of Thinkpads as already mentioned, but lots of lots of things: cameras, lens, etc. I surprised at the amount of duplication. (I do realize that redundancy is key when you can't just run to the store to replace something, but still...)

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#34

Post by d_theorist »

arethuza wrote: post #5

I'm going to put the audio-book version of Seveneves on (just started listening to it for the second time this morning) and have a good browse around this.

Made me think of Seveneves as well. I bet Stephenson would have found this thing really useful for writing the book.

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#35

Post by arrrg »

torgoguys wrote: post #32

Very cool! Wow, I never realized how cluttered the ISS was. Stuff all over! Lots of Thinkpads as already mentioned, but lots of lots of things: cameras, lens, etc. I surprised at the amount of duplication. (I do realize that redundancy is key when you can't just run to the store to replace something, but still...)

If you zoom in on the images you can see why they have so many cameras: loads of dead pixels everywhere. They don’t last forever up there because of the increased radiation. I would assume they don’t really fly stuff like still functioning cameras with loads of dead pixels back. (Even some old iPad seems to get good use as a wall clock next to the dining table.)

Also, if I remember correctly (from some interview with some ESA guy, I think) people on the ground would prefer it if the station were kept tidier – but the people up there are busy people with more important things to do than to keep everything always super-tidy. But inventory management is apparently a big topic and they do have a system for it. (I think even including a barcode scanner to catalogue items.)

I mean, even still, looking at those images, I do have to say everything does seem … tidier than usual. I think they cleaned up before they took them. Those more improvised tours of the station from astronauts you can find on YouTube show a station that is substantially more cluttered. Or at least seem that way. Looking at those pictures and being familiar with others and videos of the station my first thought was not how cluttered everything is but how tidy. Compared to the usual state of things, at least.

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#36

Post by arrrg »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #25

I love the disconnect between science fiction and reality. There's no beautiful Kubrick-esque set design here. The whole thing just looks like someone's garage, full of nick-nacks, tools, and little projects. It just a giant mancave, really. This is why I'm a little bored with LEO space exploration. I can't wait for the SLS to go live and try something that isn't this. That said, I would love to see a ISS-like struct…

The mundanity is what makes it real and also very cool to me. I don’t think manned space exploration will look any different in the future … until maybe it starts looking mundane in other ways (think mundanity of commercial air travel). Even if we do go to Mars or other places. LEO has little to do with that … and SLS will look just the same on the inside.

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#37

Post by dfox »

Kiro wrote: post #6
gii2 wrote: post #2

Did you noticed that there are only ThinkPads there? It is the only laptop certified to work on ISS.

What are the requirements?

Requirements include thermal management (ie. cooling working in microgravity environment, without convection), power supply compatibility and EMC.

I assume that the thermal management part is significant reason for use of thinkpads. On another brands one can see that cooling is significantly dependent on orientation (usually with the best orientation for cooling being something other than "standing flat"), while thinkpads are able to get incredibly hot in any orientation, but I've never seen one overheat.

Another thing is the whole reliability and serviceability thing.

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#38

Post by robryk »

It's interesting to see some differences between the US-and-everyone-else and Russian part. One that was most striking to me is cabling and piping between modules: on the Russian side, the pipes go through the hatches, which complicates closing the hatches but makes the cables and pipes easier to access/repair and makes it easier to install new ones. On the other side, there are no pipes or cables going through hatches.

There's also a hatch in the deck of Unity that seems to have nothing on the other side (the one labelled Hab). Is it a place where a module will be added?

Re: ISS Virtual Tour

#39

Post by sudhirj »

robryk wrote: post #38

It's interesting to see some differences between the US-and-everyone-else and Russian part. One that was most striking to me is cabling and piping between modules: on the Russian side, the pipes go through the hatches, which complicates closing the hatches but makes the cables and pipes easier to access/repair and makes it easier to install new ones. On the other side, there are no pipes or cables going through hatch…

Probably stands for Habitat. I could see bunks anywhere else. I doubt the astronauts want to show living quarters. Not much privacy as it is.
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