Amazing hard drive story
- Thread starter Bozo
- Start date
Stereodude
Not really a
Lucky it wasn't a Western Digital, or a Deathstar. 
No doubt a special and expensive drive (150% special, 1000% expensive).
Bozo
0
True, but the data for a multi-million dollar experiment/test was saved. Cheap insurance.
Bozo :joker:
Like any regular part that ends up in a Govt project.
It appears to be a standard 340MB drive. Old technology with a known performance history.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9083718
Aren't they still using a hardened 386 for the shuttle flight computer? As this is just an experiment they get allowed to use the "newer" stuff, heh. Still I am impressed, that heat, violent breakup and landing could possibly be the worst treatment a drive has withstood.
timwhit
0
High-powered wood chipper?
Stereodude
Not really a
I had read somewhere it's an 8086.
Sweet, I did assembly language way back in college on a 8086 or 8085 or one of those variants.
sechs
0
They upgraded the flight computer systems fifteen or so years ago. As I recall, they're something on the order of a 286 -- which is still more than enough to get the job done.
sechs
0
It's not particularly amazing that this drive survived, considering that other experiments did, as well.
I had a friend who, at the time, was working at NASA Ames on aging in space. His group sent up a bunch of C. elegans (a round worm with a well-studied aging process) aboard Columbia. His experiment came back with usable data, i.e., the worms survived.
I had a friend who, at the time, was working at NASA Ames on aging in space. His group sent up a bunch of C. elegans (a round worm with a well-studied aging process) aboard Columbia. His experiment came back with usable data, i.e., the worms survived.