The most "ordinary" space gadgets

What could be more interesting than space technology? After all, these are the things about which we in our life will most likely only read, watch photos and movies. Only a few will be able to touch the spacecraft and go to zero gravity. However, all the technological innovations that are used outside our planet are first tested on Earth. And to be more precise, in the water.

Astronaut Andreas Mogensen is looking forward to his flight to the ISS next year, but now he is testing a new gadget underwater that he will then use in space. NASA has special underwater training missions. They pass off the coast of Florida, at a depth of 20 meters. An improvised space base was created there, on which they regularly train in scuba diving.
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Well, of course, this base called Aquarius is perfect not only for the training of astronauts, but also for testing equipment, which is to go into space.



Here, for example, the device in order to perform various operations without the help of hands. Nothing like? It is called MobiPV (Mobile procedure viewer) and is made on the basis of commercial devices, such as Google Glass, smartphones and tablets. However, there is still much more emphasis on reliability and fault tolerance. The main goal now is to understand how mobiPV can improve the performance of astronauts, eliminating the need to break away from any process in order to get advice or see the instructions. In addition, mobiPV is designed so that the crew on Earth can assist the astronaut in real time. After all, if you wish, they will even see what the person who is wearing this device sees.

The lead engineer of this project explains that the goal is to make people interact more closely. So that a team from Earth could help an astronaut and be as if behind his shoulder, supporting him step by step.

As you can see, this gadget is very similar to Google Glass, but the software here is, of course, more specific. Nevertheless, like this, modern technologies that surround us already everywhere are also in space. So far, Andreas Mogensen is testing mobiPV under water, creating different situations and analyzing how the gadget works. However, next year he will fly to the ISS and who knows, maybe we will also be able to observe his work, thanks to modern technologies.

However, Google Glass is still the gadget that not everyone has. Let's see what the astronauts use so much that everyone has in the house. After all, they probably have smartphones, laptops, game consoles (after all, in space it’s very boring) ...

Of course, astronauts use laptops. The first laptop flew into orbit back in 1985 and it was a Grid Compass. Then, in 1991, another device was seen on the shuttle Atlantis - Mac Portable. However, from 1993 to this day, ThinkPad is used in space, before - IBM, and now - Lenovo. It should be noted that the ThinkPad is generally the only certified notebooks for use on the ISS.

Not cost in space and without modern technology Apple. In 2005, the iPod visited the same International Space Station, and in 2011 the astronauts asked NASA for iPad 2, so they had to play something on Angry Birds. Were at the station and the iPhone, reliably aware of the model of the 4th version. But the first Android-smartphone was Google Nexus S. By the way, a couple of Sphere robots are now working on them, which measure the level of noise and radiation at the station.



But as far as cameras are concerned, here NASA occupies the same principled position as in the case of laptops. Photo equipment on board the ISS only from Nikon. And now it is made in a white case, so as not to overheat. There are about a dozen different SLR cameras at the station, all of which, of course, are top-end modifications. A separate pride of Nikon is that for working in space there was no special way to change the cameras, they say, everything works out of the box.

Not alien to astronauts and modern social networks. So, for example, our Oleg Artemyev posted on Instagram photos of different cities, taken directly from the ISS. And this idea was so much liked by people that they asked him to take a photo even after Oleg had safely returned to Earth. But Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is actively promoting himself on Youtube. He asked the audience what he would do in weightlessness so that it was interesting. Someone asked him to wet and squeeze a rag. Think about it, on Earth this is a primitive task, but what should be done where the water is from a tube? The video very quickly scattered on the Internet, because everyone is interested in how familiar things are done there, where only the elect will fall.

Astronauts spend a lot of time in orbit, doing various scientific things. And if they don’t have to squeeze out rags there in a real situation, then here it’s quite common to cut their hair, not to go shaggy (fly). And for this was created a special machine, combined with ... a vacuum cleaner. Because otherwise, all the hair will fly apart and no longer collect them. Even nails in zero gravity are not easy to cut, you have to do it over the air duct.

In general, as you can see, the work of the astronaut is amazing and beautiful. And this is because we told only about those technologies and phenomena that are similar to our everyday life. And just imagine how much weightlessness and on board the same ISS are unique instruments and devices. Devices that only vaguely resemble terrestrial analogs. Fitness equipment, toilet and much more. But more about that next time. In the meantime, we wish good luck to Andreas Mogensen, who in 2015 will fall into this magical world. By the way, he has a rather interesting video blog on Youtube that you can subscribe to.

Good luck!