Astronauts traveling to the ISS will soon receive new HP workstations specifically designed for working in space.
NASA heeft aan The Verge bevestigd dat astronauten die naar het ISS reizen binnenkort HP ZBook G9 Mobile Workstation laptops mee aan boord krijgen. Volgens HP heeft het twee jaar aan testen, ontwerpen van hardware en heel wat engineeringwerk gekost om de workstations klaar te krijgen.
Specially designed for space
According to a paper from HP, the ZBook Fury G9 runs on an Intel Core Ultra 9 vPro HX processor, an Nvidia RTX Pro Blackwell GPU, 128 GB of DDR5 RAM, and four 2 TB NVMe SSDs. Additionally, HP states that 100 workstations are already in active use on the ISS, along with HP printers. The partnership between NASA and HP has been ongoing for fifty years.
The systems must not only handle intensive tasks but also withstand the unusual conditions in space. Launch vibrations and extreme temperature fluctuations require a special design. Since there is no help desk or factory available, astronauts must perform repairs themselves, making reliable and replaceable parts essential.
The ISS does not use AC chargers like those on Earth, so HP developed a universal AC/DC adapter. These are used for workstations both on the ISS and on Earth.