While us mere Earth-dwellers are stuck in the middle of the RAMpocalypse, those bourgeoise folks up on the International Space Station have no such worries. The current crew are reviewing plans to replace network servers on the gigantic floating tin can—and discussing when they can activate their new laptops.
And what magnificent machines they appear to be (via The Verge). The crew’s new computers are custom HP ZBook G9 Fury models, and they’ve got specs sheets that would make many modern gaming rigs weep.
With Intel Core Ultra 9 processors and Nvidia RTX Pro Blackwell mobile GPUs nestled inside, the new HP machines [PDF] certainly have processing and graphics needs covered—along with a serious dose of AI crunching power. Each also comes with 128 GB worth of DDR5 ECC SODIMM memory, and “multiple NVMe SSDs.” Must be nice.
Actually, ECC memory is more of a requirement than a luxury. ECC stands for Error-Correcting Code, and memory modules with such a system are used to ensure data integrity within machines operating in high-stakes scenarios.
On Earth, they might be used for crucial servers in a data center setup, or within certain industrial systems. In space, they’re used because… well, you’re in space. Data is kind of the reason we’re going in the first place, and NASA loves a dose of extra redundancy.
Do the astronauts really need that much of it, though? I only ask because we’re sort of struggling down here on terra firma. Oh they do. Never mind. Forget about it. Important space stuff, I understand.
HP says that its new machines have also undergone extensive battery and radiation testing, including “bombardment with neutrons in specialised radiation chambers.” I’d imagine that isn’t on the list of tests for most of our best gaming laptop picks, but I’m prepared to be surprised.
Even the glass of the LCD screens has had a thorough going over, as broken glass in zero gravity can leads to some very unfortunate results.
The HP mega lappys have received the NASA seal of approval, and are deemed fit for the challenge of operating in one of the most unorthodox environments you could possibly think of. The first batch of laptops were launched back in October, and they should be coming online sometime soon.
Once they’re up and running, may I suggest a quick game of Kerbal Space Program, just as an extra testing procedure? It’d be rude not to, given the circumstances—and someone’s got to be the first to try it out in zero G.
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