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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Back in 2017 two high-powered GNU/Linux computers were sent into orbit and are still running [bbc.co.uk]. They are long overdue for retrieval but are, more than 530 days later, still working. The goal of the project was to test the durability of such systems in preparation for travel to Mars, where data must be processed on site because of the delay in sending it to Earth and then transmitting the results back to Mars. So far autonomous management software has handled all of the hardware problems.

The servers were placed in an airtight box with a radiator that is hooked up to the ISS water-cooling system. Hot air from the computers is guided through the radiator to cool down and than circulated back.

Mr Kasbergen said there had been problems with the redundancy power supply as well as some of the redundant solid-state drives.

But he said the failures were handled by the autonomous management software that was part of the experiment.

The devices will need to be inspected back on Earth to find out what went wrong.

Earlier on SN:
Supercomputer on ISS will soon be Available for Science Experiments [soylentnews.org] (2018)
HPE "Supercomputer" on the ISS Survives for 340 Days and Counting [soylentnews.org] (2018)
HPE Supercomputer to be Sent to the ISS [soylentnews.org] (2017)

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