
ISS astronaut finds NASA floppy disks in space - e1ven
https://www.cnet.com/news/iss-astronaut-finds-nasa-floppy-disks-in-space/
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insomniacity
I thought that we were still at the point where NASA knew every single object
on the ISS because they analyse and test[1] everything? So surely they knew
this was there - why didn't they send it back down when they changed laptops?

[1]
[https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/testing_and_analysis/mater...](https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/testing_and_analysis/materials_flight_acceptance/odor_evaluation.html)

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jamesmontalvo3
There is so much stuff packed inside the space station and there's such a high
likelihood of things getting lost (you can't just set something down on a
table and expect it to be there when you come back) that it's not surprising
that things like this show up occasionally. This may have been on a lost items
list for long enough that it was assumed to have been trashed at some point.
Or perhaps it was still on a lost items list. Every item is tracked, and the
inventory managers do a great job tracking it, but some items slip through the
cracks... particularly items from 20 years ago.

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13of40
> some items slip through the cracks

For reference, go to eBay and type in the word "flown".

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therein
This is fascinating. I almost made an impulse purchase.

Didn't know I could own fragments of Kapton tape from Apollo-11 or a part of
the tail fin from the first successful Falcon 9 landing.

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JumpCrisscross
Wonder how much boosting that mass has cost in the intervening years.

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notjustanymike
Not as much as running Windows 95

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benj111
1\. Wouldn't they need to be shielded in some way to protect against the
increased radiation.

2\. Were US export controls still in force for encryption software etc. Did
this require special dispensation for 'export'?

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craftyguy
1) I wondered about this too. Floppy disks used magnetism to store data, so I
wonder what the impact on such a device at such altitude.

2) According to wikipedia, encryption export laws were lessened starting in
2000, so it's possible that the encryption on this disk was no longer
controlled?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_th...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States)

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gregoriol
Why would they need Norton Utilities up there ?!

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rtkwe
Probably a NASA/government requirement that all computers have some sort of
antivirus and that's what they used at the time. The computers up there are
networked with the ground so it's not that weird of a requirement.

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starsinspace
Norton Utilities was not an anti-virus though, it was an utility package for
things like data rescue.

Back then, the stuff from Norton was widely considered best-in-class
software... so very much unlike today. Sad how that brand name was ruined.

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craftyguy
Perhaps it was in case there was a disk failure? I'd like to think they had
storage redundancy up there (and they probably do), and NASA likes to have
contingency plans for contingency plans for contingency plans.

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vectorEQ
norton for windows 95/98 :') classic

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zitterbewegung
Neat tale of Computer archeology in space.

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ddingus
Calling Jason Scott

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ddingus
Come on. You all know he wants the NASA ones.

Happy thanksgiving HN.

