HP wins contract for $2.5 billion IT deal with NASA, we dream of TouchPads in low Earth orbit 72
NASA has long been at the forefront of computing technology, even if all they needed to get a man on the moon was a slide rule (and 3,500 tons of metal and 960,000 gallons of fuel), and they just signed a contract with HP worth $2.5 billion over the next ten years to ensure they stay that way. While NASA’s engineers and astronauts will be busy putting things into orbit, HP will be busy providing the space agency with computers, servers, software, and mobile IT services. HP has had a long history with NASA, in fact back in 2007 they signed a seven-year $5.6 billion contract for desktops, servers, mainframes, and printers.
What gets us all in a nerd frenzy is the “mobile IT services” part. It’s not exactly clear what that means, as it could just be HP managing NASA’s Microsoft Exchange servers, but we can’t help but imagine it leading to webOS devices throughout NASA, and maybe eventually in space. Right now, astronauts on the International Space Station get their mobile computing on with what we can’t help but imagine are less-than-modern laptops that have been up on the station for the past several years (believe it or not, the ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2000).
We say send up a few HP TouchPads, a nice Wi-Fi router, and an HP Envy laptop or two for the heavy computational lifting. If just so we can run around in our fishbowls spacesuits yelling “webOS in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace.” And because astronauts deserve the very best in technology; they’re putting their lives on the line at the edge of space, after all.
72 Comments
Wow! This could be huge. If "Mobile IT Services" means "webOS", this is INSTANT legitimacy! Great news, hopefully.
NOW THIS MAKES SENSE!
Hiring a boxer to promote makes no sense at all, but if you can get NASA to use WebOS that is HUGE!
fantastic news. keep it coming...
Heh, I had this mental image of an astronaut waiting thirty minutes for his iPad to sync with iTunes.
It'll be interesting to see how HP gets the cloud to work in spaaaaace.
they are closer to the cloud(s) than we are!
Actually, the commonly accepted definition for Low Earth Orbit is between 160 - 2,000 km (100 - 1,240 miles) above the Earth's surface. Middle clouds from between 13,000 and 25,000 feet which is only about four miles up. So, we are, in fact much closer to the clouds than objects in Low Earth Orbit. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit
i would be happier to see a new webos device on earth before talking about the space
your mind is the size of a walnut.
Good one...lol
I had a good LOL
And I agree
your mind is the size of a peanut and your head is buried in the sand.
peanuts actually do that. your joke is painful.
very interesting story... but i can't help but think that the 1st gen Touchpad may be a lil' too flimsy or not Rugged enough for a serious use. :-/ I really hope they do a redesign and come out w/ something w/ out that finger print magnet on the back. :-( i may weight for the 2nd gen. lets hope they get that one perfect. LOL... silly i'm getting excited for a 2nd gen when the 1st gen hasn't been released yet. As far as the NASA thing goes tho... VERY EXCITED ABOUT THAT!!!!!!!
there are no heavy duty cases that exist to put the touchpad in. you are right.
example is, and i hate to use Apple, but Apple has a brushed aluminum back. The flimsy back on the Touchpad seriously makes me nervous it may take one bump to crack it or break it... just doesn't look too solid, and thats really disappointing because i want it so bad but don't want to throw down on a device i feel will break easily. :-(
like i said. there will be many different cases that exist to house your touchpad. i dont think breaking it will be an issue. you can break an ipad just as easily as a touchpad by dropping it on its corner im sure.
Yep, as I can say safely from the experience that we have with our Aluminium HP-Notebooks compared to their older plastic-brethren:
The plastic ones were a fingerprint-magnet AND they didn't scratch or deform that easy as the aluminium ones.
Yes, Aluminium feels better and more worthy in your hand, but it also gets damaged more easily than plastic (which is flexible...).
I also don't think that HP will ever use alu-bodies for webOS as long as they embrace TTS and the Touchstone. But I would like to see them delivered with the soft-touch back that is now standard on their phones :)
i do agree w/ that.. the soft touch would be very nice... and so much less smudge to make it look filthy. very good point. thank you.
Remember, the TouchPad was moved to the Laptop division for future model designs. I wouldn't be surprised if the TouchPad 2 is aluminum like the Envy/dv line. Besides, it'll be a couple years before any new tech actually gets up into space.
I think I agree with vito-andolini that aluminum might be avoided as long as touchstones are a part of the picture.
Maybe. I suspect the final TouchPad design will have a rubber backing instead of the plastic. It's a comfort issue and rubber wouldn't interfere with the TouchStone.
That would be awesome... but unforch Ruby stated on the engadget show that no more changes would be made to the Touchpad for release. He was talking about the one he had on stage... so it is very very unlikely that it will be changed in this first gen product. which is why i mentioned the second gen. :-/ i wish they would do a last min. update to make it up to par w/ the iPad2 that would make more sense for holding it till "Summer release"
You will see the soft touch back on the TouchPad+ ;)
Metals interfere with magnetic waves which is used for touchstone. Plus they warp and wear easier than plastic. They just need to stop using shiny plastic. They did that with Pre and learned their lesson there. Treos were known for their soft touch backs I just can't understand why they would abandon something that worked well in the past. Stop trying to be like Apple and be more like Palm.
well the ability to create private apps for your own organization and distribute them yourself without having to be in the app catalog to the public will be a huge asset to alot of companies.
This news is fantastic.
Since we aren't doing our own manned space missions anymore, I wonder how much we will have to pay for our astronauts to bring the additional size and weight of the TP compared to other tablets.
For sure less than you have to pay for an iPad. Because that one would also need a laptop in Space to activate it...^^
All astronauts take a laptop with them into space already, and the ISS has a few others for additional projects.
Just because the shuttle era is coming to a close doesn't mean we're never sending our own up again. There are two significant private projects underway (the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing's CST-100) as well as the Lockheed Orion, a follow-on to the cancelled Constellation program. All of these aim for a manned launch in the 2014-2016 time frame.
So now i gotta be a astronaut to get a WebOS device? nice...
for the win. LOL
Sounds like bonus to me! I was having a hard time coming up with that Virgin Galactic $200,000 ticket anyway, so getting a free ride into space for every TouchPad sold...that would solve the marketshare issue! I think you might even have people camping outside NASA the day the TouchPads go on sale there...in the space center gift shop.
sounds good to me i can see it it now with a ad saying (Be on the cutting edge of tech like our men and women in space with the new touchpad and then show a it being used in space) i can se people seeing a ad like that and want to buy it
Interestingly, I think it's been about 20 years since people associated astronauts with cutting edge technology. When was the last time you saw the Space Shuttle and astronauts advertising technology?
Advertise? Not n a long long time. Of course, I never considered Tang as cutting edge technology.
NASA, however, is very much cutting edge. Always has been and always will be...even as they start to close up the Space Shuttle Shop.
For astronauts, it's been a long time. But in 2006, a cosmonaut hit a golf ball off of the ISS for a Canadian company.
Advertising by astronauts in space has been forbidden by US law since the early 1990s.
I just hope they remember to turn on Airplane mode during liftoff.
LOL... too funny!
Perfect!!! LOL
I think Palm needs to add Space Craft mode!
And good thing it has Gorilla Glass, to hold up during the heat of re-entry!
Time to dump GE for HPQ
Hi Everyone.
I see this not as a glass half full situation. I SEE IT AS A GLASS COMPLETELY FULL SITUATION!
The space program has always be the cause for the the USA to be at the forefront of tech. we invented the computer, microchips, the transistor, etc.....
This will help us lead the way well into this our new Milena!
Take care all,
Jay
Jay - The US does not have a manned space program after this month. The Obama administration ended it. The US may be at the forefront of tech in the future but it won't be as a result of our space program. If TPs ever go into space it will not be on a NASA vehicle.
US still will send astronauts to ISS, they just have to fly in a Russian made rocket !
FYI, NASA wasn't defunded,the funding was redirected... "The new spending would be for research on a propulsion breakthrough to travel deeper into space, as well as development of technologies to allow humans to transport necessary supplies to work and stay longer."
We're still going into Space, we're just not going to do what Private and Commercial businesses can now do. NASA will no longer be a subway shuttle or taxicab to low earth orbit, but it will create new technologies to become a supraway shuttle to the rest of our solar system and hopefully, one day, beyond.
Forget about TP's on the moon. Think about TP's on Mars. (Not to mention if we can get to Mars then getting to the moon becomes a whole lot easier).
Go beyond the spin...
Oh, and it's a bonus that now Private and Commercial companies will hire and invest in businesses to begin flying NASA personal into space along with paying customers who just want to go for a multi-thousand dollar jaunt or who want to join the "Low-Earth Orbit Club".
There's still one more mission. STS-135 is scheduled for June.
i think u might on to something so what your saying is hp has to holla at spaceX and virgin galactic.
This is for those fools who worry about dropping a TPad in space and break it :
in space things float. they just don't drop and break !
:( I sent this tip last month (and yes, last month was only last week, but still) but I didn't get a "Thanks CMercs for the tip"... I'm so disappointed.
Next time i'll just write the article myself and send it in... :P
Oh! And Thanks for my new Desktop Background... :D
Thanks for the tip CMercs!.....happy? :p
If he is not happy I will be happy for him :)
Maybe the People at NASA can figure out a way to bring WebOS 2.x to my sprint Pre.
That's just so they have a way to load webOS on a rocket and send it out to space when it never gets more than 5% market-share and fails.
yeah i get it.. manny pacaau is gonna hold the first boxing match on mars and HP will be there giving out free touchpads. The touchpad doubles as a VIP pass to Dr. Dres space shuttle party and its really the sequel to soul plane!
I actually believe the above will happen before we get a touchpad release date.
30 days now away from supposed date and not one peep. Why is it we know all about the iphone5 in september and already have info and buzz on other junk months ahead of time. If its really in June where is the buzz? it better be coming like a tital wave soon. I will be first in line, but I am really hoping I am not the only person in line.
This is good for Manny PacQuiao too, there will be a whole new set of weight classes for him to conquer on Mars!
I'd be happier if NASA didn't spend 2.5 billion dollars on anything. In fact i'd be happier if NASA didn't spend anything.
They will be replacing the Beats Audio speakers with rockets. They will be replacing the charging port with lasers.
Dream of touchpads in LEO? NASA needs to get out of the Low Earth Orbit business and get back into space... I want webos at the lagrange points, mars...
I respectfully give the precentral guys credit, this news has been around for a few weeks now. But with the no news news with HPalm/WebOS you gotta write something.....
Must be purgatory having to write for precentral instead of the sister sites.
I miss the walnut and peanut references already....
People keep worrying about dropping the Touchpad. Do they forget it's weightless in space? The astronauts would have to throw it against something :)
PAAAAAAALM! In SPAAAAAAAACE! (said like the PAAAAAAAAALM Guy)
Yeah it's nice to imagine touchpads in space. For me though it's even nicer to imagine thousands of NASA engineers (and associated hangers-on, and myself) with Pre 3's on earth.
Preferably on Sprint.
Catch my drift?
Watch that drift in space...it gets away from you pretty fast!
i think the contract has nothing to do with webos
Does Zero Gravity have any effect on wifi?
NASA is the most 'mobile' organization on the planet, right?
Perfect match.
It's all good news, anything that raises HP/webOSs profile. I hope the Pre3 comes to the UK soon as I'm back to a Palm Treo 680 after killing my release day Pre.
This is a services/admin contract. HP will provide (via lease) a range of computers and devices to NASA employees, including Macs, PCs, UNIX workstations, iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys, etc. Notice that much of that hardware cannot, by definition, be sourced from HP as a manufacturer (much like the case with the current contractor Lockheed-Martin which doesn't even make computers or mobile devices).
Right now NASA IT is heavily using BlackBerry and iOS mobile devices, and the HP contract will support that requirement. Whether webOS gets into the mix is not HP's call, but rather NASA's. If NASA writes it into the requirements, it will happen. HP can't, and won't, push hardware/software on their own.