Space Shuttle storing data on TAPE?

[Yooper]

I knew the technology is a tad dated, but storing data on 40 minute TAPES?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_sc/us_space_shuttle

 

[gsdx]

I wonder if they have one of these on board for backup?

 

[star-warrior]

^ I got three of those

 

[cityboy-stl]

^ Ahh, so your fourth bed post is long enough?

 

[T-Rexx]

Not long ago, I was watching an old (1970's?) clip of Battlestar Galactica.

I forget what the scene was, but some robots (I think) were recording information and storing it locally. The humans needed the data, for some reason.

I burst out laughing when Lorne Greene (Commander Adama) said something like "We need those tapes!"

 

[Corny]

You'd be surprised in how many fortune 100 company at least somewhere data is still saved on tapes

 

[hotatlboi]

Yeah tapes are still widely used for at least backup data by many orgs.

 

[Yooper]

You'd be surprised in how many fortune 100 company at least somewhere data is still saved on tapes

I knew that, but on the Space Shuttle? I've got a friend of a friend that works for Iron Mountain. It is my understanding that archived material is still safest on tape. Don't know that for sure though.

I'd have though just for the weight savings a handful of flash drives would be lighter than a box of 40 minute cassette tapes.

 

[hotatlboi]

I knew that, but on the Space Shuttle?

The Space Shuttle uses all whole slew of tech that is more obsolete than the stuff in any computer made in the last 15 years.

Some of the stuff is so old that replacement parts aren't even made anymore except specifically for the Shuttle.

 

[looseliam]

You'd be surprised in how many fortune 100 company at least somewhere data is still saved on tapes

I still use tape for backup.

 

[trawler69]

At least if a tape player goes wrong you can put the tape in a different one. If a bit of the tape screws up you still have the rest of it. If a memory stick screws up you generally lost the lot, If a disc screws up you are fucked without specialist gubbins. Tape is analogue, humans are analogue and simple electronics can convert to human readable format. Human brain can filter out shit and see through distortion and noise.

Humans can't read digital without complex conversions and when digital gets interference the output is garbage hence with a poor digital telly signal the picture freezes or cuts out where as with analogue we can still make out the information through the "snow"

So I kinda understand why they stick with this technology as back up, it is simple and so therefore more reliable which is what you need in a backup.