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Comment by adrian_b | Hacker News Reader

The threat of radiation is not overblown at all.

The errors caused by radiation are extremely frequent and you definitely must guard against them, otherwise anything will fail immediately in space.

However that does not necessarily require hardware measures. It may be more efficient if instead of a slow antique CPU with hardware redundancy you use a fast modern CPU, even if it is more sensitive to radiation and even when it lacks hardware redundancy, but you do each computation several times, verifying that every time you get the same result, and if possible you use different algorithms or verification methods, to be able to detect some permanent errors.

This is what the Mars helicopter did. If it had used standard smartphone software, the helicopter would have failed instantly.

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>>The errors caused by radiation are extremely frequent and you definitely must guard against them, otherwise anything will fail immediately in space.

I asked this in another thread but I will repeat it here - how come that their bog standard iPhones that they use for taking pictures with are still operating fine then? If like you said, "anything will fail immediately" - doesn't sound like that's the case? They have electronic watches with no radiation hardening, they have regular laptops with no radiation hardening.....I'm not saying that it's not a problem, but it definitely doesn't seem to be in the area of "immediately failing in space" if you don't have that.

As other posters have said, the personal devices of the astronauts are already used in spaces that are much better shielded against radiation than a typical satellite or the Mars helicopter.

Radiation shields add mass and volume, so it helps if the electronics is somewhat resistant to radiation, allowing for less efficient shields.

Even with the enhanced shielding, the personal devices experience errors from time to time, e.g. the photographs taken may have some wrong pixels and they sometimes have to reboot their laptops or smartphones, if weird behavior happens. Like others have said, these kinds of errors are not important, unlike in the computers that control the spacecraft, where errors are not acceptable, so those must use either hardware or software means to combat the effects of radiation errors.

None of these devices are mission-critical. Worst case they have to be restarted; then they are fine again and the world moves on.

Yes, but that wasn't the question. OP said anything that's not radiation hardened will fail immediately - to which I ask ok, what about all the stuff they brought up with them which doesn't seem to be instantly failing.

The radiation levels are much lower where humans live, otherwise they would not live for long. Without humans, thinner and lighter radiation shields are used, to reduce costs.

Theoretically, one could use the same electronic devices that are used on Earth, if one would add thick enough shields, but this is impractical, so one must make a compromise, by combining some less efficient shielding with devices more resistant to radiation.

The Mars helicopter had essentially no shielding, as it had to be extremely light to be able to fly in the Martian atmosphere.

Moreover, as explained in the parent article, the radiation levels are not constant. A great part of the radiation comes from the Sun, and that part fluctuates continuously (i.e. the so-called "space weather"). The electronic devices must be designed to withstand the peaks of solar radiation, even if the radiation levels are less than that much of the time.

The astronauts can shut down their personal devices, preventively, when there is a peak of solar radiation, or when they pass through the radiation belts.

Sounds like Microsoft have a credible excuse for two outlook instances ruining

“Ticket closed, not a bug, caused by radiation bit flip”

Aren't the stakes a little different with an iPhone that you have for picture taking and entertainment vs the systems that manage your trajectory and life support?

The fact that a handful of devices hasn't failed is hardly proof that they can't. Hell, I've driven thousands of times and never actually NEEDED my seatbelt.

>>The fact that a handful of devices hasn't failed is hardly proof that they can't.

Again, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just challenging OP's assertion that any device with no radiation hardening will "immediately" fail, which clearly isn't the case with these devices. That's not me saying that radiation hardening isn't needed, quite the opposite.

(I have no expertise or knowledge of this area but...)

tl;dr: people need (heavy) radiation shielding, cpus et al can live without it

I'd imagine their bog standard iPhones and watches are generally in parts of the craft which have more radiation protection than others and, further, that it's probably only the parts where people are going to be that get that protection (due to weight savings, etc.) and if you can mitigate radiation problems by using a $30 CPU instead of a $2 CPU and save $100K of weight on radiation shielding on the CPU compartment, that's a no-brainer.

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