Hi,
Radiation is a problem in space.
An astronaut explained that one of the problems of living in space is that if you close your eyes to catch some sleep, you have to get used to those flashes of light which are caused by the flow of radiation which is hitting the retina.
Near Jupiter, the radiation is so strong that its dose, just applied for a second, would be deadly for a human being.
The best protection against radiation may be to apply effective shielding. Careful design, redundancy of systems and checking the correct operation of every system by comparing and weighting the results are effective, too.
Processors are not intelligent. Itīs the designers and the programmers which are intelligent. One should not mix up speed with brain.
Reducing data by processing them by powerful technology "in the field" means that you only get certain results, but not the data from which the results were derived. If your idea about what to be found "in the field" and what to process in the field is different from that what actually exists "in the field", you system may give answers which satisfy you, but which are absolutely imperfect, because you may only see what you were looking for, but everything else may evade your perception. If your concept is limited to the detection of elephants, you may find elephants, but you may overlook the existence of ants.
I find that most consumer chips produced nowadays are in production and application for a very limited period of time. Every chip generation is usually replaced by the next chip generation after some months. At such short life cycles it is not possible to detect all faults and bugs and understand or even repair them. The industry cannot afford to have an interest in its products to last, as products that last and thus satisfy the customer will lower the demand for new products.
In space, the equipment must last, and canīt be replaced easily. Consumer processors, no matter how powerful and cheap, may be inadequate for the application in unforgiving and rough environments.
Regards,
Günther
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