William Shatner, 90, is headed to space with Audrey Powers
on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin mission

By Chloe Melas, CNN
Updated 10:11 AM ET, Mon October 4, 2021

(CNN)Captain Kirk is headed to space.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced Monday actor William Shatner, 90, will
be on the next Blue Origin flight alongside Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's
vice president of mission and flight operations, Chris Boshuizen and
Glen de Vries.

"I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in a press
release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."

And it has been a long time coming.

Shatner has been pretending to live in space since the 1960s, when he
played Captain James T. Kirk on the hit television series "Star Trek."
He went on to star in seven "Star Trek" films.

The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
internationally recognized boundary of space.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html

.......

BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 11:36:54 -0400, Jonathan <Mailinstead@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
>internationally recognized boundary of space.
>
>https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html

11 minutes - not exactly a 5 year mission and DEFINITELY not what was
envisioned in 2001: Space Odyssey.

(I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
that that would be documentary and not a movie)

On Monday, October 4, 2021 at 1:17:23 PM UTC-4, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 11:36:54 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
> >internationally recognized boundary of space.
> >
> >https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
> 11 minutes - not exactly a 5 year mission and DEFINITELY not what was
> envisioned in 2001: Space Odyssey.
>
> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> that that would be documentary and not a movie)

Compared with SpaceX's multiday trip, its definitely a second-drawer experience.
....but I wouldn't turn it down.

pt

On Monday, October 4, 2021 at 6:17:23 PM UTC+1, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 11:36:54 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
> >internationally recognized boundary of space.
> >
> >https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
> 11 minutes - not exactly a 5 year mission and DEFINITELY not what was
> envisioned in 2001: Space Odyssey.
>
> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
What colour of shirt will he be wearing? :-)

On 10/4/2021 1:17 PM, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 11:36:54 -0400, Jonathan <Mailinstead@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
>> internationally recognized boundary of space.
>>
>> https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
>
> 11 minutes - not exactly a 5 year mission and DEFINITELY not what was
> envisioned in 2001: Space Odyssey.
>
> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
>

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On 10/4/2021 1:39 PM, Andrew McDowell wrote:
> On Monday, October 4, 2021 at 6:17:23 PM UTC+1, The Horny Goat wrote:
>> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 11:36:54 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
>>> internationally recognized boundary of space.
>>>
>>> https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
>> 11 minutes - not exactly a 5 year mission and DEFINITELY not what was
>> envisioned in 2001: Space Odyssey.
>>
>> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
>> that that would be documentary and not a movie)

> What colour of shirt will he be wearing? :-)
>

Blue of course, here's a pic of their jumpsuit, not
sure if the come in XXXL.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/science/jeff-bezos-space.html

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:41:49 -0400, Jonathan <Mailinstead@gmail.com>
wrote:

>> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
>> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
>>
>
>
>"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
>
>
Ha ha - well (1) I was talking about the earlier scenes of lunar
mining and commercial space shuttles and (2) I'm quite sure HAL
wouldn't have said "How about a nice game of chess" if computers in
2001 were playing at a level computers were actually playing at at
that time.

I'm not sure the dates of when the 80486 was the state of the art CPU
but at that time you could go into a computer store and purchase for
under $50 a chess program capable of playing at a level where it would
compete credibly at a state or provincial championship level with the
kind of computers available in university computer labs playing 200+
rating points higher (the chess rating system is a statistical system
where it is estimated that 2 players with a 200 point difference
between them would score 15-5 for the higher rated player)

So unless Dave Bowman was an exceptionally strong amateur player
(unlikely given the kind of free time astronauts have available) even
a 80486 computer - which I assume was much less capable than HAL -
would thrash Bowman at chess fairly regularly!

On 10/4/2021 9:15 PM, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:41:49 -0400, Jonathan <Mailinstead@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
>>> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
>>>
>>
>>
>> "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
>>
>>
> Ha ha - well (1) I was talking about the earlier scenes of lunar
> mining

I've spent a bit of time looking into the lunar mining idea.
Problem is, about the only thing on the moon that can
be mined is, eh hum... gravel.

And the cost difference between a truck on Earth ($50 a ton)
and space colonies/ships from the moon ($5 million a pound)
is a bit of an issue.

H3, like fusion, is a barely a pipe dream. About the
only practical use for a moon base is for military
observation and/or missile defense.

> and commercial space shuttles and (2) I'm quite sure HAL
> wouldn't have said "How about a nice game of chess" if computers in
> 2001 were playing at a level computers were actually playing at at
> that time.
>
> I'm not sure the dates of when the 80486 was the state of the art CPU
> but at that time you could go into a computer store and purchase for
> under $50 a chess program capable of playing at a level where it would
> compete credibly at a state or provincial championship level with the
> kind of computers available in university computer labs playing 200+
> rating points higher (the chess rating system is a statistical system
> where it is estimated that 2 players with a 200 point difference
> between them would score 15-5 for the higher rated player)
>
> So unless Dave Bowman was an exceptionally strong amateur player
> (unlikely given the kind of free time astronauts have available) even
> a 80486 computer - which I assume was much less capable than HAL -
> would thrash Bowman at chess fairly regularly!
>

HAL makes four moves at a time. That's not intimidating~

Frank: anyway Queen takes Pawn

HAL: Bishop takes Knights Pawn

Frank: ya that was a good move
...ah Rook to King one

HAL: I'm sorry Frank I think you missed it
Queen to Bishop three
Bishop takes Queen
Knight takes Bishop
Mate

Frank: ah......ya looks like you're right.
I resign.

HAL: thank you for a very enjoyable game

Frank plays chess with HAL aboard Discovery
video (0:47)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzIQUDQO-ag&ab_channel=AZ14142

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzIQUDQO-ag&ab_channel=AZ14142

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On Tuesday, 5 October 2021 at 02:15:26 UTC+1, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:41:49 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> >> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
> >>
> >
> >
> >"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
> >
> >
> Ha ha - well (1) I was talking about the earlier scenes of lunar
> mining and commercial space shuttles and (2) I'm quite sure HAL
> wouldn't have said "How about a nice game of chess" if computers in
> 2001 were playing at a level computers were actually playing at at
> that time.
>
> I'm not sure the dates of when the 80486 was the state of the art CPU
> but at that time you could go into a computer store and purchase for
> under $50 a chess program capable of playing at a level where it would
> compete credibly at a state or provincial championship level with the
> kind of computers available in university computer labs playing 200+
> rating points higher (the chess rating system is a statistical system
> where it is estimated that 2 players with a 200 point difference
> between them would score 15-5 for the higher rated player)
>
> So unless Dave Bowman was an exceptionally strong amateur player
> (unlikely given the kind of free time astronauts have available) even
> a 80486 computer - which I assume was much less capable than HAL -
> would thrash Bowman at chess fairly regularly!

It depends whether HAL 9000 is playing chess
to entertain Dave or to entertain HAL.

Referring to <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poole_versus_HAL_9000>

"Unlike the film, Clarke's treatment stated that HAL won
only half of games played:"

<< For relaxation he (Dave Bowman) could always engage Hal
in a large number of semimathematical games, including
checkers, chess, and polyominoes. If Hal went all out, he could
win any one of them; but that would be bad for morale. So he
had been programmed to win only fifty percent of the time, and
his human partners pretended not to know this. >>

On Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 5:00:05 AM UTC-6, Jonathan wrote:
> About the
> only practical use for a moon base is for military
> observation and/or missile defense.

I know that back in the very early days of space flight, this
sort of thing was proposed as one of the uses of a Moon
base.

But I thought that nowadays this was no longer considered
practical, basically because the Moon is too far away from
the Earth.

John Savard

On 10/5/2021 12:15 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 5:00:05 AM UTC-6, Jonathan wrote:
>> About the
>> only practical use for a moon base is for military
>> observation and/or missile defense.
>
> I know that back in the very early days of space flight, this
> sort of thing was proposed as one of the uses of a Moon
> base.
>
> But I thought that nowadays this was no longer considered
> practical, basically because the Moon is too far away from
> the Earth.
>
> John Savard
>

Pretty sure the Artemis program to the Moon and NASA's
and DOD's asteroid tracking capabilities are components
of our future missile defense capabilities.

Cislunar defense capabilities are our doctrine now.

"The new Space Force doctrine “clearly calls out that we have
a responsibility not just to operate in the geocentric orbit
regime, … but also the cislunar orbit regime, out to the Moon
and beyond the Moon,” Gordon Kordyak, Space Force executive
agent for space domain awareness, told the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last week."

DARPA Nuke Sat To Target Cislunar Monitoring Mission

AFRL last Thursday held a classified stakeholder meeting
to discuss R&D to underpin future military operations
beyond the traditional near-Earth orbits used today.

WASHINGTON: DARPA’s effort to develop nuclear ‘engines’ for
far-roving satellites also hopes to demonstrate the capability
to keep “timely” tabs on spacecraft operating near the Moon,
says program manager Maj. Nathan Greiner.

While cislunar surveillance doesn’t require nuclear-propulsion,
such a spacecraft could move more rapidly into position to
monitor targets of interest. It might also mean the spacecraft
would be able to remain active for a longer period thanks
to the fuel.

“Some of this is classified, so this answer must be rather general,”
he said in an email, explaining that the Demonstration Rocket
for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program has two key goals:

“Provide agile, responsive maneuverability (potentially across
vast distances) within the cislunar domain for a variety of
missions.

Conduct space domain awareness within the cislunar domain in
a timely fashion.”

DARPA awarded contracts to General Atomics, Blue Origin
and Lockheed Martin last week for Phase 1 of the DRACO program,
which has two separate but related parts.

The central focus of the effort, called Track A, is development
of a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for spacecraft,
essentially a small nuclear reactor that rapidly heats
liquid rocket fuel, converting it to gas and creating thrust.

“DRACO’s NTP system has the potential to achieve high
thrust-to-weight ratios similar to in-space chemical
propulsion and approach the high propellent efficiency
of electric systems,” DARPA’s website explains. “This
combination would give a DRACO spacecraft greater agility
to implement DoD’s core tenet of rapid maneuver in
cislunar space (between the Earth and moon).”
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/04/darpa-nuke-sat-to-target-cislunar-monitoring-mission/

ALL DOMAIN, SPACE
SPACECOM Needs More Data, Sensors To Track On-Orbit Threats

https://breakingdefense.com/2021/09/spacecom-needs-more-data-sensors-to-track-on-orbit-threats/

AIR WARFARE, SPACE

Space Force, AFRL To Demo Mobile Lunar Spy Sat

The highly mobile D2S2 satellite will carry a 20cm camera
to test the sensor performance needed for lunar imaging.

The Defense Deep Space Sentinel (D2S2) is being designed as a
pathfinder “to demonstrate extreme mobility of small satellites
via advanced electric propulsion and compact power system
technologies that are foundational for a variety of deep space
missions, including domain awareness, rendezvous/proximity
operations, space servicing, space object removal and recovery,
and other applications in defensive space operations,”
James Haywood, deputy director of the AFRL Center for
Rapid Innovation (CRI), told me in an email

“Today, through a broad partnership that we have with Air Force
Research Lab, … we have actually released techniques,” he said.
“We’ve initiated architectural analyses that are looking at
existing sensors today, working with operational units to plan
your TTPs — your tactics, techniques and procedures — for
operating systems in cislunar space, and how that’s different
than in geocentric space. What are sensors seeing today? And
what do they need to see tomorrow?”

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/11/space-force-afrl-to-demo-mobile-lunar-spy-sat/

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On 10/4/2021 11:36 AM, Jonathan wrote:

That's a record that might last a while.

5 Gs and 90 years old!

>
> William Shatner, 90, is headed to space with Audrey Powers
> on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin mission
>
> By Chloe Melas, CNN
> Updated 10:11 AM ET, Mon October 4, 2021
>
>
> (CNN)Captain Kirk is headed to space.
>
> Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced Monday actor William Shatner, 90, will
> be on the next Blue Origin flight alongside Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's
> vice president of mission and flight operations, Chris Boshuizen and
> Glen de Vries.
>
> "I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in a press
> release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."
>
> And it has been a long time coming.
>
> Shatner has been pretending to live in space since the 1960s, when he
> played Captain James T. Kirk on the hit television series "Star Trek."
> He went on to star in seven "Star Trek" films.
>
> The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
> internationally recognized boundary of space.
>
> https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
>
>
>
> ......
>
> BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
> when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
> so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
> impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 7:17:46 PM UTC-4, Jonathan wrote:
> On 10/4/2021 11:36 AM, Jonathan wrote:
>
>
> That's a record that might last a while.
>
> 5 Gs and 90 years old!
> >
> > William Shatner, 90, is headed to space with Audrey Powers
> > on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin mission
> >
> > By Chloe Melas, CNN
> > Updated 10:11 AM ET, Mon October 4, 2021
> >
> >
> > (CNN)Captain Kirk is headed to space.
> >
> > Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced Monday actor William Shatner, 90, will
> > be on the next Blue Origin flight alongside Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's
> > vice president of mission and flight operations, Chris Boshuizen and
> > Glen de Vries.
> >
> > "I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in a press
> > release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."
> >
> > And it has been a long time coming.
> >
> > Shatner has been pretending to live in space since the 1960s, when he
> > played Captain James T. Kirk on the hit television series "Star Trek."
> > He went on to star in seven "Star Trek" films.
> >
> > The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the
> > internationally recognized boundary of space.
> >
> > https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/entertainment/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-mission/index.html
> >
> >
> >
> > ......
> >

Top-posting? Really?

--
Kevin R

On 10/6/2021 7:09 AM, Kevrob wrote:

>
> Top-posting? Really?
>

Since I was replying to the new subject line, not
the body of the original post I was in fact
bottom posting.

--
BIG LIE From Wiki - "The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler
when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie
so *colossal* that no one would believe that someone "could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

On Monday, October 4, 2021 at 9:15:26 PM UTC-4, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:41:49 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> >> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
> >>
> >
> >
> >"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
> >
> >
> Ha ha - well (1) I was talking about the earlier scenes of lunar
> mining and commercial space shuttles and (2) I'm quite sure HAL
> wouldn't have said "How about a nice game of chess" if computers in
> 2001 were playing at a level computers were actually playing at at
> that time.
>
> I'm not sure the dates of when the 80486 was the state of the art CPU
> but at that time you could go into a computer store and purchase for
> under $50 a chess program capable of playing at a level where it would
> compete credibly at a state or provincial championship level with the
> kind of computers available in university computer labs playing 200+
> rating points higher (the chess rating system is a statistical system
> where it is estimated that 2 players with a 200 point difference
> between them would score 15-5 for the higher rated player)
>
> So unless Dave Bowman was an exceptionally strong amateur player
> (unlikely given the kind of free time astronauts have available) even
> a 80486 computer - which I assume was much less capable than HAL -
> would thrash Bowman at chess fairly regularly!

The first (25 Mhz) 486 was introduced in 1989.
2001 introduced the 1 Ghz Pentium III, roughly about 80 times faster than the first 486.
Although space qualified components typically trail consumer electronics by a lot.
(e.g. The 1989 Galileo Jupiter probe used 70s era 1802 @1.6 Mhz)
AlphaZero, Google's true AI chess playing program, is probably more comparable to the
fictional HAL. That was announced in 2017.

- Tim

On Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 3:21:18 PM UTC+1, Tim McCaffrey wrote:
> On Monday, October 4, 2021 at 9:15:26 PM UTC-4, The Horny Goat wrote:
> > On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:41:49 -0400, Jonathan <Maili...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >> (I was one of the kids who saw both Apollo 11 and 2001 and dreamed
> > >> that that would be documentary and not a movie)
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
> > >
> > >
> > Ha ha - well (1) I was talking about the earlier scenes of lunar
> > mining and commercial space shuttles and (2) I'm quite sure HAL
> > wouldn't have said "How about a nice game of chess" if computers in
> > 2001 were playing at a level computers were actually playing at at
> > that time.
> >
> > I'm not sure the dates of when the 80486 was the state of the art CPU
> > but at that time you could go into a computer store and purchase for
> > under $50 a chess program capable of playing at a level where it would
> > compete credibly at a state or provincial championship level with the
> > kind of computers available in university computer labs playing 200+
> > rating points higher (the chess rating system is a statistical system
> > where it is estimated that 2 players with a 200 point difference
> > between them would score 15-5 for the higher rated player)
> >
> > So unless Dave Bowman was an exceptionally strong amateur player
> > (unlikely given the kind of free time astronauts have available) even
> > a 80486 computer - which I assume was much less capable than HAL -
> > would thrash Bowman at chess fairly regularly!
> The first (25 Mhz) 486 was introduced in 1989.
> 2001 introduced the 1 Ghz Pentium III, roughly about 80 times faster than the first 486.
> Although space qualified components typically trail consumer electronics by a lot.
> (e.g. The 1989 Galileo Jupiter probe used 70s era 1802 @1.6 Mhz)
> AlphaZero, Google's true AI chess playing program, is probably more comparable to the
> fictional HAL. That was announced in 2017.
>
> - Tim
There seems to have been experiments in using non-hardened hardware, especially in the ISS for non safety-critical hardware - It has recently got a beefy HPE cluster that isn't specifically rad-hardened - https://www.space.com/spaceborne-computer-2-microsoft-hpe-launching-to-space-station - this comes after successful experience with the predecessor - from memory NASA claimed that they saw little or no signs of space-triggered upsets.

Searching for this I found a neat idea - put put your hardware centres in space and feed them with solar power! I can't get at the official article to see if they have thought through things like heat dissipation (https://aip..scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0035819) with luck some clever design can cope with that. Searching for the title of the article it contains some info on the ISS computer claiming it wasn't bothered by radiation, and their design does have radiators for heat dissipation but they are a lot smaller than the solar array, so I guess it's not that much of a problem.

Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> writes:
>On Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 3:21:18 PM UTC+1, Tim McCaffrey wrote:

>> Although space qualified components typically trail consumer electronics =
>by a lot.=20
>> (e.g. The 1989 Galileo Jupiter probe used 70s era 1802 @1.6 Mhz)=20
>> AlphaZero, Google's true AI chess playing program, is probably more compa=
>rable to the=20
>> fictional HAL. That was announced in 2017.=20
>>=20
>> - Tim
>There seems to have been experiments in using non-hardened hardware, especi=
>ally in the ISS for non safety-critical hardware - It has recently got a be=
>efy HPE cluster that isn't specifically rad-hardened - https://www.space.co=
>m/spaceborne-computer-2-microsoft-hpe-launching-to-space-station - this com=
>es after successful experience with the predecessor - from memory NASA clai=
>med that they saw little or no signs of space-triggered upsets.

Note that the low earth orbit of the ISS (254 miles) is well below the
van allen belts (starting at 400 miles) which block the bulk of the
radiation that would adversely affect solid state electronics.