Nvidia's Tegra Platform May Be Heading to the Moon

And what tangible benefit, if any, will this bring to mankind? we already know that the moon is just like a giant rock orbiting the earth, there's no water, no atmosphere and it can't support life. I don't see any relevant 'discoveries' on the moon now, unless some aliens occupy the moon and change it. It brightens up our night, and maybe shield us from some asteroids, that's what it is and we already know that since the 80's

How bout researching on how we can achieve light speed, or better yet, how we can make worm holes a reality?

What if we just quarry the moon?

I don't think you can use Tesla in space. That CPU is way too sensitive to cosmic rays, like any other CPU designed to work in space. They use custom designed CPUs in anything that goes to space in order to avoid being totally fried by space-radiation. If anyone has any more information on the topic I'd be interested to hear.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Tegra hardware is not radiation-hardened... unless this rover is going to be made of lead and clay, he's in for a world of hurt. Processors in satellite applications operate at a couple hundred megahertz at best because of radiation.

The usual cheap solution is to have 3 or more CPU's working on the same problem. If a majority come up with the same answer, go with it. If you want to be a real stickler, make sure all CPU's agree before using the answer. In case of disagreement, recalculate. And, yea, it will probably be underclocked.

My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer.

the rovers will go to the moon; the tegra platform used to design the rovers will stay on earth. the rovers will have internet based control system. is the internet available now on the moon?

I believe they're using Tegra

Ever seen "The Time Machine" (2002)? Not to mention the moon is mostly iron, so far as we know, and there is no shortage of iron on Earth, nor is it economically feasible to transport any material from the moon for commercial sale.

They also use really big (1000 nm) transistors.

You see... you don't actually need anything more powerful than a 386 for space computing (not only that but it's very hard to use nanoelectronics in space just because of the hardening issue).

It's fast enough, if you're using the right languages, since these probes don't have an OS to run- they only have commands.

I could see the tech being custom-built, but you'd need a large heatsink to take that heat away (radiate it). But if you did that you could utilise the fact that processor design has come 20 years since these old processors were invented, and get something that runs quite a bit faster.

They need a radiation hardened version of it before it goes out in space

In the distant future the Moon will become a launching site for Space exploration. As seen with the Apollo missions it takes much less effort to launch from the Moon than Earth! Sadly the economy will dictate when this is done and will most likely delay it far beyond what we are capable of doing if the funds were there.

Yes, I remember reading that the current rover on Mars use technology that is at least 10 years old just because of the time it takes to adapt chip design to the requirements of space. I don't think they can use the latest nano-gate printing process because of what jamie_1318 mentions. I wonder if they are using shielding techniques to make this possible now.

According to a Discovery Channel series I was watching last night ,the moon has almost NO IRON.
That is why scientist think the moon was created from cast off material whan a large asteroid or small planet collided with earth.
The rocks there are of the same composition as rocks on the outer crust or mantle of the earth.

How big a heat sink do you need for a location that has a temperature of -170f on the dark side? Any why would you land in the middle of the light side where temperatures reach 280f (above operating temperature of silicon chips)?

Chips would have to be designed to withstand both extremes.
We only see one side of the moon, because it does not rotate on its axis like the earth. So we call it the dark side. But as the moon rotates arround the earth it has light and dark in all areas. Very similar to earth in that if you stood in one place you would have day and night times in relation to the sun.

This is bound to fail, none of the consumer chips can withstand extreme conditions of space. Yes some CPUs worked well when cooled by liquid nitrogen or helium, but they performed well for few minutes, it's different thing to perform for days.

It is my understanding that the $*^ chips are used for space flight because of the 1000nm production process.

With transistors this large,a stray electron (billions x trillions in space) hitting the chip would not cause an error. Tyhe smaller processes would cause errors when hit with stray electrons.

It is not about heat,speed or energy consumption but exact calculations without errors.
an error in the early calculations of flight path could send you to Mars or deep space and not back to earth.

I meant 486 above where you see $*^

Is Nvidia going to include their Optimus technology too? If they are, I've already seen that movie and it did not turn out well...

Even though only lower end components are required in space computing, I'd like to see some more technologically advanced alternatives making into space exploration. I'd hate to imagine what aliens would think of us when they pick up a stray satellite, dismantle it, and find it's running a 486!

Alien 1: "We found a satellite from a planet called Earth. Inside was a microprocessor"
Alien 2: "Could it play Crysis?"
Alien 1: "No"
Alien 2: "Lets move on then"

@ hetneo, you know that temperature of an object doesn't really go down in space because there are no particles to transfer your Heat energy into. No one would let the astronauts outside the space ship no matter what insulation if there where as many particles in space to transfer heat to as there are in the air on earth at 2 degrees kelvin. The real problem is still the wide variety of radiation in space that kills Technology and astronauts.

Wonder what they would do if it was an Atom instead...