Macintosh Portable: the story of a Mac that went to space

A while back I talked about the Macintosh Portable. It was first laptop from Apple. One of the first computers of its type at a time when batteries did not last long. But first portable Mac made possible what followed. Today, the majority of computers sold are laptops. And in the case of Apple MacBook Pro And MacBook Air they top the lists. Although they travel quite a bit. From living room to bedroom and much more. And what’s interesting is that in the 90s of the last century, Mac went into space. Twice.

You may have seen images of one of the experiments conducted on the Macintosh Portable. A video that went viral several times. It shows a floppy disk removed from an Apple laptop. endless floating in zero gravity. Until a NASA astronaut stopped him with his hand.

The Macintosh Portable was not the only computer to go into space. Leaving aside the fact that the spaceships on which astronauts travel full of computers and computer systemsthe experiments they must conduct while in zero gravity require additional devices. Some IBM ThinkPad They’ve been to space. They even used some others iPhone, iPad and devices Android. But today we’ll focus on the Macintosh Portable’s travels as part of the Space Shuttle program.

Graphical interfaces in spaceships

The first chapter on space travel Apple Macintosh portable takes place in 1990. October 6 of the same year Mission STS-41 NASA’s Space Shuttle program takes off from Kennedy Space Center. This is mission number 36 of the program and number eleven of the program. spaceship discovery. A four-day mission involving five astronauts.

The most important objective of the STS-41 mission was the launch Space probe “Ulysses”. Everything went well and he was in orbit until 2009. And since every space mission was expensive and had great technical complexity, there was a list experiments and tasks which the astronauts completed in four days while the mission lasted. For example, using voice commands. What seems natural to us today thanks to Alexa and Siri, but in the 90s it was practically science fiction.

But the experiments that interest us in this story are related to graphical user interfaces. That’s why the Mac was included in this trip to space. This technology was tested during the STS-41 mission to see if it was suitable for use in space. Or would it be better to continue working with computers in text mode, with which the astronauts interacted using commands. And for the experiment, NASA had a Macintosh laptop computer on which it was installed Macintosh systemoperating system for Mac computers of the time.

Problems with the trackball in zero gravity

Another aspect of the experiment that we will discuss was the following. using the trackball as a peripheral device work with computers. Unlike a regular mouse, a trackball has a ball on the outside. And it was part of the Macintosh Portable, although a mouse could be attached and used optionally. Well then. Experiments have established that The trackball didn’t do very well in zero gravity.. Precisely because the ball floated.

And as an anecdote, it’s worth remembering the viral video in which we see a floating floppy disk It was recorded during this STS-41 mission, although we do not know whether it was an experiment itself or just entertainment. It should be added that a portable Mac that has been in space could sometimes be in a horizontal or vertical position. secured with tape so that he doesn’t float uncontrollably around the ship. Yes, in space we can talk about horizontal and vertical. But this story doesn’t end there.

The first extraterrestrial letter

The question of what kind of personal computer should astronauts use been considered for years at NASA. In addition to electronic systems and the on-board computer of the spacecraft, to conduct experiments or any other task, the astronauts needed personal computers whose security or reliability will not be compromised from the rest of the ship.

This was one of the reasons Mac was sent into space on several missions. In particular, the Macintosh Portable was easier to use than the desktop Mac of the time. We have already talked about STS-41. Now it’s time to talk about Mission STS-43. On this occasion the ship used Atlantis. This mission marked his ninth flight into space. A mission that lasted nine days, involved five astronauts, and whose main goal was to launch the TDRS-E or TDRS-5 satellite. Launch Atlantis This happened on August 2, 1991. Also from Kennedy Space Center. And he returned to Earth on August 11th.

The Macintosh Portable again played an important role in this mission. On the one hand, experiments related to computer operation continued, using trackball. But one adapted for this purpose was used from Logitech, the manufacturer of the one that came by default in the original laptop and caused problems in the previous mission.

Contact between Earth and Mac in space

However, the experiments that received the most attention inside and outside NASA, which used Apple’s portable Mac, were different. First, sending an email. For this they used AppleLinka precursor to the Internet that Apple offered to its customers at the time. Astronauts Shannon Lucid and James Adamson were responsible for this, and with the help of Apple engineer Dave Crego, they sent a message to Marcia Ivins at the Johnson Space Center.

This fact, which seems somewhat unremarkable today, was at the time a major milestone in telecommunications. For this it was necessary configure AppleLink to connect to NASA communications systems.

The second most popular experiment was a response to an email sent from the Atlantis ship. From Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. updated files sent from the Macintosh on the ground to the Macintosh Portable in orbit. Via fax modem.

Third Mission Macintosh Portable

Since there are no two without three, in addition to the two previous missions it is worth highlighting the third mission, in which Mac was in space. It’s about Mission STS-55. If STS-41 was in 1990, and STS-43 was in 1991, STS-55 was in April 1993. The launch took place on April 26, 1993. The space shuttle was used as a ship. Colombia and the mission lasted almost 10 days. In this case, the crew consisted of seven people.

The technical passport of the mission states that 88 experiments were carried out.. When you travel into space, there is no time to waste. But let’s focus on where the Macintosh Portable was introduced. In addition, there was evidence from robotic armastronauts contacted children in schools around the world through a radio communication experiment and even came to contact Mir station which was then inhabited by Russian cosmonauts.

Ground control, here’s the Mac in space

The role that the Macintosh Portable played in this case was related to communication from space to earth. If the first email was sent during the STS-43 mission and they were able to download files from Macintosh to Macintosh into space, then this time They achieved two-way communication between Earth and Columbia using a Macintosh Portable as the data link for ground control.

As we saw in the previous article about the Macintosh Portable, was a pioneer and he had many adventures similar to those described in this play. Although it did not have the expected success as a personal computer due to high price and limited featureswas very useful to NASA in its successive experiments. After the Macintosh Portable, more modern models appeared, such as PowerBook. Free advertising, such as sending the Mac into space, although did not directly affect its sales, did open the door to the launch of improved models of Mac laptops that continued to this day.