Up until late 2006, PDAs had been used on board the International Space Station (ISS) mainly as personal computing or entertainment platforms. However, according to the agency, in the near future, PDAs will start being used as integrated components of real applications.
Applications currently being planned or considered include:
- And Inventory Management System (IMS) to keep track of the location of all items stored on board. Starting in March 2007, the old barcode reader terminals will be replaced by PDAs connected to the IMS via a wireless network.
- The PDA as a voice or speech processing platform. Combined with wireless communication, PDAs could become suitable devices for crew-to-crew communication (VOIP applications) and crew-to-system communication (speech synthesis and speech recognition).
- A special application, known as the PDA Depressurisation Program (PDP), conceived by the astronaut Thomas Reiter, has been developed by ESA to compute the 'egress time', -- the time that is left before having to abandon the ISS in the event of depressurisation.
Photo: Astronaut Thomas Reiter using a Personal Digital Assistant. Courtesy of ESA.
