Cuba could make some bucks selling old tech to NASA

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

We have a couple of 8" floppy drives from an old Z80A cp/m machine
(predated the 8086 chip by some years; the machine is long gone). 
But imagine what Cuba could sell to NASA!

Quick, someone tell Jimmy. Maybe he can set something up. :-)

BBC Online - 13 May 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1985000/1985138.stm


Nasa hunts net for shuttle parts

By Corinne Podger
BBC science reporter

The American space agency, Nasa, has begun trawling the internet for
spare parts for its shuttles, according to United Space Alliance, the
company that runs the shuttle fleet.

The shuttles, first launched in 1981, often rely on computer
components that are so out of date, they are no longer made.

The space ships even use a type of computer disk drive that was
outmoded by the end of the 1970s.

  Nasa is hunting internet sale and auction sites like Yahoo and
e-Bay for shuttle parts that are so antiquated, they would be
unrecognisable to the average computer user today.

The agency is particularly short of a type of Intel computer chip
known as the 8086.

A chip similar to this was used to power the first personal computers
made by IBM in 1981 - the same year as the first shuttle launch.

'Scavenger hunt'

The shuttle operators also need eight-inch floppy disk drives that
went out of fashion nearly 20 years ago, and have long since been
replaced by much smaller disk drives and CD-ROMs.

Nasa is looking for stockpiles of old parts it can buy in bulk to
repair old machinery as well as keeping some spare for future use.

The internet search has been described as ''a scavenger hunt'' by
Jeff Carr, spokesman for the Houston-based United Space Alliance.

However, the parts will be needed for at least the next 10 years,
with the shuttle due to remain in service until 2012 - and there is a
possibility of that being extended to 2020.
 
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