SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERS (SBC)

About:

• The launch marked the 24th cargo mission of billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company to the ISS for the space agency.
  
  
• Nestled among these devices were a pair of computers about the size of a set top box. They aren’t the usual laptops or desktops we use every day. The two single board computers (SBC) don’t have a monitor attached to them.
  
  
• An SBC is built on a single circuit board, which houses a microprocessor, memory unit, input/output channels, and other features required for a functional computer.
  
  
• The duo part of the Dragon 2 consignment, called Astro Pi, were built by the non-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
  
  
• The mini-computers are equipped with an 8GB RAM, high-quality camera, Google Coral machine learning accelerator, colour and luminosity sensor, and passive infrared sensor.
  
  
• All of these sensors are packed inside a space-ready aluminium case that makes the hardware suitable for running codes on the ISS.
  
  
• This is the second time the non-profit has sent its SBCs to the ISS. In 2015, British ESA astronaut Tim Peake took the first two Astro Pis as part of the Principia mission. The ones that reached the ISS recently were upgraded for more advanced computing projects.