Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Yesterday, at 6.35 pm EDT, the Artemis II crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and began their historic, record-breaking 10-day journey around the Moon.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Everything is looking good for the crew, with everybody on board safe and the mission proceeding as expected at the time of writing. But there have been a few teething issues, including a toilet fault, and, incredibly, problems with Microsoft Outlook.
Not long after launch, the crew reported to NASA that the high-tech toilet, which uses a fan to draw the urine away without gravity to do the job for you, was flashing a fault light.
"The toilet fan is reported to be jammed," NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said whilst commentating the liftoff, per BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
"Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission."
Fortunately, the crew always had the backup plan of peeing into bags. This was not a problem that would result in a dramatic stop of the launch during the countdown, and with support from NASA on the ground, the issue was quickly fixed.
Now. You would think that being tens of thousands of miles from Earth and preparing for a translunar injection, you might be free from Microsoft issues. But you would be wrong on that front. You can be passing through the Van Allen belts and still have to deal with the Microsoft suite.
In a genuine clip from NASA's Artemis II live Orion feed, NASA can be heard discussing IT issues, including a Microsoft error.
"We suspect the issue with your PCD may be Optimus software," a voice on the ground says. "We were able to connect to PCD1 on, we can see it on the network, so with your go, we can remote in and take a look directly."
"Yeah, go for it," a male voice replies. "And then I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working."
As described in the audio, NASA is accessing the Portable Computer System (PCS) remotely to deal with the issue. It may be surprising that astronauts are using ordinary operating systems, but they have to use something, and so it may as well be one they are familiar with.
"A Windows laptop is used for the same reasons a majority of people that use computers use Windows," Robert Frost, Instructor and Flight Controller at NASA, explained on Quora, per Forbes.
"It is a system that people are already familiar with (I'd hazard a guess that other than the ISS GUI on the PCS, 80% of astronauts have never used UNIX/Linux). Why make them learn a new operating system?"
For what it's worth, Microsoft recommends that should you encounter problems with running Outlook, you should first try running it in safe mode.
"Sometimes add-ins can conflict with Outlook," they write. "Starting Outlook in safe mode, which starts Outlook without add-ins loaded, can tell you if an add-in is the source of the problem."
It's nice to know that even in space, you might have to try turning it off and on again.
