Bach Seat

We all dream about the elusive paperless office. Seems even rocket scientists can’t figure it out. Mashable is reporting that the rocket scientists aboard the International Space Station (ISS) research laboratory which orbits 254 miles above Earth and travels at more than 17,500 miles per hour print a lot. The astronauts print roughly 1,000 pages a month on two printers; one is installed on the U.S. side of the ISS, the other in the Russian segment. They print critical mission information, emergency evacuation procedures, and sometimes, photos from home on a 20-year-old printer.

NASA IT techs just ordered new printers for the International Space Station (ISS) to replace the Epson 800 Inkjet printers which have been on-board the ISS since the people moved in, in November of 2000. ISS told the author, “When the printer was new, it was like 2000-era tech and we had 2000-era laptop computers. Everything worked pretty good … the printer’s been problematic for the last five or six years.”

Stephen Hunter, Manager of ISS Computer Resources, called the Epson 800 Inkjet printer, “a museum piece.”  NASA had dozens of this printer and, as one failed, they’d send up another one.

But now it’s time for something new. In 2018, NASA will send two brand new, specialized printers up to the station. Mr. Hunter, who has been updating the ISS’s office technology for the last two years, told Mashable that the ISS printers have needed to be replaced for a long time. However, he can’t drive over to Best Buy, buy a new printer, and launch it into space.

He started working with HP (HPQ) on an ISS IT overhaul, replacing over 100 existing ISS workstations with HP Gen 2 Z-Book laptops for the crew, so it was only natural they would turn to HP again for the printer project. Enrique Lores, President of HP’s Imaging, Printing, and Solutions business welcomed the opportunity, “We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do this … It was an incredible technical challenge.”

HP couldn’t just suggest that NASA launch any ordinary laser printer into space. Its friable toner dust and significant power consumption would make it a poor fit for life in micro-gravity. Ronald Stephens Research and Development Manager for HP’s Specialty Printing Systems Division explained, “NASA had a very unique set of requirements that we had to meet.”

NASA wanted a printer that could:

• Print and handle paper management in zero gravity – On Earth printers rely on gravity for paper management. Whatever HP provided would have to hold the paper, so it didn’t jam in the printer or float away when the printer’s done with it according to Mashable.

• Handle ink waste during printing – NASA’s Hunter explained that typical inkjet printers do deposit some extra ink during the printing process. With gravity in place, the ink typically stays in the printer or even on the printed sheet. In zero gravity, it floats out. The NASA IT expert said astronauts could ingest the ink or it could contaminate the crew’s numerous onboard experiments.

• Be flame retardant – HP replaced the printer’s shell with fire-retardant plastic.

• Be power-efficient – The ISS generates all its own electricity through solar panels. That means they must tightly manage power consumption. The article says any new device they bring on board must be power efficient. One bit of good news: HP doesn’t have to change the power configuration on the printer. The ISS can supply a standard 110 AV outlet.

Instead of building a specialized printer from scratch. HP recommended the HP Envy 5600. It’s a standard, all-in-one device you can buy at retail for $129.99. But the printers heading up to the ISS underwent significant modification.

“We removed the capability to do scanning, fax, and copy out of it to reduce weight and remove glass portions,” said NASA’s Hunter.

Removing what could weigh the printer down or break and become a space disaster was only the start. The most challenging part was related to zero gravity. Ultimately, HP went through every printer system and component to analyze how it would be affected by zero gravity.

HP turned to 3D printing and developed, experimental 3D material — nylon filled with glass beads. Its unique properties allowed HP to swap out the multiple parts that make up the printer output tray and turn it into one that’s both lighter, flexible, and more reliable.

After all the modifications, the HP space printer still looks like a printer. It’s 20 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and five inches high. There’s no lid or glass, but, aside from the 3D printed materials, the ISS’s next printer looks pretty unremarkable. The HP ENVY Zero-Gravity Printer still uses standard inkjet ink.

To work out the kinks of the new ISS printer, HP worked with a small team from NASA that included Pettit and three other astronauts. Astronauts’ concerns about printing in space are much the same as they are on the ground. “You want it to be uneventful… you want to hit print and have a hard copy,” said Pettit.

Up to this point, all of NASA and HP’s work was theoretical. They did all they could to make the space printer space-ready. However, the only way to know if this printer is suitable for use on the space station before actually sending it to space is by testing it in zero gravity and the only way to do that is on NASA’s Vomit Comet.

The Vomit Comet is a plane that flies a parabolic flight. As it loops up and down, passengers achieve, at the peak of the curve, about 20 seconds of near-weightlessness. During those times, the team tested printing and that the paper flowed through the printer and ejected in the right way. NASA’s Hunter said, “It went flawlessly. Everything works to our expectation.”

NASA plans to send the first two printers up to the station on Elon Musk’s Space-X Dragon C16 rocket as part of Space X mission CRS-14 scheduled for launch in February 2018.

NASA and HP have retrofitted roughly 50 HP Envy printers and expect each one to last roughly two years. “We want to use this through the remainder of the ISS program. Officially through 2024, with plans through 2028,” said NASA’s Hunter.

“This will be the last printer they get in the space station,” predicated HP’s Stephens.

Related article

• Why HPE is sending a supercomputer to the ISS on SpaceX’s next rocket (TechCrunch)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.