Nasa blasts iPaqs into space

Hewlett Packard's iPaq Pocket PCs have boldly gone where no PDAs have gone before, after being selected by the Expedition 9 astronaut and cosmonaut crew aboard the International Space Station Soyuz 8 space craft.

The iPaq h5550 devices are being used to record daily crew procedures, write personal memos and check email and calendars.

The crew is also expected to use the handhelds to listen to music, view photos from home and read e-books.

Ground support at Nasa's Johnson Space Center and Russia's Star City Space Centre will use the iPaqs during the training process and to evaluate new applications for future flight crews.

"HP is driving mobile computing to new heights with leading-edge technology, enhancing the astronauts' productivity and helping them sustain a personal connection to life back home," said Alex Gruzen, a senior vice president at HP's Personal Systems Group.

"Nasa chose to work with HP to deliver a mobile solution that is robust and versatile enough to meet the challenges and demands of an uncommon environment."

The devices will remain on the space station and will be reconfigured for each new crew.

HP said that future developments would see the iPaq h5550s fitted with barcode scanners and Nasa-developed software to conduct inventories of equipment onboard the International Space Station.