Despite the best efforts of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, humanity probably won't find a home among the stars for quite some time. However, that doesn't mean shorter-term space exploration won't occur; on the contrary, numerous manned expeditions are already being planned.
And when those trips finally begin, drive maker Mercury Systems will have astronauts' digital storage needs covered with its latest product: the TRRUST-Stor VPX RT, one of the most rugged-looking SSDs we've ever seen.
Though the name is a bit on the silly side, the device's performance will apparently be anything but. According to Mercury, it will be the first-ever NAND SSD rated for the "harshest possible operating environments," a category that just so happens to include space.
Mercury says the TRUUST-Stor is radiation-tolerant, and primarily designed for "commercial satellite applications"...
Mercury says the TRUUST-Stor is radiation-tolerant, and primarily designed for "commercial satellite applications," so it's probably not being marketed towards the average user; unless you plan on taking a trip to Mars in the near future.
In terms of speeds, buyers can expect to see around 1GB/s of "sustained" read and write performance, which isn't too bad given the device's 480GB storage capacity.
Because it's still in development, we don't know how much the TRUUST-Stor will cost for now. However, if you absolutely love the concept of a space-grade commercial SSD and have the system to support its RapidIO interface, you can shoot Mercury an email to get put on an early waiting list.