HP replaces Epson in space

The International Space Station will be equipped with a new inkjet printer. The old Epson Stylus Color 800 has been taken care of after almost twenty years and replaced with an HP Envy printer.

The US Space Agency NASA announces that with the mission SpaceX CRS-14external link has docked the cargo module Dragon to the International Space Station “ISS”.

Why do we report about it? On board is the new printer for missions and missions in space. The unloading process lasts up to a month and will bring to light the new HP Envy Zero-Gravity.

Already in 2016, Nasa has set the predecessor model HP OfficeJet 5740 for use. The now specially designed printer is based on the successor Envy 5600 with some modifications.

So the scanner unit was removed and replaced with a padding. The paper tray and output are made of lightweight and strong material produced by a 3D printing process. The whole housing is built in flame retardant execution.

The printer can cope in zero-g environment (no gravity) in space and has a special management for residual ink that HP does not discuss in detail. First of all, the ISS printer can also be addressed wirelessly.

It is unclear whether HP will offer its ink delivery service Instant Ink with destination space. In general, it is questionable that the printer itself is connected to the Internet, which is a necessity for it so far.

Collaboration with HP

The change had already been announced for some time. Back in 2011, it was announced that HP will become the “official” outfitter for the NASAexternal link. In the course, the IBM / Lenovo notebooks of the Thinkpad series were replaced by models from HP.