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Away (2020)
IT tech here. Cellphones/Tablets are already used on ISS & very realistic, except for delays.
Others already commented on the drama part, but personally I went into this series expecting both space+drama, and enjoying it.
Now, I notice some people say the use of cellphones/tablets is unrealistic. That is totally wrong; they are already being used on International Space Station today! This part is one of the most realistic parts of personal comforts for any space mission:
Reasons:
- Pico cell antennas are smaller than WiFi routers, to give LTE in tiny spaces
- WiFi can be provided too, ditto
- Store and forward (messages, etc) will work great
- Enough bandwidth will exist for 4K.
- Phones/tablets are so compact that extra spares can be brought, to replace phones damaged by radiation
- Store-n-forward devices (email, Twitter, Facebook, texts, CDNs, proxies, preloaded "Netflix appliance", etc)
Yes, the phones do not use radiation-hardened chips (Like RAD6000 on the Mars Rovers), but nonessential devices don't have them, and extra spares can be brought along for dead/broken phones/tablets, just as today on ISS.
Bandwidth is already almost there, and will be by 2030s. In 2005, Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter is capable of up to 2 to 6 megabits per second from Mars - enough for 1080p/60 video in HEVC / H.265 video codec, and by the time a mars mission happens, we'll probably be using H.268 combined with laser communication to Earth at over 20 to 50 megabits pee second even from distant orbit periods, enough for many info/data/video streams (personal and scientific).
Deep Space Network upgrades coming allow DSN antennas to multitask all mars missions simultaneously, including personal/scientific data, so it'll be the connection point for the "Mars Internet" infrastructure. High latency as it may be, will still allow conversations and standard apps for the first while of the mission (up to maybe a few seconds latency), then thereafter, store-n-forward such as (text/video/audio) messages. But they)ll still be in 4K video quality. Since the big DSN dishes will be pointed anyway for scientific and telemetry data, it will be no extra effort (minimum extra DSN cost) to also hook the astronauts/cosmonauts/taikonauts/etc devices into the Internet.
The main unrealistic part of the IT infrastructure on spacecraft is the communication delay had some liberties.
However, a 2030s+ Mars launch would have absolutely no problems achieving the convenience/quality of phones and tablets on a mars space mission - the people who say phones/tablets part is unrealistic does not realize what is being done on ISS today with commodity devices.
Verdict from IT guy who follows space missions: Phones/Tablets are a quite realistic component of future missions.
Trollhunters (2016)
Favourite animated series on Netflix
At first glance, this might look like a kids-only series to any adult that sees this in the Netflix menus.
However, it is extremely captivating with lots of relevance to adults too (just look at all the reviews!). Much more relevant than expected.
As a couple, both of us (age 43 and 56) have gotten hooked. Please keep publishing more original animated series like this on Netflix, it keeps us coming back for more.