Page No. 1 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) Sponsoring Org/Office Code: OD Name of Forum: Date: July 2015 Dan Duncavage OD/Computer Resources iPad on ISS General Briefing

Page No. 2 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) ISS iPad History The iPads were originally flown as a crew efficiency improvement experiment. I use the word “experiment” in an informal manner because this was not a Payload, nor was it run through the normal DTO type processes. CB felt that onboard efficiency would be improved and made this presentation to Suffredini, who approved the project with strict caveats: 1)This was not an operational system. Hence, we purchased a very small number and made almost no provisions for onboard support (training, console support, testing, etc). 2)No software development was authorized without it’s own separate CR. 3)iPads were not to be construed as the official tablet choice – we may very well move to Android or to Windows tablets. 4)If postflight crew reports supported it, a CR could be written to properly support some sort of tablet project.

Page No. 3 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) iPad Current Status Crewmembers have now returned from several Increments and reported that these devices are indeed very useful and could be made far more useful with specific support and programs tailored to our use. Several custom applications have been written and delivered for use on ISS. Support remains less than for the SSC System and will remain this way. The simplicity of the IOS user interface and limited capabilities of the platform render this continued plan tenable. Six groups of iPads have been loaded and flown. The detailed list of their configuration is available on the SSC website. These iPads are all 3 rd Generation units (the first Retina iPads). SSCN authorized the purchase and flight of iPad Air2 units to replace the current devices. Expected on orbit dates are in the Jan-Mar 2016 timeframe.

Page No. 4 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) IOS Constraints The iPad operating system is known as IOS. As with all things Apple, there are very tight constraints upon how the OS works and what can be done. It is emphatically NOT an open system where one can simply write applications and load them or write applications that can have rich interaction. The OS nominally requires loading via iTunes/App Store and applications are “sandboxed,” meaning they can share almost no information. This sandboxing is great for security and reliability and reduction of regression testing. But it powerfully limits what can be done. Apple has included the ability to write your own Enterprise Apps and load them to your iPads via a website. Some of these Enterprise Apps are now in use on ISS.

Page No. 5 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) App and IOS Updates We loaded the current iPads by creating a portable Virtual Machine with iTunes and paired each iPad to it’s own iTunes account. In order to update Apps, they have to be added to the VM; the VM must be uplinked; then connected to the iPads; sync performed. This must be repeatd for each iPad. This has been performed onboard once. The crewtime consumed was moderate – on the order of 15 minutes per iPad. One limitation of this approach is that the IOS version cannot be updated. That requires a live internet connection to the App Store. Therefore, wholesale upgrades must be accomplished on the ground and flown. The Enterprise App method does have one key constraint: the software developer must register the App with Apple, which provides a Certificate that expires in 1 year. Before the end of the year, the developer must resubmit the App and get a renewed Certificate. The new Certificate and App must then be uplinked and reloaded via the SSC onboard web page. The Enterprise Application deployment via the onboard Portal is the preferred method to add apps as it minimizes both crewtime and engineering effort.

Page No. 6 ISS_CM_019 (Rev 09/2011) Data Up/Downlink & Process The iPads are managed by the same team that manages the Station Support Computer (SSC) platform. Data from the iPads may be stored on the SSC Linux Server (LS1), which is also where the App Portal is located. Folders on LS1 may be used as staging areas for both uplink and downlink of data for custom iPad apps. Management of this uplink/downlink path is the same as for SSC’s. The process for adding applications is also the same as for SSC’s. It starts with contact with the SSC/iPad System Manager (OD/Dan Duncavage) and generally includes a presentation at the Computer Resources Control Panel (CRCP). Authorization and coordination of all iPad and SSC changes is under CRCP purview.