It turns out that the solid-state drive (SSD) on board the latest space telescope, worth more than $ 10 billion, is much smaller than the hard drive inside an average personal computer. The disk volume on Webb is only 68 gigabytes.
While 68 gigabytes may seem like a negligible amount, this choice was made for a reason. Firstly, the SSD, or more precisely the “solid-state recorder”, had to go through a difficult certification process, because it has to withstand a huge amount of radiation. Just because of this radiation, experts believe that the 68 gigabytes will be reduced to 60 gigabytes of usable memory during the ten-year life of the telescope. Secondly, 68 gigabytes is quite enough for 24 hours of data collection because the telescope transmits the collected data back to Earth several times a day. Therefore, 60 gigabytes of memory is, oddly enough.
