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The laptops up on the International Space Station have been infected with a virus — the W32.Gammima.AG worm, to be precise — which raises an interesting challenge: How do you wipe a computer clean when you're 217 miles away from Earth and moving at 17,000+ miles per hour? According to the BBC, the ISS isn't net-connected. All data is subject to scan before transmission upstairs. So the laptops were probably infected via flash drive before they left. The worm itself doesn't threaten the station — all it wants is your gaming passwords — and the laptops aren't connected to mission-critical computers. But the lack of an Internet connection makes fixing things tricky.The solution to the problem is the same one you would use for your grandma who refuses to get off of her 56K connection. Pack a free version of AVG and their update files onto a flash drive and talk them through the installation and cleaning process. Don't forget the part where they owe you a beer or dinner for helping them out. You have plenty of time to plan — the next supply run is due to leave on or about November 10 from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. (Virus-protein image by Allen Portner and Gopal Murti)