[ale] [OT] Mars Lander!

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Mon, 2012-08-06 at 16:50 +0000, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> America hasn't "enforced" its view.   Any other country that things
> they can send something the size of a Smart Car and have it roam
> around after successfully landing it is welcome to do so.   Of course
> they would have to insure it didn't get in the path of ours on the
> surface...
> 
> By the way according to this article the original Pathfinder Sojourner
> rover that wowed us all a few years back was only 23 pounds.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_%28rover%29#Sojourner_rover
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of JD
> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 12:06 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] [OT] Mars Lander!
> 
> Wikipedia says that the rover runs: "VxWorks (multitasking)"
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_embedded_computer_systems_on_board_the_Mars_rovers#Performance_comparisons
> 
> The CPU is a radiation hardened PowerPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 .
> I saw a bunch of MacBooks in the control room last night. I couldn't
> make out what OS the built-in workstations were running, but they
> appeared to be some sort of UNIX.
> 
> Real-time OSes are different from desktop or server OSes.  A late
> answer is a wrong/bad answer.  When I was programming spacecraft
> avionics, I would have loved to have one of those PPC processors and a
> modern OS.

IIRC...  The early Viking probes were running some sort of variation of
AIX.  One of them got into software trouble after landing on Mars that
threatened the mission.  Then they realized they had inadvertently left
a debugging option enabled that allowed them to get into the probe and
fix the problem remote.  It was the first interplanetary hack!  Well, at
least the first one done by us humans at least.  :-P

> I couldn't find any current information about in 20 minutes of
> searching online and reading about the OS running on the workstations
> and servers used at JPL Space Flight Operations Facility. Most of what
> I found was historical from before the 1990s.
> 
> 
> On 08/06/2012 10:52 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> > TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
> >> I can go ask one of my buddies who helped build it....
> >>
> >> -derek
> >>
> >> Sent from my HTC smartphone
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Reply message -----
> >> From: "Jim Kinney" <jim.kinney at gmail.com>
> >> To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!" <ale at ale.org>
> >> Subject: [ale] [OT] Mars Lander!
> >> Date: Mon, Aug 6, 2012 10:32 AM
> >>
> >>
> >> Once again, America has enforced it's view of all things our way by
> >> depositing an SUV on Mars as a harbinger of the impending urban
> >> sprawl on Earth.
> >>
> >> I was up late at GaTech for the landing party and got so see this
> >> live (well, with a 7 minute delay from Mars and an apparent 2 minute
> >> delay from NASA).
> >>
> >> 7 minutes of terror was an apt name for the decent.
> >>
> >> Need to find out how much Linux there was involved in this thing.
> >>
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-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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