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Could Distributed.Net Help the Mars Polar Lander?
Anonymous Coward writes "This official JPL press release
describes the current attempt to listen for faint signals from the Mars Lander. They get three windows a day, and it takes 18 hours to process data because the signal is so weak (if it's really there). Too bad they don't have a deal with distributed.net." Interesting thought. Is anyone at distributed.net or JPL interested in pursuing it?
The little green men find out about this and immediately begin encoding a trojan horse in the decoy signal that NASA's been detecting.
As thousands of clients crash throughout the planet, Linux enthusiasts eagerly point out that their machines not only can process the signal but even identify the byte code signature of the
trojan, without any ill effect.
This suggestion sounds more like the Seti@Home project - mass distributed computing power used to scan for signals.
The problem with the Seti project is that nothing is ever found. Nobody knows what they're looking for, and nobody knows what would be done if something were found. With a search for the Mars Lander however, everyone knows what the object of the game is. There's millions of quid/bucks worth of serious hardware out of reach for even those at NASA. Imagine the elation in the techno community if we actually found it for them again!
If distributed.net don't take it up, how about a Mars@Home project? I know I'd be one of the first to download.
insignificant sig
... If it only takes NASA 18 hours to proccess the signals and they have a limited number of signals to process, why the hell would they go through the trouble of setting up and coordinating a massive distributed effort? And people wonder where the money goes heh...
Just FWIW, CPU cycles may not be what's limiting the data analysis - it may be tweaking the reduction algorithms and re-iteration, which requires a lot of human intervention. Back when I was an astronomer, this was 90% of the battle with certain sets of data - taking out unwanted dark currents, dealing with strange flat images, bias levels that changed with position on the sky. I almost went insane with one set of data from the Curtis Schmidt at CTIO. Ugh.
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It pisses me off to the extreme when the United States media, the government, and people like you state with some sort of authority that NASA has some sort of bad "track record." Let's look at what's going on here. NASA launched over a dozen missions last year. How many failed? I can think of two. But the prevailing attitude towards the pursuit of science in this country is one of apathy. New discoveries? Blah. New planets found? don't waste my time. Cure for cancer? Good for them. Multi-million dollar space missions fails? Now that is news! Because of this attitude exhibited by the likes of people like you, the media has made NASA look like a bunch of fools. Do you have any idea what goes into sending something to Mars? How could you possibly think these missions would be 100% successful? They can't be. What this leads to is a general malaise concerning NASA when it comes to the American public. So we end up with less funding for them and more funding for useless liberal fedbloat. I pray for the day when the Average Joe will be aware of the technical sophistication and sheer American Ingenuity(tm) that goes into NASA projects, and exactly how beneficial these have been to the United States, nay, the World as a whole. You are a victim of the media; or your own foolishness; or both.
</rant>
So we end up with less funding for them and more funding for useless liberal fedbloat. I pray for the day when the Average Joe will be aware of the technical sophistication and sheer American Ingenuity(tm) that goes into NASA projects, and exactly how beneficial these have been to the United States, nay, the World as a whole. You are a victim of the media; or your own foolishness; or both
I smiled when I read this. Naturally many grandiose arguments can be made about the relative importance of discovering new planets circling distant suns (that is to say, confirming something we all more of less knew anyway) versus keeping, for example, several million impoverished families in warm clothes, food, and medicine for a year (that would be the 'useless liberal fedbloat' I suppose).
The fact is, that neither of these projects can go begging in a society that has long term hopes for itself. I'd agree with your general sentiments that these projects are important and deserve funding, but that's relative to our lifestyles. Personally I'm guessing my priorities might shift a little if my own physical survival were on the budget table for negotiation. The vague hope that someday humans will set foot upon the soil of a foreign planet seems rather unimportant when the insane guy in the next cardbox box keeps trying to steal your blanket.
Was it Dostoevsky who said "Boots are better than novels"? I always liked that quote.
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!