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Linux In Space: Red Hat Rides The Rocket
neiljt writes "BBC News
have a
piece
on NASA experiments to use IP for space missions. The article is a little low-tech, but more details available from NASA (OMNI).
Is this the first Red Hat in space?" It's worth pointing out as well that Debian made the ride nearly six years ago. Still, great news.
It seems NASA had a Flight Linux project that ended in June 2002. Interestingly enough, they link back to slashdot in their publications listing.
They'll give NASA the 'finger'.
giel.y contains 2 shift/reduce conflicts
OK. Can we get this straight, please? IP!=Internet. There are these little things on the internet called routers. They allow traffic to pass between things called 'networks'. A router on a network is an OPTIONAL thing. Without a router connected to to The Internet(tm), THERE AIN'T NOBODY GETTING IN. Moving to standard IP is a _good_ thing. It allows them to use 'standard' tools. Rather than writing everything from scratch. I wouldn't even think that they'll be implementing this in 'mission critical systems' until after it's been tested for a _long_ time. Sheesh. I know hackers and script kiddies are an irritant, but NASA ain't all that stupid.
They have good reason not to use bleeding-edge technology, similar to the military still using 486 and early Pentium processors in things like the F-22.
The electronics are probably radiation-hardened, and tested up the wazoo (if not mathematically proven correct) before being allowed in the Shuttle. This is what makes the space program so expensive.
And Nasa isn't the 'bureau of trailblazing technology'. They used to be, because the things they did weren't possible with then-current technology. Today, you don't need to 'invent the wheel' to go into space anymore, it's been done.
In the case of Debian, it was simply controlling an experiment in the shuttle, whereas now it's being tested as part of the communications system for the ship itself.
BTW, that astronaut lady looks cute. Too bad they couldn't get a better picture of her.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
budget cut backs must be really hurting them if they're sending that computer to space
So what makes you think they didn't consider faster processors?
For all you (and I) know NASA could have performed tests indicating that modern 3Ghz prosessors are more prone to bit errors caused by radiation in space than older processors.
The difference in cost between a fast prosessor and a 233Mhz on isn't likely to affect the budget of a space shuttle launch, (hell, the 233 may be a custom job and cost more for all we know) so I expect that when nasa engineers went for the slower one they had a damn good reason
Besides the computer is supposed to be used for transferring data back to NASA, how much processor do you need for that? It's not like they'll be recompiling their kernel a lot in orbit is there?
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Back in the early 90s Nasa flew the Macintosh Portable (a bulky 13lb pre powerbook brute) on the shuttle. I remember that one of the more humourous issues dealt with the macs power eject of floppy disks. In Earth's gravity, the floppy catches on the edge of drive, so that it stops partway out. In space, when the floppy was unmounted, it flew accross the compartment.
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.