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Linux Goes to Mars
Erik Rauch writes "The European Beagle 2 Mars Lander, set to touch down on Mars on Christmas Day, will be controlled by a single Linux-based workstation. I wonder if the Spacecraft Control Operating System is free software?"
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[groaner]
> Space Control Operating System is free
No, it is SCO'S.
[/groaner]
-ghostis
Computer Science is all about trying to find the right wrench to bang in the right screw. -T.Cumbo?
... but the important news is that back home there's a computer running Linux! Wooo go Linux!
"Derp de derp."
The Beagle 2 is going to Mars. Linux is merely being used to run the SCOS program. If Linux were being used aboard the Beagle 2, then the title would be accurate. I think it's an important "mission critical" application though.
They couldn't put it on the beatle because of GPL. This is because they don't have the space on it to store the source code, and by sending it to mars they'd be 'distributing' it, and must provide a way to get the source code for anyone there to get the source code for only the cost of duplication and delivery.
-Adam
In other news Lawyers from SCO have become the first humans on mars after they discovered Linux running on the Mars Rover. The accomplished this more easily than NASA because SCO Lawyers do not require Oxygen or any form of "conventional" life support, just pure evil. Explaining the 10 suitcases of MS-Windows XP CD's that accompanied the Lawyers on their mission to Mars. How the Lawyers left Earth remains a mystery but there was some hint that The Chinese Space Agency was involved.
When the Lawyers arrived on Mars they found out that the Lander doesn not run Linux, but it's control station on Earth does. When asked a SCO representative said, "This is a set back in our mission to destroy open source software. I am sure many people a slashdot are having a good time with this and that many soviet russia jokes are being made.".
The Lawyers are now stranded on Mars, but in a suprise twist discovered intellegent alien life. SCO has announced that they use a form of open source software and they will be going after their use of the binay number 0. The aliens being peaceful and naive are now welcoming their new SCO lawyer overlords.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those poor Martians.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
The guys are in the control room, looking through the eyes of their robot as they send it commands. It's going over the martian landscape just fine, collecting rock samples to perpetuate the ongoing debate of finding fossil bacteria, when all of a sudden it stops and the screen goes blank. The NASA people get angry and wonder why it refuses to take any more commands. In a few seconds it showed them this following message:
This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down. If the problem persists, contact your vendor.
They reboot the program, which takes about ten minutes for the commands to reach between the robot and the command center.
Afterwards, it goes on, collecting rock samples and surveying the landscape. It drives towards a rock, but the guys didn't worry because it's programmed to avoid large objects. But instead of turning, the program goes FASTER and hits the rock! "What the bloody f-" one of 'em says as the other one says, "It must have confused the commands, DAMN IT! We just did a Windows Update not twelve hours before sending it to space!"
When they tried to send another command, every computer screen in the room turned blue. The following message appeared:
Windows
A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C00068F8 in VxD VMM(01) +
000059F8. The current application will be terminated.
* Press any key to terminate the application.
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. You will
lose any unsaved information in all applications.
Press any key to continue
Everyone in the room start screaming and yelling swearwords. Then, on the main screen, some short, wide-eyed, grey-skinned humanoids appear. ALIENS!! THEY'VE FOUND ALIEN LIFE!!! HUMANITY IS NOT ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!
But then, one of the little grey-skinned things put a floppy disk in the robot, then everything goes blank. The entire command HQ goes out. In several days, they say they've found a mighty virus that attached to windows's OS through a security hole in IE, which the NASA people could not remove because of it's integration into the OS. The aliens wiped all info about finding them so the scientists couldn't prove finding them.
The morale of the story? Don't ever use Microsoft's products to do anything important.
WINDOWS!? We don't need no steenkin' Windows!
That's quite incorrect. They would only be distributing it if after they got to mars they gave it to the local residents. And they wouldn't have to ship the sourcecode with the beagle, they just have to plaster a notice on the side explaining how to request it. Now if the locals request the code they could charge the martians the expense of delivering the code back to Mars and in this way fund further Mars missions.
I really think the Brits were shortsighted on this one, it really could make for a great way of funding a large portion of their space program.