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Mars Rovers Still Going Strong, Mission Extended
Loconut1389 writes "The Mars rovers' missions have been extended from 90 days to about 250 and have been upgraded with some new software to give them extended single run distances as well as other features. Yahoo has a similar article, also at Reuters.
I think it's great that these initially plagued robots are doing more than expected and are still going strong, mostly thanks to engineers figuring out how to make the most of the software and hardware onboard and figuring out how to diagnose an unfunctioning, unresponding machine millions of miles away. The whole project amazes me and I'm happy for NASA to be getting some good news for a change."
Next week, once the four-day upload of the software is complete, Opportunity will head for Endurance crater
Isn' that really sad? those rovers that are millions of miles away get their data faster than I can download anything from eMule these days, right here on good old earth.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
and autonomous decisions ...who thought Gator?
Jonathanjk.com
And risk being imprisoned indefinately without a trial ? I think not.
Come to my lair, said spider to the fly.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
... debugging while the software is live! :}
Still, an amazing feat. These people deserve a medal.
Give my regards to Akhbar and let him know that with this info, the ETA is now 2 days.
-Mohammed
Maybe now that we're experts in Martian exploration we can send one of these to Iraq to finally find the WMDs or to SCO to locate the infringing code.
Did anybody else notice the top-of-the-hour news announcement on Air America, I think, that the mission was extended and the probes would "remain on Mars"? Yup, I bet they will. Few things amuse me more than confused science reporting.
Can I ask what you did, what your major was, etc. before you got to work on this project?
:)
Well basically I just went in and interviewed to work for Professor Squyres as a freshman in 2000, my very first week of school at Cornell University. After that I landed internships at JPL every summer working on related software. I picked up the skills I needed on the way, however I had been programming since 3rd grade. The design aspects were actually much more difficult than the programming. I'm now one semester away from my bachelors degree in Applied Physics w/ minor in Computer Science.
I really, really want to work in space operations and my original plan was to join the Navy, log some military high-performance jet flight time, then either get out and go to grad school or go to Naval War College for engineering. Unfortunately, the Navy idea has since been nixed and now I'm sort of floating around and not knowing what my next step should be.
Well, I know software engineers at JPL that didn't even major in computer science. They key is too get a degree, some 'leet skills, and then interview. It's almost impossible to get fired from somewhere like JPL (my boss says "You don't just have to be criminally incompetant, you have to actually be a criminal") which means that they are very selective about who they hire. If you're serious about it, the best thing you can do is get a hardcore education (masters degree from prestigeous university helps) and then interview. The pay isn't great but the perks (working with badass equipment, exploring the universe, etc) more than outweigh that
I would just take the GRE and apply to grad schools (probably for Comp. E. or maybe AE), but I'm afraid that might be a little too directionless. Are there research assistantships available anywhere you know of that are looking for people and are willing to pay your way (or at least most of your way) through grad school? Basically I'd like to hear what path you took and what you think would be a good way to get started.
Direction is something that has to come from inside you, not from a structured program. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going for a graduate degree before deciding where you want to go with your career. I'd actually suggest it because it's harder to get back into school after you leave. I do know a lot of companies pay for their employees to earn their masters degrees though. My friend at RSA Security is doing this.
In short I don't know what you should do. I'd suggest reading the NASA center websites, looking at what criteria they are specifically looking for, and calling the HR department. I know there are people who are "Accademic Part Time" at JPL and study while working (some at the undergrad level!) You might look into that.
As long as you feel you have what it takes, you just need to talk to the right people and find out what to do. I'm still working on my career (eventually I'll have a PhD in physics and do computational physics of some kind).
Cheers,
Justin Wick