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Glitch Forces Mars Probe Shut-Off
TheEvilOverlord writes to tell us that BBC News is reporting that a 'glitch' has forced the mars probe to switch into a "safe-mode" switching several of its systems off. Perhaps it is just an education tool to show martians the meaning of BSOD.
It's not a glitch, silly. Nor is it a "bug"! It's just a new feature.
It seems like glitches and waiting for the right glitch to come along have become an important part of normal operation for these things.
Why didn't they build in some means of communication for this "safe mode"? I find it rather odd that it is in a known state (safe mode) that is known to be undesirable, yet there is no fallback system (even a timed one) to get it out of this mode? How come?
see a Text Widget
Man that's got to sting.
But surely they have control over which system they use, the main system is on safe mode, but the back up system isn't so why couldn't they switch to the back up and then use the "main" one as the back up if they're limited on time.
I like muppets.
Agile Artisans
Yeah, just wait till the screensaver kicks in.
My God! It's full of stars!
Was JVM trying to update ?
This probe has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
503 Sig Unavailable
The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
Someone over at NASA hit CTRL-ALT-DEL!
People, we've got be a little more precise. There are three functioning spacecraft in orbit, one more on the way, and two on the ground on and around Mars. Between NASA and the ESA, it's getting crowded on Mars.
For those who didn't RTFA, it's the Mars Global Surveyor, which is the oldest of those in orbit.
The spacecraft has switched into a "safe mode", in which the instruments and some other systems are turned off.
Just CTRL-ALT-DEL and this time, don't hit F8. Windows will boot normally. Duh.
Does anyone know if the automated rovers/spacecraft use a commercial or OSS OS? Or does NASA roll their own? -j3rry
"Coffee is the lifeblood of champions" -Mike Ditka
Send somebody down their to hit the reset buton. I would vote on sending bill gates to mars. He made windows (he made the BSOD future, what is the most important part of windows).
...which probe?
There's presently functioning two orbiters (Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey), two rovers (MER A a.k.a. Spirit, MER B a.k.a. Opportunity), and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is on the way.
I realize TFA has the info but it sort of belongs in the headline. "The mars probe" just sounds silly and uninformed.
Can anyone provide technical information regarding what software this probe is running? The article itself is very vague (but not surprising, since it's a general-consumption BBC article).
Which embedded OS is it running? What language and programming system was used to develop the application software for it? Details, please.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I don't have anything useful to say, I just think the phrase "science instruments" is really, really funny.
Even worse - you can tell it's win 95... Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 on a mission to study the Red Planet's surface features, atmosphere and magnetic properties. It could even have a little Chips&Technologies onboard graphics card...
Is this where we upload the virus onto the alien mothership?
I have a high emotional stake in the mars missions. Recently a good highschool friend of mine passed away in a plane crash. She was a co-op at NASA. In recognition for her work on the Mars reconnaissance orbiter, her memory and name were launched into space with with it. Krys, We love you. Story: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8931065/
The Mars Global Surveyor's mission ended in 2001 and has been on an extended mission ever since.
I'd say Americans are getting their money's worth and then some.
'cause bugs can't survive on Mars.
Damn spyware! That's the only way you'll be able to remove them. I hope they did Safe Mode with Networking Support because it's will take awhile for someone to cold boot that baby if it something goes wrong.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Oh, no, not again! :P
I wonder if it's running "Safe Mode with Network Support," or just regular "Safe Mode."
Any guesses what the download bandwidth is via space telescope at Mars? It might have taken this long for it to get SP2.
It's no "glitch". I've struck gold! Black gold, I tell ya! muahaha...muahaahahah...
A martian is holding down the shift key.
"In this mode, MGS turns off its science instruments but leaves many other systems on.
The spacecraft also turns towards the Sun to get the maximum charge possible on its batteries, and it communicates with Earth on its low-gain antenna only."
So yes the scientists and engineers already thought of this.
Also,
""It's getting to be a fairly old spacecraft and it's been having a number of issues; none of them are considered life-threatening," said Professor Phil Christensen, who is principal investigator on MGS's thermal emission spectrometer instrument.
"The spacecraft's operating fine; they can command and communicate with it. The poor engineers will work hard over the weekend and we'll be back on track early next week," he told the BBC."
Linux.
That is all.
The martians found the joystick accidentally left on the OUTSIDE of the craft. They were playing too much with their newly discovered joystick. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spiri t/20050901a/Sol582A_P2299_L456-A590R1_br2.jpg (see far right)
You my sir, are a flippin idiot.
RTFA. Or go learn something.
Safe mode CAN receive commands. They don't just willy nilly reboot back into 'normal' mode without determining exactly what chain of events put them into safe mode... Old software? Glitchy sensor? They could probably send a single command right now to put it back up normal, but without understanding why there are there, they don't... Operations protocol.
Of course, most PC users don't care why they got the BSOD... They just want their solitare back.
FWIW, MPL runs vxWorks.
When the aliens are probing you, you'd better hope their probe doesn't go into glitch mode!
Apparently this probe (the Mars Global Surveyor) went into "safe mode" before in its mission.
e nt.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/wkreport/curr
Wind River Systems built the POSIX compliant based OS into the Odyssey, Stardust and Rovers, so it's possible the MGS has a similar OS to those.
g ies/os/vxworks6/
0 3/mars/jump/2404308
The OS is VxWorks and it's been used in Sattelites, Robots and for some reason Movie editing (probably a file management system)
http://www.windriver.com/products/device_technolo
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/
Into "safe mode" ya right. What really happened is that in the last communication transaction the probe responded with a previously unknown debugging message "Sorry Houston I can't do that"
They DO NOT roll their own anymore... For the most part, almost every NASA mission is flying windriver's vxWorks OS. Frankly, as much as I'd like, linux doesn't stand a chance for at least 10 more years, because it costs so little (most NASA programs spend at least 100k on vxWorks and tools) but also because the embedded development tools are not quite as nice as windriver's.
Windriver's OS isn't all that fancy, but it does pack a pretty small footprint when configured well.
Gotta love slashdot... Lots of people who don't know what they are talking about correcting and preaching to the world.
Well ... their kinfolk did say move away from there. Said Californy was the place they oughta be. So they loaded up the truck, but Katrina came, you see. Now they're in a swimmin' pool. No movie stars.
... y'hear?
But, ya'll come back now
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
From TFA: Controllers want to get the spacecraft out of safe mode as quickly as possible because it can use up to 10 times more fuel than it would during its normal operating mode. Presumably thats for all the steering to track the Sun. I agree the "safe mode" or rather "emergency recovery mode" is a good idea, pretty unavoidable in design in fact. But the fact they seem to be fighting with their probe's interface shows up how old the thing is, and probably a bit senile from the cosmic rays and so on. Damn just when the fancy picture sweep was about to happen too!
I never have mod points when I need 'em most.
This is Bush's fault. Who else could it be?
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Then again, this means the probe obviously was running on OS X:
http://www.maczoom.com/showphoto.php?photo=6&cat=
So, instead of a BSOD, they just got a sad mac and some sick chime sounds.
Just CTRL-ALT-DEL and this time, don't hit F8. Windows will boot normally. Duh.
But then 1800SearchAssistant will load up again and you'll be in the same boat.
...if this means there'll be no class on Tuesday. That would suck.
/instructor is PI on TES
Hey! It's an article about Mars, and there's still no press release from the Mars High Council about this! I think someone's been sleeping...
I don't know why they are so worried about imaging the Mars Polar Lander crash site. HiRISE will be doing that, and at a much better resolution when it gets there next year.
Shop Smart, Shop S-mart!
See what happens when you use winblows...
Linux, because a PC is a terrible thing to waste.
"The Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter use the VxWorks operating system running on a PowerPC platform. VxWorks is in use in several other spacecraft, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes intends to use the operating system in their new 787 airliner."
What happened to TripMaster Monkey (or what's his name) and news on latest developments in the council?
... about this about a month ago. Not exactly a new development.
m gs.html
/. story if I thought it would get accepted.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/reports/msop-
I could have had a front-page
Oh well.
OK, so, first, the Mars Polar Lander crashes for unknown reasons - not the only probe to fail in attempts to explore the red planet. Now, we lose the best ever opportunity to photograph the crash site.
Glitch? Or did somebody take the lander down, somebody who now doesn't want us to know what really happened six years ago?
With science instruments, the high-gain antenna, and other systems shut down, why would the thing use 10x more fuel than usual?
Where sarcasm simply does not exist. (Above post was a joke, repeat, a joke... probably not a funny joke, but not meant as flamebait... joke!)
Until now, I firmly believed M$ held first prize for least stable OS.
Perhaps it is just an education tool to show martians the meaning of BSOD.
Well, why not, after all, even Bill Gates got one.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Here's a link to the mission status for MGS, it briefly explains what happened. The orbiter is running on a backup computer while they are investigating what happened.
m gs.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/reports/msop-
Sounds more like a Linux PANIC to me...
Too bad the 6 million dollar man couldn't just switch the venus death probe into safe mode too.
is the name of the company "Wind River" or "Win Driver"...if it's the latter, it may explain the glitch...
that was in pretty poor taste and off topic. What a Fucktard you must be. CH
Eh, make that twenty some odd years ago. Although the Viking 1 orbiter is coming up on 30 years out of service.
Slow Down Cowboy! Slashdot requires you to wait between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at criticizing your bad math.
There is a problem with that logic...
Assume that we have a function f that we have proven will provide valid result a.
Therefore the function produces the correct result. However, the function might also have an unintended effect causing result b.
An example of this would be something along these lines:
add r0, 4, r1
which, makes r1 = r0 + 4
We can call this result a. However something important was in r1 prior to this instruction and it was not stored. Therefore, we have a correct function, but an unwanted result b.
A real world example would be one that I can attribute to NASA. In their code, they once had a device that worked in metric, and another in imperial. It goes without saying that bad information was given and taken. Even though the two modules worked perfectly, until they were coupled.
Now, that could be brought back, and it could be said that they should have proved that case, and a person would be correct in saying so. But, take Microsoft, do they intentionally put errors in their code? Hopefully not, but I would bet that 90-something percent of all exploits are due to such an oversight.
Therefore, the effect of the code in the overall system would have to be proven. Considering a near infinite possibilities of variables, this becomes quite the challenge to prove. Hence, there is no greatest proof! ^_^
This is not to say that proving code is irrelevant. Quite the contrary. It is implying that proving code is like "safe" sex. It's safer than the alternatives, but not 100%
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
Looks like someone can't handle criticism like a grown-up.
If it's any consolation, this meta-moderator agrees and has given the "Troll" an "Unfair".