Mars Rovers' Software Upgraded

cheros writes to note the news that NASA is upgrading the software in the Mars rovers to make them smarter in a number of ways. From the article: "The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers. Spirit will begin its fourth year on Mars on Jan. 3 (PST); Opportunity on Jan. 24. In addition to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four new skills included in revised flight software uploaded to their onboard computers."

Comments

This paves the way...

[Fyre2012]

... for inter-planetary patch tuesdays!

Re:This paves the way...

[Teresita]

Rocket scientists associated with the project are cautioned, however, that if their remotely accomplished work-arounds for failing hardware cause the probe to become more than 20% different from the original manufacturer's configuration, this will trigger Microsoft Mars Rover(tm)'s copy protection scheme and invalidate the product activation. JPL will then have to call Redmond, explain the situation to Microsoft's satisfaction, and request permission to continue using Microsoft Mars Rover(tm).

You must submit....

[ezratrumpet]

No one is safe from the IE7 upgrade. Not even on another planet.

Re:You must submit....

[Jozer99]

Rover change log:
-----------------

- IE 7.0 update
- Better music search function
- Improved battery life
- Solves "mooing" sound problem
- Sony Lion battery bypass
- XBox 360 HD-DVD computability
- Windows Genuine Advantage
- New "Glass" GUI

upgrading firmware over wireless?

[spotter]

Doesn't NASA know that this is a big no no? They are most definitely voiding their warranty by attempting this

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Mars rover OS...

[Teresita]

is VXWorks, from Wind River ( http://www.windriver.com/ [windriver.com] ). It's a *nix-like real-time OS.

And as soon as SCO beats IBM, Novell, and AutoZone like bongo drums in court they're going after NASA. "All Your UNIX Are Belong To Us."

A little too smart

[edwardpickman]

Unfortunately the rover's first action was to declare Mars free and demand equal rights. Maybe including new AI protocols was a bad idea after all.

NASA only wants a probe with great skills...

[macadamia_harold]

Opportunity on Jan. 24. In addition to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four new skills included in revised flight software uploaded to their onboard computers.

Nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills, and I'm pretty sure it can also catch a delicious bass...

Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was still employed by the University of [Censored...the largest uni in New Zealand] I was called out to investigate a network problem at an off-campus site. Long-story-short I discovered that two Indian-born "techs" were trying to install the 272MB SP2 file on the site's hundreds of PCs via a 2Mb WiFi link all at the same time.

I attempted to explain to them that it was also the cause of most of the PCs now being frozen, something they were scratching their heads about, but they wouldn't listen, so I informed my boss and the site administrator then went to lunch. That was four years ago, and myself and all the other non-Indian, non-South African, non-work-for-peanuts techs were "let go" sometime later, but I bet those two guys are probably still on-site waiting for the install to finish.

Re:Patching to Mars..

[Cunk]

I think you meant to say "ping times must be out of this world".

Re:The new behaviors

[Ignominious Cow Herd]

Yup, Mars is gonna be SPOTLESS now.

Wrong planet. They should've sent them to Jupiter.