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Open Standards Planned For Next NASA Telescope
BobB writes "A NASA infrared space telescope called the 'James Web Space Telescope' is scheduled to be launched in 2013. The plan is that it will be built using open standards-based software designed to prevent problems caused when software programs developed by various agencies are incompatible with each other, as has been the case with the Hubble telescope. From the article: 'Though open standards has become common in the business sector, Matthews says this is the first time NASA has used the IBM Rational system. "This is a fairly major shift in approach for NASA," he says. "They traditionally have been very conservative in their adoption of new technologies and new tools, but I think they've found that conservative approach just doesn't hold up when you start to reach a [certain] size and complexity."'"
I was all set to make a "Universe-Wide-Web" joke then I checked the spelling.
Fixing this typo is a job for your friendly neighborhood slashdot-editor-man.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...because initially, MS went for the bid (attempting to dominate the space business), but NASA has (apparently) gotten wiser and moved away from satellites that BSOD at random.
This is a fairly major shift in approach for NASA," he says. "They traditionally have been very conservative in their adoption of new technologies and new tools, but I think they've found that conservative approach just doesn't hold up when you start to reach a [certain] size and complexity.
Yes, complexity, like converting english measurements to metric.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Five bucks says this system never sees the light of day. Already way over budget.
...first time NASA has used the IBM Rational system... they've found that conservative approach just doesn't hold up According to my PHB (who also readsJWST to use Rational Rose, film at 11.
I used Rational Rose in a large avionics project. I can honestly say it is the worst piece of software I have ever encountered. This push comes from the suits at NASA glad handing their buddies at IBM. It cannot come from the programmers.
an ill wind that blows no good
Astronomers possibly would love a cluster of space telescopes. Amongst other heavenly bodies the discovery of new planets might well skyrocket as difference in images is analyzed constantly and continuously. Imagine on earth a spherical planetarium with the collective view of all those telescopes displayed with all items not in previous database marked in some fashion for study and possible naming other then the automatic naming necessary by the computer system to add the new sighting to the database. This cluster could be keyed on some predetermined criteria to shift focus to certain events detected.
Plenty of ideas to be filled in there, maybe some to be thrown out as this AC is not a scientist nor really understands beowulf clusters sufficiently. The Joe Taxpayer in me is sitting on my shoulder telling me to shut up, anyway I probably should have just said:
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Telescopes"
"They traditionally have been very conservative in their adoption of new technologies and new tools"
That's an exceptionally ironic statement to make about an organization responsible for space exploration.
Developers: We can use your help.
Rational Rose is open standards software... how? Because it outputs UML? Seriously? Someone please tell me I'm missing something here.
IAAL,BIANLY
But does it run..... Linux?
NASA seems to be pretty good about sharing space telescope images with the public, so don't view this as a complaint, but could open source become open access? Looking at a live feed on your computer?
We are all just people.
The decision to buy IBM's product is being spinned by this article as if it's some kind of win for open standards, but there isn't anything significantly open going on here. As far as I can tell, they've adopted Rational Rose for diagramming/design and Clearcase for version control. Both of these products are closed source applications, and both store their data in closed, priority formats. There's nothing open about either of them. The best you could say is that NASA is using an open modelling language (UML), but of course that exists entirely independantly of the IBM product - I can use UML with a pencil and the back of an envelope.
If NASA really wanted to do something for openness (and delivering American taxpayers value for money), they'd be using Subversion, not ClearCase.
Both Rational and ClearCase are examples of the worst in their category of software. I've used many types of version control software, but ClearCase was the worst of all by far. This software was not purchased because NASA was particularly interested in open standards. Rational and ClearCase usually only get purchased because some manager had a very successful golf game with an IBM rep or still reasons that "nobody ever got fired for purchasing IBM".
I think we should boycot IBM and the Roman Empire. I still can't get over how they fed my people to the lions.
I recommend Ice.
Test 1 2 3 4
The last time NASA use two different measurement systems on the same project, the probe bounced off the Martian atmosphere.
That's what I'm saying. Do you have any idea how long they had to starve those lions before they would eat "your people"? It's just not humane.
All parts will be metric so the entire world can understand them!
I worked on multiple NASA projects in the 1990s. During the mid-90s we used Rational http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/ for a short period of time (6 months) then dropped it. IME, the people who want these tools are architect that couldn't program their way out of a paper bag. Since Ive become an architect now, I prefer Visio http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/ to most of these other tools - that's only if a pencil drawing doesn't cover everything good enough AND I need to make a presentation to someone with money.
t ion-rad-mat.jpg
IBM has many nice tools and the best bang for your buck hardware, but Rational ought to be buried into a deep, dark hole with a RADIOACTIVE sign outside. http://www.nmsu.edu/~safety/images/signs/sign_cau
Knowing one or two folks who work for NASA, and having met more than that, I think that they would move toward open source so it can be peer reviewed, which would result in the evolutionary change. Of the people I have met, the average IT staffer troubleshooting Word installations is way more conceited than any of the shuttle astronauts I have met. (About five that I know of, and probably at least a couple more, not that it matters.) NASA folks work to accomplish a mission, and their egos are pretty much non-existant except in the context that they have been part of the team that accomplished a specific mission. If John Doe off of the street offers an optimal solution, they will grab it, test the heck out of it, and use it if it works. Then, after the successful mission, they can say, "I was a part of that" when it comes up at cocktail parties.
Then again, I may have only met the best of NASA, and others who work there may have a better grasp on their corporate culture.
...published guidelines on how to identify barbarian invaders
What in the name of the nine+ worlds of Sol are you talking about?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
...after I SEE it work. After all, the HST needed unanticipated 'eyeglasses' before IT was fully operational (and even then they still had to do lots of software correction afterward).
FIO: what software runs the HST? Custom, I would imagine.
"It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)
Bush and the terrorists both push MS for use. Bush to keep track of the terrorists at our nazi camps, and the terrorists for planning how to do their operations. I will be in 20 years, both will wish that they had not use that capability.
The "Open" standards that are implied in this message are those developed by the CCSDS and OMG.
... there are some very interesting standards especially one called XTCE, which is the used for describing spacecraft data systems.
Go to the website http://www.ccsds.org/
"I've always been amazed at the Apollo spacecraft guidance system, built by the MIT Instrumentation Lab. In 1969, this software got Apollo 11 to the moon, detached the lunar module, landed it on the moon's surface, and brought three astronauts home. It had to function on the tiny amount of memory available in the onboard Raytheon computer--it carried 8 Kbytes, not enough for a printer driver these days. And there wouldn't be time to reboot in case of system failure when the craft made re-entry. It's just as well Windows wasn't available for the job." [Thank God!! - Ed.]
If NASA open-sources software of this calibre, the entire world will benefit. Look at what NASA's innovations have done for miniaturising circuitry, freeze-drying foods, high-speed airfoils and robotics (to name a few). Now, go download NASA mars rover imaging software (MAESTRO) at http://mars.telascience.org/softwaredownload and look around Mars yourself. With software of this quality open-sourced, just think of the value to the world.
*** Don't be dull.***
They'll find out as we have in consumer electronics, it's a lot of different companies with incompatible needs stepping on each other that makes stuff not work. The standards process just encapsulates the incompatible needs in a wrapper and creates new jobs for standards VP's.
You end up with most of the budget spent on reimplementing thousands of requirements because each member mandated each requirement for your inclusion in the consortium, not because you needed every thousandth component.
For those unaware (and /. editors too lazy to correct a memorial's name) James Webb was the head of NASA under whom the lunar missions were such a success. He was widely considered to be an excellent leader, both within NASA and in championing NASA in Washington DC. He was with NASA from 1961 to 1968 and died in 1992. In 2002 the planned "Next Generation Space Telescope" was renamed in his honor.
For more information on the man & the telescope see:
Wikipedia entry on James E. Webb at NASA
Wikipedia Entry on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
NASA page on James E. Webb
NASA website on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.