'Extreme Programming' Controls Phoenix Mars Lander

pbd points out a story discussing the challenges faced by NASA engineers in designing the code sent to operate the Phoenix Mars Lander. Quoting Computerworld: "On Wednesday, engineers sent up the code to run an actual analysis, but a satellite orbiting Mars, which transfers the data down to the Lander, was offline. Robinson explained that the satellite had been hit with radiation, knocking it into safe mode. 'Space is a harsh environment, and sometimes they just go into safe mode,' he noted. 'It's a minor problem. [The satellite] aborts whatever it was doing and waits for future commanding.' Engineers successfully resent the code on Thursday."

Comments

Re:That's coolness

[Anonymous Coward]

No that's an irresponsible risk with a lot of taxpayer money.

Re:No mention of Extreme Programming

[serge587]

Then simply add some suspensefully dangerous music in the background and you have the next generation of thriller movies!

Re:No mention of Extreme Programming

[Ethanol-fueled]

...whilst hand-coding a real-time, multitasking OS in assembler while suspended over a tank of water filled with hungry sharks. Laser beams optional.

Units?

[pythonist]

I'm wondering what units they are using? American? SI? or Martian?

Call me a pragmatist...

[Dice]

... but when I hear terms like "EXTREME PROGRAMMING!!!1eleven" I just roll my eyes and stop listening.

Re:Call me a pragmatist...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Extreme Programming" is a development methodology (DSDM, Waterfall, Open Source etc.) focusing on an obsessive amount of unit testing. It's not like the extreme in "extreme sports". Though that would be awesome. I can see it now. "He jumps from the plane at 14,000 ft. Oh shit, he build is broken! Debug. DEBUUUG!"

Re:Resent code?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the NASA staff is typical, then Wednesday is probably poker night for many. The games go on well past midnight, so they don't need to report to work the next day and have some robot 35 million miles being a problem.

Re:Um what

[K. S. Kyosuke]

"And somehow I doubt NASA is doing all that."

And you might be right. That is because this submission was processed with an editorial process called "Extreme Submission Editing", which is a subset of the "agile journalism" methodologies, driven by principles like "test-first publishing" (first publish it, then fix the bugs if there is a stronger "boo!" than usual), "pair editing" (pick any two editors, each one will believe that the other one is going to fix it) and "do the simplest editing possible that could work" (cross yourself, close the eyes and click the "OK, Publish the damned thing!" button). Thanks to the Extreme Submission Editing, Slashdot continues to bring you quality news at an unbeatable price!

I hope they mean...

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope they mean this type of Extreme Programming.

Re:That's coolness

[kperson]

"A stable operating system running a mission critical device thousands of miles away..."

Just where the hell do you think Mars is??

Re:That's coolness

[funwithBSD]

I just hope none of it was LGPL 3.

I think that would mean that RMS owns Mars.

Re:That's coolness

[roguetrick]

Hey, after it gets larger than 10 basements, we lose the picture.

Re:That's coolness

[Anonymous Coward]

The 80's called. Something about not wearing out the word "awesome".

Obligatory PA reference...x2

[adamofgreyskull]

Google > NASA for directions
Mars is roughly 3715 miles from me, as the deepcrow flies.