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'Extreme Programming' Controls Phoenix Mars Lander

Posted by Soulskill on from the hello-world dept.

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."

2 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's coolness by zappepcs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For a Friday night, that is a very nice thought. A project funded by the public, and at least in part, built by the public. Nothing says OSS works better than that. At least I can't think of anything that does... very nice.

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  2. Say What!? by Sam36 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why did they use vxworks instead of linux?