Stress-Testing Software For Deep Space

kenekaplan writes "NASA has used VxWorks for several deep space missions, including Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. When the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) needs to run stress tests or simulations for upgrades and fixes to the OS, Wind River's Mike Deliman gets the call. In a recent interview, Deliman, a senior member of the technical staff at Wind River, which is owned by Intel, gave a peek at the legacy technology under Curiosity's hood and recalled the emergency call he got when an earlier Mars mission hit a software snag after liftoff."

Comments

Seems like a rationalization

[gadzook33]

While I buy that the landing systems need an RTOS, I doubt Curiosity does. Image processing that happens with "precision"? Do x86 processors not process images precisely enough? I get the idea of being hardened to radiation but it was my understanding we have newer processors that fit the bill on this. The rest of this seems like a rationalization for using old hardware. However, as an engineer for the government it's possible I'm just old and embittered.

Re:"earlier Mars mission" == MER-A Spirit

[Jeremi]

Up through version 5.3 the malloc() implementation was absolutely horrid and suffered from severe fragmentation and performance problems.

I talked to one of Curiosity's software engineers the day it landed... he mentioned that one of their coding rules was: no malloc() allowed.