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Mars Rover Curiosity: Less Brainpower Than Apple's iPhone 5
Nerval's Lobster writes "To give the Mars Rover Curiosity the brains she needs to operate took 5 million lines of code. And while the Mars Science Laboratory team froze the code a year before the roaming laboratory landed on August 5, they kept sending software updates to the spacecraft during its 253-day, 352 million-mile flight. In its belly, Curiosity has two computers, a primary and a backup. Fun fact: Apple's iPhone 5 has more processing power than this one-eyed explorer. 'You're carrying more processing power in your pocket than Curiosity,' Ben Cichy, chief flight software engineer, told an audience at this year's MacWorld."
... not enough power to run Angry Birds then?
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That is why the Spirit rover got stuck, it was using Apple Maps.
That's what my wife calls mine.
Curiosity's computer(s) can handle extreme cold and radiation of space while keeping radio communication for millions of miles, An iPhone is prone to overheat during normal use and has had trouble sending a radio signal though your hand.
I'll give Curiosity the gold medal any day.
Lets compare, shall we?
iPhone - sometimes flaky signal. Curiosity - working from millions of miles away. WIN Curiosity.
iPhone - works on Earth within range of cell towers. Curiosity - working on frakking Mars. WIN Curiosity.
iPhone - 1 day power life. Curiosity - radioactive power pack. WIN Curiosity.
iPhone - plays games, makes calls, takes pictures of girls making duck faces. Curiosity - scientifically explores and photographs another planet. WIN Curiosity.
iPhone - will shatter if you handle it wrong. Curiosity - dropped onto another world and still going. As designed. WIN Curiosity.
Curiosity, doing way the hell more, with way the hell less.
Things I like about your comment
6 digit UID
Giving a citation that is contrary to your post
Being moderated offtopic
Your sig bemoaning 'unfair' modding
I'm lovin' it.
Well you have to factor in the shipping cost...
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
After a mistake like that, you've got to hand in your geek curve.
Mars rover: lasts for years. iPhone barely makes it through the day.
Or how about speed? Mars rover several meters a day. iPhone, just sits there.
User upgrades in the field? Mars rover: zero. iPhone: zero.
Yeah yeah, you have more computing power in your pocket then in NASA machine. That was a fun stat for voyager news briefings. A decade ago. It is not funny anymore, it is just sad and a sign the reporter in question has no idea about tech. This stuff is for morning tv.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I handed that in long ago when i started sleeping with women and being gainfully employed :D
You're lying. Otherwise, what would you still do here on Slashdot? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.