NOTAMs are nice... when they are published before your flight. However, during the Presidential Election, NOTAMS and TFR were put up with only 30 minutes notice. I happened to land at my homebase at Blue Ash (ISZ) in Cincinnati only to find out that 10 minutes later a TFR was up. The guy who took off after me, turned north and flew right into it. We were not in the "notification area" of the TFR so noone at the airport (3 FBOs on the field) even knew about it, but were literally.6 miles south of it. Anyway, he was escorted back by F16s and subsequently got his 15 minutes of fame on the nightly news. There needs to be a better system and lasers can be used to help out.
Which "previous mars rover's failures" are you referring too? No other "rovers" have failed. All the failures were either orbiters or landers, not rovers.
The previous rover was Sojourner in '97... and it lasted much longer than it's planned mission as well.
Perhaps I need a little more Deep Thought on this.:-) Of course, Earth was trying to figure out what the ultimate question was... which is, ultimately the ultimate answer... isn't it?
Actually, the neareset star with a planet is approximately 93,000,000 miles from Earth.
And, my prediction is that they will blow up the Earth to make room for a new intergalactic highway bypass. (Unfortunatly, it'll probabally get destroyed just 5 minutes before it completes running a program that will give us the ultimate answer... oh, it's been working on it now for almost 10 million years.)
Considering that it was caught by a scientest on the team, can we truly say it was a slipshod process, or the process actually working like it was designed?
Think about that... so what if the instruments were switched... my point was maybe their plan didn't care if they were... the "base data" was sent back and processed here on Earth, therefore it doesn't really matter which APXS was on which MER.
And as for the "Only *detected* screw-up." I believe that any others will also be detected, as that is a natural part of the scientific method. The rovers were designed to simply transmit their findings, not to analyze it, which avoids those types of problems. This is a standard design features of all space probes - so that any issues can easily be fixed. Why do you think we have things like the "Optical Calibration Target" on board each rover? It's so we can continue to monitor and calibrate the devices remotely to ensure we're getting the right data.
I disagree - it is a minor thing. As this project had a finite development budget. A Risk Analysis (RA) was performed. RA would tell you that this instance, because the "data processing" was done back here on Terra, that it made no difference which instrument was installed in which rover. Risk Mitigation would also have pointed out that it's an easily correctable problem and therefore time/money shouldn't be spent verifying it. Time would be better spent on making sure that the instruments worked. There were many, many, many more important thing to make sure were right - like trajectories, timings, Radar altimeters, etc. That's where you focus on the "major things."
IMHO, you're a Nitwit!!! Those guys a NASA put those two rovers on Mars... do you have any idea what kind of a feat that is? Do you think you could do that??? Do you know how many people are involved with a project like that? Do you have any idea what the probility of human error is in a program like that?
They're not slackers or losers... they're human... and humans make mistakes in EVERY THING THEY DO. The processes in place aren't designed to eliminate mistakes, they're designed to reduce the possibility of mistakes - it's called risk mitigation. By reducing them and designing redundant systems (for example, TWO ROVERS ON MARS) you increase the chances of fullfilling all the mission objectives. Which they have not only accomplished, but far surpassed.
Why doesn't a company in your country build a mapping product for your country? Why is it that no matter what a US company does, someone complains. Get over it and do the work yourself for once.
Why should we do all the work for you??? Especially in a darn BETA product!
Bill
Sig - I love this thing... now, I'll just sit back and watch the childish flame wars begin.
One... that probe is over 1.5 Billion miles from Earth. In my opinion, it's a darn good picture from there. Especially, considering where it's taking pictures from.
Two... that probe was launched in 1997. What type digital camera did you have then? What was it's image quality. Specifically, what kind of atmospheric conditions could it snap a picture in. Titan is -290 Degrees (F) below zero! That's what this little camera is doing.
Three... The audio can tell you a bunch. That hissing (changing volume) tell's me a great deal, even though I am not a trained audio interpreter. It tells me that the probe was spinning and what rate it was spinning. With a little math, I might even be able to figure out the speed of the wind (on the noisy side) based on these facts and some data about the probe itself. Now... let's see, can we determine the wind speed from here on Earth... yes, but only on the very top of the atmosphere. With this, combined with that Atari game like altimeter radar, I can figure out the different speeds of the wind at different elevations. That tells me a lot about the thermodynamic properties of Titan and consequently the weather.
So... that's what I get from them, even in their poor quality state. And... guess what... they'll analyze the data, filter it, process it and eventually, we get a lot more data.... just be patient, let them work.;-)
Dumb! Why not just sign up for the unlimited text messaging. My plan is only $5.99 (US) per month... and best of all, no suprises! I have unlimited GPRS Data + WiFi Hotspots too, only $19.95.
My bill never varies, no matter how much I use it. (My 14 year old Daughter has the same plan.)
Ever hear of Thermals? I've known several guys who have glided for many hours... and came down because they, um, had to go.
I once glided from Richmond, Indiana to Blue Ash, Ohio - a distance of about 38 miles... but I wasn't in a Glider. I was in a certified aircraft (Diamond DA20 - a.k.a. "Katana.") I climbed to 10,000 feet out of Richmond and killed the engine. I then turned torwards Cincinnati. Over Blue Ash, I circled and slipped my way in to get it down. Never started it back up. That day, there were several thermals that I utilized to get my altitude back up. When I thought I was too low, I headed for a cloud. (Thermals are under them.) I even caught a nice little one in Hamilton, Ohio and almost busted CVG's Class B airspace.
It's a real interesting flight when you cut the engine off... it's so quiet and peaceful.
As a side note... they say the Prop on a plane is the equalivant to the Air Conditioner in a car... as long as it is spinning, you're fine. But... if it stops, you'll start to sweat.
Obviosly, you're not a pilot. With your engine out, you glide to the ground in a controlled decent... not an uncontrolled decent as with the BRS.
If you loose your engine in a boat, does it sink??? No. If you loose your engine in a plane, it still flys.
Case in point, I had a "catastrophic" engine failure in my Cessna 172 a while back. Engine gone... pieces left the aircraft. I landed on a road and turned into some guys driveway. He was pissed because I was blocking his drive. Never asked me how I was or what happened. When he started yelling, I pulled him over to my plane... pointed at the big hole in my cowling and all the oil running down the side of my plane. He suddenly got quiet.
I had full control of the plane the entire time... there was a sudden Roll when the engine seized, but I could fly it no problem. Went through the standard saftey checklist... shut down fuel, electrics, picked my spot... got to best glide, tuned radio to 121.5. Delcared emergency... switched the box to 7700 and flew it down. It took me about 10 minutes to get down... I even circled my landing site and then dumped 40 degrees of flaps to get it down.
Now, I see planes like the SR22 with these BRSs installed and hear stories about guys who hit turbulance and pull the cord. That's a costly mistake if there ever was one. I'm not going to pull a handle that turns my $250,000 plane into a pile of junk unless it's already junk.
Lesson here... fly the plane if it can fly. A plane is nothing but a glider with an engine... if you loose the engine... it still flys just fine.
I stopped reading your post when the website you refereneced made the point, "I do not take any guarantee about the quality of software referenced here. Use at your own risk."
The Java platform supports ONE language, Java. There are hacks that provide support to more languages, but NONE are supported by the platform.
Oh, and Java's language support is typically much more obscure. Ever heard of Jython for example?
No, this is not an alternative. Any alternative should be running Windows XP Media Center Edtion, it should have some form of Video Capture card, some form of "fast" video card, some form of keyboard, mouse, etc, etc. Did I mention the remote control?
What you are linking to is just a simple MiniATX style computer with a fanless powersupply... I can buy one similar at MicroCenter for less.
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! Microwave ovens work by exciting the water molocules at ~2.39ghz. That's how they work, by exciting the water, it in turn heats up... causing your food/cat/phone to cook.
Slashdot Mirror
NOTAMs are nice... when they are published before your flight. However, during the Presidential Election, NOTAMS and TFR were put up with only 30 minutes notice. I happened to land at my homebase at Blue Ash (ISZ) in Cincinnati only to find out that 10 minutes later a TFR was up. The guy who took off after me, turned north and flew right into it. We were not in the "notification area" of the TFR so noone at the airport (3 FBOs on the field) even knew about it, but were literally .6 miles south of it. Anyway, he was escorted back by F16s and subsequently got his 15 minutes of fame on the nightly news. There needs to be a better system and lasers can be used to help out.
Bill
Ok... only one point to make here... we have two rovers on Mars... the Japanese don't, for that matter, no other country does. 'Nuff said?
Bill
Which "previous mars rover's failures" are you referring too? No other "rovers" have failed. All the failures were either orbiters or landers, not rovers.
The previous rover was Sojourner in '97... and it lasted much longer than it's planned mission as well.
Bill
I know what you're trying to do, you're trying to clutter the issue with facts, arn't you!
Bill
Tools|Options, General Tab... uncheck "Automatically run messenger when I log on to Windows"
How hard is that?
Bill
Actaully, it's only hard to do it justice if you don't already have a 3D display.
God... I wish I had a 3D display... think of the por... oh, never mind.
Bill
Perhaps I need a little more Deep Thought on this. :-) Of course, Earth was trying to figure out what the ultimate question was... which is, ultimately the ultimate answer... isn't it?
Bill
Actually, the neareset star with a planet is approximately 93,000,000 miles from Earth.
And, my prediction is that they will blow up the Earth to make room for a new intergalactic highway bypass. (Unfortunatly, it'll probabally get destroyed just 5 minutes before it completes running a program that will give us the ultimate answer... oh, it's been working on it now for almost 10 million years.)
Bill
That is one WOPR of a joke!
Sorry... couldn't resist.
b
Considering that it was caught by a scientest on the team, can we truly say it was a slipshod process, or the process actually working like it was designed?
Think about that... so what if the instruments were switched... my point was maybe their plan didn't care if they were... the "base data" was sent back and processed here on Earth, therefore it doesn't really matter which APXS was on which MER.
And as for the "Only *detected* screw-up." I believe that any others will also be detected, as that is a natural part of the scientific method. The rovers were designed to simply transmit their findings, not to analyze it, which avoids those types of problems. This is a standard design features of all space probes - so that any issues can easily be fixed. Why do you think we have things like the "Optical Calibration Target" on board each rover? It's so we can continue to monitor and calibrate the devices remotely to ensure we're getting the right data.
Bill
I disagree - it is a minor thing. As this project had a finite development budget. A Risk Analysis (RA) was performed. RA would tell you that this instance, because the "data processing" was done back here on Terra, that it made no difference which instrument was installed in which rover. Risk Mitigation would also have pointed out that it's an easily correctable problem and therefore time/money shouldn't be spent verifying it. Time would be better spent on making sure that the instruments worked. There were many, many, many more important thing to make sure were right - like trajectories, timings, Radar altimeters, etc. That's where you focus on the "major things."
Bill
IMHO, you're a Nitwit!!! Those guys a NASA put those two rovers on Mars... do you have any idea what kind of a feat that is? Do you think you could do that??? Do you know how many people are involved with a project like that? Do you have any idea what the probility of human error is in a program like that?
They're not slackers or losers... they're human... and humans make mistakes in EVERY THING THEY DO. The processes in place aren't designed to eliminate mistakes, they're designed to reduce the possibility of mistakes - it's called risk mitigation. By reducing them and designing redundant systems (for example, TWO ROVERS ON MARS) you increase the chances of fullfilling all the mission objectives. Which they have not only accomplished, but far surpassed.
Get with it.
Bill
Man... I just "upgraded" to FireFox 1.0... now I have to upgrade to 1.0.1 already???
Geesh.
Bill
What about the rest of the planet?
Why doesn't a company in your country build a mapping product for your country? Why is it that no matter what a US company does, someone complains. Get over it and do the work yourself for once.
Why should we do all the work for you??? Especially in a darn BETA product!
Bill
Sig - I love this thing... now, I'll just sit back and watch the childish flame wars begin.
One... that probe is over 1.5 Billion miles from Earth. In my opinion, it's a darn good picture from there. Especially, considering where it's taking pictures from.
;-)
Two... that probe was launched in 1997. What type digital camera did you have then? What was it's image quality. Specifically, what kind of atmospheric conditions could it snap a picture in. Titan is -290 Degrees (F) below zero! That's what this little camera is doing.
Three... The audio can tell you a bunch. That hissing (changing volume) tell's me a great deal, even though I am not a trained audio interpreter. It tells me that the probe was spinning and what rate it was spinning. With a little math, I might even be able to figure out the speed of the wind (on the noisy side) based on these facts and some data about the probe itself. Now... let's see, can we determine the wind speed from here on Earth... yes, but only on the very top of the atmosphere. With this, combined with that Atari game like altimeter radar, I can figure out the different speeds of the wind at different elevations. That tells me a lot about the thermodynamic properties of Titan and consequently the weather.
So... that's what I get from them, even in their poor quality state. And... guess what... they'll analyze the data, filter it, process it and eventually, we get a lot more data.... just be patient, let them work.
Bill
Dumb! Why not just sign up for the unlimited text messaging. My plan is only $5.99 (US) per month... and best of all, no suprises! I have unlimited GPRS Data + WiFi Hotspots too, only $19.95.
My bill never varies, no matter how much I use it. (My 14 year old Daughter has the same plan.)
Bill
Ever hear of Thermals? I've known several guys who have glided for many hours... and came down because they, um, had to go.
I once glided from Richmond, Indiana to Blue Ash, Ohio - a distance of about 38 miles... but I wasn't in a Glider. I was in a certified aircraft (Diamond DA20 - a.k.a. "Katana.") I climbed to 10,000 feet out of Richmond and killed the engine. I then turned torwards Cincinnati. Over Blue Ash, I circled and slipped my way in to get it down. Never started it back up. That day, there were several thermals that I utilized to get my altitude back up. When I thought I was too low, I headed for a cloud. (Thermals are under them.) I even caught a nice little one in Hamilton, Ohio and almost busted CVG's Class B airspace.
It's a real interesting flight when you cut the engine off... it's so quiet and peaceful.
As a side note... they say the Prop on a plane is the equalivant to the Air Conditioner in a car... as long as it is spinning, you're fine. But... if it stops, you'll start to sweat.
Bill
Obviosly, you're not a pilot. With your engine out, you glide to the ground in a controlled decent... not an uncontrolled decent as with the BRS.
If you loose your engine in a boat, does it sink??? No. If you loose your engine in a plane, it still flys.
Case in point, I had a "catastrophic" engine failure in my Cessna 172 a while back. Engine gone... pieces left the aircraft. I landed on a road and turned into some guys driveway. He was pissed because I was blocking his drive. Never asked me how I was or what happened. When he started yelling, I pulled him over to my plane... pointed at the big hole in my cowling and all the oil running down the side of my plane. He suddenly got quiet.
I had full control of the plane the entire time... there was a sudden Roll when the engine seized, but I could fly it no problem. Went through the standard saftey checklist... shut down fuel, electrics, picked my spot... got to best glide, tuned radio to 121.5. Delcared emergency... switched the box to 7700 and flew it down. It took me about 10 minutes to get down... I even circled my landing site and then dumped 40 degrees of flaps to get it down.
Now, I see planes like the SR22 with these BRSs installed and hear stories about guys who hit turbulance and pull the cord. That's a costly mistake if there ever was one. I'm not going to pull a handle that turns my $250,000 plane into a pile of junk unless it's already junk.
Lesson here... fly the plane if it can fly. A plane is nothing but a glider with an engine... if you loose the engine... it still flys just fine.
Bill
Bill
I stopped reading your post when the website you refereneced made the point, "I do not take any guarantee about the quality of software referenced here. Use at your own risk."
The Java platform supports ONE language, Java. There are hacks that provide support to more languages, but NONE are supported by the platform.
Oh, and Java's language support is typically much more obscure. Ever heard of Jython for example?
Bill
What kind of a fix is that? Doing that just makes the whole system unusable for most users.
Bill
you guessed it... a Beowolf Cluster of these?
Bill
No, this is not an alternative. Any alternative should be running Windows XP Media Center Edtion, it should have some form of Video Capture card, some form of "fast" video card, some form of keyboard, mouse, etc, etc. Did I mention the remote control?
What you are linking to is just a simple MiniATX style computer with a fanless powersupply... I can buy one similar at MicroCenter for less.
Bill
Logic Supply has these for $2,675.00. So, they're not quite so expensive... but, they are quiet (and expensive!)
Bill
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! Microwave ovens work by exciting the water molocules at ~2.39ghz. That's how they work, by exciting the water, it in turn heats up... causing your food/cat/phone to cook.
Bill