Re:Rumors that they're 'upgrading' from Ada.
on
Mars Rover Upgraded
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The large majority of the MER software was written in C. The exception is a small module in the navigation code that used C++ with a custom memory manager. BTW, JPL doesn't "do" ADA and it isn't likely that Java will be used on the MSL, the 2009 rover.
Well, other than not using the proper name of the band circa 1986 (Powell, not Palmer), I didn't say anything that was incorrect. I'm not sure what you mean by "cover", but Emerson, Lake and Powell's take on Holst's Mars, bringer of war was, in fact, used in the first version of Dan Maas' MER video, which was widely distributed among members of JPL's "Mars community".
"...when Lenny Kravitz was asked in person, backstage after one of his concerts in L.A. in 2003, by a JPL representive for permission to use his music in the public release, he declined"
You're wrong. It was his music label that nixed the deal, not Lenny.
"The Kravitz song in the non-public release was I Gotta Get Away"
Correct.
"...and the Holst song was from the American Beauty Soundtrack."
No, during entry, decent, and landing the original version used Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Mars bringer of war. During surface operations the music was from Thomas Newman's soundtrack for American Beauty.
Yep, it can be done. In '97 I used FreeWave Modems to communicate with my high-altitude balloon experiment at 115.2Kbaud from a distance of fifty-five miles. This was done using +3dB gain omnidirectional antennas on both the balloon and chase vehicle.
Caltech tried to qualify today, but their vehicle made an unexpected turn and bumped into something. They get a second chance on Wednesday
Yeah, our software freaked when it saw the "cow catcher" and tried to backup the vehicle, but drove forward instead because the gear selection software was messed-up. We should be in good shape for our run on Wednesday.
Now, look at Britain in the 1980s: The Sinclair QL. Rover. Jaguar. Lucas.
Is anyone surprised?;-)
(Disclaimer - this is not a troll, I'm British, it's a funny.
Having spent much of my childhood working on my Dad's various E-type Jaguars. Yes, it is very funny. In fact, I had just flashed back to working on Lucas electrical bits when I wrote this e-mail to the guys heading to Open University to negotiate interfaces on Beagle 2.
Subject: MAOS to Beagle Interface.
Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 7:28 PM
Mike and Frank,
Assuming that we'll have the mass/power/volume for some local
intelligence on the MAOS instrument, I'd propose using the
following electrical interface to the spacecraft:
1) +5 volt power.
2) -5 volt power.
3) Power return for #1 and possibly #2 (they may want separate
returns for each).
4) Raw (dirty) battery power for heaters and fuses.
5) Power return for #4.
6) Serial clock input line (5V TTL-level, synchronous, free-running,
frequency TBD).
7) Serial data output line (5V TTL-level, synchronous).
8) Serial data input line (5V TTL-level, synchronous).
9) Hard reset input line (5V TTL-level).
10) 'Not Ready' output line (5V TTL-level).
11) Case (spacecraft chassis) ground. This might be a "freebie"
connection at the connector shell.
To save mass/power/volume, I propose using a simple synchronous
TTL-level serial port for communications. Hopefully they'll provide any
isolation (e.g., opto-isolators) that's required. We simply don't have
any room for specialized transceivers (RS232, RS422, 1553 )
on our end.
The hard reset line simply provides a way to restart us without removing
power.
The 'not ready' line indicates that we're not ready to accept a new
command. Depending on how much local intelligence we have, we may
or may not need this output. If we only have a simple state machine
controlling the experiments, this output could be a very valuable. A
microcontroller, on the other hand, would be able to queue up commands
independently of whatever else is happening at that moment.
I'm also suggesting a fairly conservative grounding scheme. As anyone
who's ever worked on a vintage British automobile will attest, the Brits
don't much worry about proper grounding and may want to combine
some of these grounds.
If you can negotiate it, it would be nice to have one more TTL-level
input. I can't think of a specific reason for it now, but it might come in
handy down the road.
Dave and Martin, please speak up if you can think of anything I've
forgotten.
As pointed out above, Martian dust is very, very nasty stuff. Through triboelectric charging, tremendous voltage deltas can be generated on a lander as dust is blown around and through it.
The dust is also thought to be as reactive as one-hundred percent hydrogen peroxide. If life forms are/were present, this is the likely reason we haven't seen any evidence because we haven't looked below the surface.
...caltech has spent a estimated 5mil on this project...
I'm not sure who did the estimation, but they're an order of magnitude high. To date we've spent somewhere around $350K, mostly to pay for student labor over the Summer.
Actually, JPL isn't fielding a team. A small cadre of engineers from the JPL robotics community will be mentoring a group of Caltech undergrads, who will run the actual team.
Now is the time to take a tour of JPL [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov] because the twin MER spacecraft/rovers [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer] are viewable from the SAF (Spacecraft Assembly Facility) viewing gallery. I've noticed that they're running tours seven days a week too. Better make it soon because we're shipping S/N 001 to the cape in February. I think S/N 002 goes in March. Here's the link for tour information: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/pt.cfm. Here's a link to a photo of MER S/N 002 next to the Sojourner flight spare. These would have been taken in early November.
-Kevin
By all means, check out the Student Science Service (http://www.tri-esssciences.com) in Burbank, California. They sell a few high-end chemistry sets of their own design (these are not kiddie sets). Ira Katz and his daughter, Kim, are the owners and are easilly accessable via e-mail. They're also one of the largest suppliers of pyrotechnic special effects to the local movie studios. Can't recommend 'em enough.
-Kevin
Slashdot Mirror
This is how JPL intends to land the next rover, Mars Science Laboratory: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1404791803 599052711.
The large majority of the MER software was written in C. The exception is a small module in the navigation code that used C++ with a custom memory manager. BTW, JPL doesn't "do" ADA and it isn't likely that Java will be used on the MSL, the 2009 rover.
Well, other than not using the proper name of the band circa 1986 (Powell, not Palmer), I didn't say anything that was incorrect. I'm not sure what you mean by "cover", but Emerson, Lake and Powell's take on Holst's Mars, bringer of war was, in fact, used in the first version of Dan Maas' MER video, which was widely distributed among members of JPL's "Mars community".
You're wrong. It was his music label that nixed the deal, not Lenny.
"The Kravitz song in the non-public release was I Gotta Get Away"
Correct.
"...and the Holst song was from the American Beauty Soundtrack."
No, during entry, decent, and landing the original version used Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Mars bringer of war. During surface operations the music was from Thomas Newman's soundtrack for American Beauty.
-Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Yep, it can be done. In '97 I used FreeWave Modems to communicate with my high-altitude balloon experiment at 115.2Kbaud from a distance of fifty-five miles. This was done using +3dB gain omnidirectional antennas on both the balloon and chase vehicle.
Yeah, our software freaked when it saw the "cow catcher" and tried to backup the vehicle, but drove forward instead because the gear selection software was messed-up. We should be in good shape for our run on Wednesday.
Here's a photo of Ohio State's over-the-top entry.
Having spent much of my childhood working on my Dad's various E-type Jaguars. Yes, it is very funny. In fact, I had just flashed back to working on Lucas electrical bits when I wrote this e-mail to the guys heading to Open University to negotiate interfaces on Beagle 2 .
Subject: MAOS to Beagle Interface. Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 7:28 PM Mike and Frank, Assuming that we'll have the mass/power/volume for some local intelligence on the MAOS instrument, I'd propose using the following electrical interface to the spacecraft: 1) +5 volt power. 2) -5 volt power. 3) Power return for #1 and possibly #2 (they may want separate returns for each). 4) Raw (dirty) battery power for heaters and fuses. 5) Power return for #4. 6) Serial clock input line (5V TTL-level, synchronous, free-running, frequency TBD). 7) Serial data output line (5V TTL-level, synchronous). 8) Serial data input line (5V TTL-level, synchronous). 9) Hard reset input line (5V TTL-level). 10) 'Not Ready' output line (5V TTL-level). 11) Case (spacecraft chassis) ground. This might be a "freebie" connection at the connector shell. To save mass/power/volume, I propose using a simple synchronous TTL-level serial port for communications. Hopefully they'll provide any isolation (e.g., opto-isolators) that's required. We simply don't have any room for specialized transceivers (RS232, RS422, 1553 ) on our end. The hard reset line simply provides a way to restart us without removing power. The 'not ready' line indicates that we're not ready to accept a new command. Depending on how much local intelligence we have, we may or may not need this output. If we only have a simple state machine controlling the experiments, this output could be a very valuable. A microcontroller, on the other hand, would be able to queue up commands independently of whatever else is happening at that moment. I'm also suggesting a fairly conservative grounding scheme. As anyone who's ever worked on a vintage British automobile will attest, the Brits don't much worry about proper grounding and may want to combine some of these grounds. If you can negotiate it, it would be nice to have one more TTL-level input. I can't think of a specific reason for it now, but it might come in handy down the road. Dave and Martin, please speak up if you can think of anything I've forgotten.
The dust is also thought to be as reactive as one-hundred percent hydrogen peroxide. If life forms are/were present, this is the likely reason we haven't seen any evidence because we haven't looked below the surface.
I'm not sure who did the estimation, but they're an order of magnitude high. To date we've spent somewhere around $350K, mostly to pay for student labor over the Summer.
Actually, JPL isn't fielding a team. A small cadre of engineers from the JPL robotics community will be mentoring a group of Caltech undergrads, who will run the actual team.
Whoops, forgot the last link: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/1106_b231.cfm -Kevin
Now is the time to take a tour of JPL [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov] because the twin MER spacecraft/rovers [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer] are viewable from the SAF (Spacecraft Assembly Facility) viewing gallery. I've noticed that they're running tours seven days a week too. Better make it soon because we're shipping S/N 001 to the cape in February. I think S/N 002 goes in March. Here's the link for tour information: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/pt.cfm. Here's a link to a photo of MER S/N 002 next to the Sojourner flight spare. These would have been taken in early November. -Kevin
By all means, check out the Student Science Service (http://www.tri-esssciences.com) in Burbank, California. They sell a few high-end chemistry sets of their own design (these are not kiddie sets). Ira Katz and his daughter, Kim, are the owners and are easilly accessable via e-mail. They're also one of the largest suppliers of pyrotechnic special effects to the local movie studios. Can't recommend 'em enough. -Kevin