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Seeing this puts my daily job in another perspective. Engineers at SpaceX can launch a rocket, deliver the cargo, and safely land it ON A FREAKING MOVING PLATFO

Seeing this puts my daily job in another perspective. Engineers at SpaceX can launch a rocket, deliver the cargo, and safely land it ON A FREAKING MOVING PLATFORM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING SEA perfectly, and I can't write a stupid UI that doesn't break some unit tests. I've become so used to writing (and working with) less than perfect (sloppy) software, I'm ashamed to be called an engineer (not that anyone calls me that). I wouldn't be able to write software that lands a rocket anywhere without first crashing ~100 prototypes.

rohit89 11y ago
SpaceX has a testing framework where they can simulate thousands of flights so they've likely crashed it a fair few times in the simulations.
- rootlocus 11y ago
  I can't begin to imagine the number of variables that framework has to work with. Everything from atmospheric data to the rocket's structural integrity...
- prodmerc 11y ago
  Yes, we all have KSP :)
- ForHackernews 11y ago
  They've also crashed it a fair few times in real life.
deleted 11y ago
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SonicSoul 11y ago
I agree 100%. After reading "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" I was really blown away by what kinds of problems the engineers at spaceX deal with. It makes my job as software engineer seem like a monkey with a typewriter could do it. It's many levels of magnitude more complex and there are no frameworks to just download and leverage. you're pretty much constantly inventing new stuff. edit, one example of the kind of problems they deal with: initial rocket testing was done on an island near Hawaii, so the engineers had to build their own living space and stay there full time rolling out this big heavy rocket onto an open field for testing and then rolling it back into it's hangar every day in grueling heat. they'd work 15 hr days which was pretty much expected and thankless. when there was component failure Elon would use his Jet to get parts at radio shack in a different state and fly it over to CA for testing, and then straight to the island speed up the work. Something that would take NASA months would take SpaceX days or weeks since they didn't need "space grade" components but instead used common parts. They'd just ensure that those parts passed enough tests that they could be confident of the quality.
- dmix 11y ago
  Oh interesting. First time hearing about this book. Amazon link for anyone interested: http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233/ http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0...
- lambdadmitry 11y ago
  >there are no frameworks to just download and leverage They seem to use Grafana at least :) http://grafana.org/blog/2016/01/19/Grafana-Its-Rocket-Science.html http://grafana.org/blog/2016/01/19/Grafana-Its-Rocket-Scienc...
- peter303 11y ago
  Dont forget NASA and Kosmos did this during the 1960s for more powerful rockets with kiloflop computers.

rohit89 11y ago

SpaceX has a testing framework where they can simulate thousands of flights so they've likely crashed it a fair few times in the simulations.

rootlocus 11y ago
I can't begin to imagine the number of variables that framework has to work with. Everything from atmospheric data to the rocket's structural integrity...
prodmerc 11y ago
Yes, we all have KSP :)
ForHackernews 11y ago
They've also crashed it a fair few times in real life.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

SonicSoul 11y ago

I agree 100%. After reading "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" I was really blown away by what kinds of problems the engineers at spaceX deal with. It makes my job as software engineer seem like a monkey with a typewriter could do it. It's many levels of magnitude more complex and there are no frameworks to just download and leverage. you're pretty much constantly inventing new stuff. edit, one example of the kind of problems they deal with: initial rocket testing was done on an island near Hawaii, so the engineers had to build their own living space and stay there full time rolling out this big heavy rocket onto an open field for testing and then rolling it back into it's hangar every day in grueling heat. they'd work 15 hr days which was pretty much expected and thankless. when there was component failure Elon would use his Jet to get parts at radio shack in a different state and fly it over to CA for testing, and then straight to the island speed up the work. Something that would take NASA months would take SpaceX days or weeks since they didn't need "space grade" components but instead used common parts. They'd just ensure that those parts passed enough tests that they could be confident of the quality.

dmix 11y ago
Oh interesting. First time hearing about this book. Amazon link for anyone interested: http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233/ http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0...
lambdadmitry 11y ago
>there are no frameworks to just download and leverage They seem to use Grafana at least :) http://grafana.org/blog/2016/01/19/Grafana-Its-Rocket-Science.html http://grafana.org/blog/2016/01/19/Grafana-Its-Rocket-Scienc...
peter303 11y ago
Dont forget NASA and Kosmos did this during the 1960s for more powerful rockets with kiloflop computers.