3 ms·

Arm-chair thoughts of an outsider: Since they knew their objectives in advance, couldn’t they have uploaded the code/program/sequence in advance and only sent t

Arm-chair thoughts of an outsider: Since they knew their objectives in advance, couldn’t they have uploaded the code/program/sequence in advance and only sent the configuration/parameters on final approach? Waiting until the last 10 days of a decade long mission to upload mission critical code strikes me as risky. Even more so when there is a nine hour latency.

therealjumbo 8y ago
Reading this story sent shivers down my spine. I'm very glad my stuff can't go this wrong this fast with that many consequences and then have to work that hard to clean it back up. However, I'm guessing the reason they didn't upload said mission code earlier (or before launch) is because it wasn't done yet, and that's mainly because they didn't know what needed to be coded up yet or it's so incredibly unique to their mission its never been written before especially within their constraints. So they launch, and figure out some of the requirements and code up the solution while its in flight. If they did it all beforehand, the mission would've been 10 years longer assuming that it did in fact take 10 years to figure out and code the solution. Furthermore I'm guessing of the requirements may not have been clear until they were in flight (or past Jupiter or whatever) and then they had to write the solution and software development is unpredictable so... At any rate, hats off to them for such an incredible job.
gmueckl 8y ago
While I am not completely sure, I believe that the commands that get sent to flying missions are mostly high level scripts comtrolling the sequences of events that need to happen. And these need to be determined during the mission for various reasons (new science, engineering mistakes, error correction for trajectory deviations...).

3 ms·

Arm-chair thoughts of an outsider: Since they knew their objectives in advance, couldn’t they have uploaded the code/program/sequence in advance and only sent t

by tqkxzugoaupvwqr 8y ago

therealjumbo 8y ago
Reading this story sent shivers down my spine. I'm very glad my stuff can't go this wrong this fast with that many consequences and then have to work that hard to clean it back up. However, I'm guessing the reason they didn't upload said mission code earlier (or before launch) is because it wasn't done yet, and that's mainly because they didn't know what needed to be coded up yet or it's so incredibly unique to their mission its never been written before especially within their constraints. So they launch, and figure out some of the requirements and code up the solution while its in flight. If they did it all beforehand, the mission would've been 10 years longer assuming that it did in fact take 10 years to figure out and code the solution. Furthermore I'm guessing of the requirements may not have been clear until they were in flight (or past Jupiter or whatever) and then they had to write the solution and software development is unpredictable so... At any rate, hats off to them for such an incredible job.
gmueckl 8y ago
While I am not completely sure, I believe that the commands that get sent to flying missions are mostly high level scripts comtrolling the sequences of events that need to happen. And these need to be determined during the mission for various reasons (new science, engineering mistakes, error correction for trajectory deviations...).