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We’re Going Big for Flight 9
- aliasEli 5y agoThis is about the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. It is probably doomed to "Live fast, die young" but it is still amazing. (Also, AFAIK it is the only installation of Linux on another planet)
- krasin 5y agoChinese Marsian rover runs on Kylin OS, which is Linux based 1.https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3138313/mars-moon-computer-system-behind-chinas-space-missions https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3138313/mars... 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylin_(operating_system) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylin_(operating_system)
- aliasEli 5y agoI did not know that. It appears that conquering the solar system is easier than conquering the PC desktop.
- Gys 5y agoSo Linux might be only OS with an installed base covering several planets?
- thomascountz 5y agoSounds right; you can’t open Windows in space.
- Shorn 5y agoIn space, no one can hear you phone home.
- Elv13 5y agovxworks claimed that title. Unfortunately, Linux never was the "only OS with an installed base covering several planets". And if you never heard of vxworks or QNX, that's the point. They just work and that's the point.
- akiselev 5y agoIt's the only general purpose OS that's both on several planets and usable on commodity computing hardware, as opposed to a real time OS or the custom operating systems that predated them. They have a much longer history in space: VxWorks has been on every Mars surface mission since the Pathfinder Lander in 1997 including Perseverance, New Horizons flew by Pluto in 2015 running Nucleus OS and RTEMS is on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dotancohen 5y ago> It is probably doomed to "Live fast, die young" but it is still amazing. It's doomed to "Dare great things", as per the JPL motto. Like many JPL projects, they are willing to take great risks that may offer great rewards. Probably the last NASA institution with this mindset.
- gregoriol 5y agoNot sure it's great risks: they seem to have prepared for many cases and have very good failure prevention. I bet that flight is well within what they planned for. Great planning.
- dotancohen 5y agoNo, the fine article mentions that this flight will exceed the design parameters of the craft.
- gregoriol 5y agoMany space probes exceed their "planned design", some by many more years of activity for example: the official plan is not really what the engineering has been planning.
- geocrasher 5y agoSummary: The Mars Helicopter (Ingenuity) is going to attempt to fly .39 miles at 11mph for just shy of 3 minutes over an area that could otherwise never be covered by a wheeled rover. It'll be taking pictures along the way and navigating over uneven terrain despite not being programmed for it and will be communicating with the rover at distances past its design goals. Wish them luck. <-- their words, not mine. Commentary: Whoa. They are really going all out with this. It's hard to explain how difficult this is without GPS on Earth nevermind on another planet. I admire their confidence, boldness, and willingness to learn from the potential failure.
- martyvis 5y agoIf I recollect correctly,some of Ingenuity's navigation partly relies on a down looking camera. I hope that all those "sandy ripples" they cross aren't too alike or at a frequency that matches the camera frame rate. This would lead to stroboscopic issues with judging speed and position. I'm sure though they would have the gyros, accelerometers, and maybe even radio signal strength all playing a part in the navigation exercise. It would be a great engineering project to work on.
- cyberge99 5y agoThey say late Sunday night, but no timezone. :(