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This 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 installati

This 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 ago
Chinese 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 ago
  I did not know that. It appears that conquering the solar system is easier than conquering the PC desktop.
- Gys 5y ago
  So Linux might be only OS with an installed base covering several planets?
  - thomascountz 5y ago
    Sounds right; you can’t open Windows in space.
    - Shorn 5y ago
      In space, no one can hear you phone home.
  - Elv13 5y ago
    vxworks 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 ago
    It'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 ago
  Not 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 ago
    No, the fine article mentions that this flight will exceed the design parameters of the craft.
    - gregoriol 5y ago
      Many 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.

This 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 ago

Chinese 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 ago
I did not know that. It appears that conquering the solar system is easier than conquering the PC desktop.
Gys 5y ago
So Linux might be only OS with an installed base covering several planets?
- thomascountz 5y ago
  Sounds right; you can’t open Windows in space.
  - Shorn 5y ago
    In space, no one can hear you phone home.
- Elv13 5y ago
  vxworks 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 ago
  It'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 ago
Not 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 ago
  No, the fine article mentions that this flight will exceed the design parameters of the craft.
  - gregoriol 5y ago
    Many 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.