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Most likely they have headless web browsers running on both the main spacecraft (probably chromium) and the Philae lander. Web sockets enables the lander to com

by sktrdie 12y ago

Most likely they have headless web browsers running on both the main spacecraft (probably chromium) and the Philae lander. Web sockets enables the lander to communicate to the spacecraft which then sends its signals down to earth using regular HTTP (you don't want to keep an interstellar HTTP connection open). All of it is of course written in JavaScript, more specifically vanilla-JavaScript - which frankly I find weird given that I'd hope they would use a framework such as socket.io - bad engineering if you ask me. The lander obviously uses latest Node.js and npm to update some of its modules which are again sent across the wire using interstellar HTTP.

notfunk 12y ago
This is the best thing I've read all day.
adamfeldman 12y ago
You joke, but FTP has indeed actually been used to communicate between Earth and a probe. A team at NASA's JPL , led by Vinton Cerf, completed a study of what would be needed for an Interplanetary Internet [1]. There are already IETF RFCs for delay-tolerant networking [2], which include mechanisms for store-and-forward communications (e.g. each transceiver is a relay). Science fiction has some great depictions of interstellar communications, such as my favorite by Vernor Vinge, the Hugo award-winning novel A Fire Upon the Deep. It is a most excellent space opera that prominently features an interstellar system like Usenet as part of the plot [3], as well as superhuman intelligence, physics, and all sorts of other wonderful bits. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep
billybofh 12y ago
All this without docker? Their devops team is seriously behind the times...
squidcactus28 12y ago
I think there's probably some CFML involved too?

by sktrdie 12y ago

notfunk 12y ago

This is the best thing I've read all day.

adamfeldman 12y ago

You joke, but FTP has indeed actually been used to communicate between Earth and a probe. A team at NASA's JPL , led by Vinton Cerf, completed a study of what would be needed for an Interplanetary Internet [1]. There are already IETF RFCs for delay-tolerant networking [2], which include mechanisms for store-and-forward communications (e.g. each transceiver is a relay). Science fiction has some great depictions of interstellar communications, such as my favorite by Vernor Vinge, the Hugo award-winning novel A Fire Upon the Deep. It is a most excellent space opera that prominently features an interstellar system like Usenet as part of the plot [3], as well as superhuman intelligence, physics, and all sorts of other wonderful bits. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

billybofh 12y ago

All this without docker? Their devops team is seriously behind the times...

squidcactus28 12y ago

I think there's probably some CFML involved too?