Linux Goes to Mars 44
Erik Rauch writes "The European Beagle 2 Mars Lander, set to touch down on Mars on Christmas Day, will be controlled by a single Linux-based workstation. I wonder if the Spacecraft Control Operating System is free software?"
SCOS (Score:5, Funny)
> Space Control Operating System is free
No, it is SCO'S.
[/groaner]
-ghostis
Re:SCOS (Score:1)
Re:SCOS (Score:2)
Darle "The Expired Trojan" McBride
1234 oncracklegal st.
PhantomIP, Utah 01010
Re:SCOS (Score:1)
Darwin Awards [darwinawards.com]
Re:SCOS is a just repurposed version of... (Score:1)
Did anyone actually play that game, besides me I mean?
Beagle 2 is landing on Mars... (Score:5, Funny)
It's certainly a re-defining moment for Linux. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:It's certainly a re-defining moment for Linux. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good news. (Score:1)
Article ./ed (Score:3, Informative)
Text from similar article [sys-con.com]
On 26 December, if all goes well and if a single workstation running Linux proves itself up to the task of running a space probe, the world will learn that "the Beagle has landed."
The workstation in question is installed at the Lander Operations Control Centre, part of Britain's new National Space Center in Leicester, England. It uses something called SCOS (Spacecraft Control Operating System) which sits on top of Linux, and there are two more Linux-based systems as back-up.
The "Beagle 2 Mars Lander," according to a report this morning at whatpc.co.uk, is scheduled to separate from the European Space Agency's Mars Express rocket on Friday, December 19, and is reckoned to have only a 50:50 chance of success. No fault of Linux - the actual landing site is one imponderable factor that could affect comms detrimentally if the Beagle 2 is unlucky. If all goes well, the landfall will take place at 08:51 EST on Christmas Day, December 25.
Incorrectly titled article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Incorrectly titled article (Score:1)
Regards, Simon
Give Tux a Hat (Score:3, Funny)
...something along the lines of a helmet with pushbroom decoration.
High Specification PC's (Score:1)
What are 'high specification' pc's (in their eyes) I wonder...?
Maybe dual processor 3200+ ? Athlons or Pentiums? Built by whom? Big monitors? Any neat case mods here (yah- this is a government entity - no overclocking or neon case mods likely) ?
It might be neat if someone from that program office could answer this question. Whom do
Re:High Specification PC's (Score:1)
http://www.beagle2.com/resources/co
Re:High Specification PC's (Score:2)
Re:High Specification PC's (Score:1)
Re:Is this considered... (Score:2)
on that page there are links to several actual usages of Linux in space.
Insightful quote from beagle2.com (Score:3, Funny)
That may not be obvious to the segment of the population who believe that computers are powered by gnomes.
BTW I love this picture of Prof. Colin Pillinger. Can you say Mad Professor?
http://speakeasy.org/~lcolleton/beagle2_fiend.j
Sure, it's free, but it's Java. (Score:2, Funny)
Fortunately, a million people have already written Java Lander programs [frontiernet.net], so it was probably very little new programming involved.
Re: (Score:2)
I Sure Hope It's Free Software (Score:1)
Mars Landers for the Masses!
They couldn't put it on the beatle because of GPL. (Score:4, Funny)
-Adam
Re:They couldn't put it on the beatle because of G (Score:3, Funny)
Not a problem -- anyone receiving the distributed binary is welcome to the source code; they need but to ask and we'll happily provide it for the cost of duplication (trivial) and delivery (a few hundred million USD). NASA might even be willing to accept the request itself as payment, depending on what form the request was in...
Re:The Beatle (Score:2)
Re:They couldn't put it on the beatle because of G (Score:5, Funny)
I really think the Brits were shortsighted on this one, it really could make for a great way of funding a large portion of their space program.
Yes they could (Score:1)
I can see it now. (Score:4, Funny)
When the Lawyers arrived on Mars they found out that the Lander doesn not run Linux, but it's control station on Earth does. When asked a SCO representative said, "This is a set back in our mission to destroy open source software. I am sure many people a slashdot are having a good time with this and that many soviet russia jokes are being made.".
The Lawyers are now stranded on Mars, but in a suprise twist discovered intellegent alien life. SCO has announced that they use a form of open source software and they will be going after their use of the binay number 0. The aliens being peaceful and naive are now welcoming their new SCO lawyer overlords.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those poor Martians.
I want to see them try to send Windows CE up there (Score:4, Funny)
This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down. If the problem persists, contact your vendor.
They reboot the program, which takes about ten minutes for the commands to reach between the robot and the command center.
Afterwards, it goes on, collecting rock samples and surveying the landscape. It drives towards a rock, but the guys didn't worry because it's programmed to avoid large objects. But instead of turning, the program goes FASTER and hits the rock! "What the bloody f-" one of 'em says as the other one says, "It must have confused the commands, DAMN IT! We just did a Windows Update not twelve hours before sending it to space!"
When they tried to send another command, every computer screen in the room turned blue. The following message appeared:
Windows
A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C00068F8 in VxD VMM(01) +
000059F8. The current application will be terminated.
* Press any key to terminate the application.
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. You will
lose any unsaved information in all applications.
Press any key to continue
Everyone in the room start screaming and yelling swearwords. Then, on the main screen, some short, wide-eyed, grey-skinned humanoids appear. ALIENS!! THEY'VE FOUND ALIEN LIFE!!! HUMANITY IS NOT ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!
But then, one of the little grey-skinned things put a floppy disk in the robot, then everything goes blank. The entire command HQ goes out. In several days, they say they've found a mighty virus that attached to windows's OS through a security hole in IE, which the NASA people could not remove because of it's integration into the OS. The aliens wiped all info about finding them so the scientists couldn't prove finding them.
The morale of the story? Don't ever use Microsoft's products to do anything important.
schwa?? (Score:2)
Linux is not made for mission critical applications (not yet). Sure you can reboot your workstation when something goes wrong, but it's a little tricky to hold down the power key for 5 seconds on a little bot millions of miles away.
I'm not dissin linux, I'm just not saying it's ready for that kind of dependibilty.
Linux Goes to Mars (Score:2, Funny)
Please sir, can I have some more? (Score:1)
Oh I do *love* the American media :)
Re:Please sir, can I have some more? (Score:2)
"In true British low-budget fashion" is surely a comment that could only have been written by a Brit, anyway?
Re:Please sir, can I have some more? (Score:2)
"In true British low-budget fashion" is surely a comment that could only have been written by a Brit, anyway?
Not at all; some of us Americans have seen Dr. Who.
Re:Please sir, can I have some more? (Score:1)
Except that most of the budget has come from ESA, in which the UK is a minor contributor (sorry, I can not remember the numbers)
Regards, Simon
Distribution (Score:1)
Re:Distribution (Score:1)
They must be using SCOS-2000 if it runs on Linux: in that case it is designed to run on SUSE with one or two mods (sorry, I can not remember which version and what mods). The missions I have worked on use either SCOS-1 (VAX/Fortran!) or run SCOS-2000 on Solaris.
Oh - and SCOS is definitly NOT free - it is owned by ESA.
Regards, Simon