Intelligent Satellite Notices Volcanic Activity 116
Dik Zak points us to this NASA page about a new generation of intelligent Earth observation satellites. From the article: "The Indonesian volcano Talang on the island of Sumatra had been dormant for centuries when, in April 2005, it suddenly rumbled to life. A plume of smoke rose 1000 meters high and nearby villages were covered in ash. Fearing a major eruption, local authorities began evacuating 40,000 people. UN officials, meanwhile, issued a call for help: Volcanologists should begin monitoring Talang at once. Little did they know that, high above Earth, a small satellite was already watching the volcano. No one had told it to. EO-1 (short for "Earth Observing 1") noticed the warning signs and started monitoring Talang on its own. Indeed, by the time many volcanologists were reading their emails from the UN, 'EO-1 already had data,' says Steve Chien, leader of JPL's Artificial Intelligence Group."
It was December the 3rd (Score:5, Funny)
What an absolutely awesome piece of self identifying hotzone locating piece of hardware, the guys at Cyberdyne must have had a field day making it.
And now the intelligence is growing. "We're teaching EO-1 to use sensors on other satellites." Examples: Terra and Aqua, two NASA satellites which fly over every part of Earth twice a day. Each has a sensor onboard named MODIS. It's an infrared spectrometer able to sense heat from forest fires and volcanoes--just the sort of thing EO-1 likes to study. "We make MODIS data available to EO-1," says Chien, "so when Terra or Aqua see something interesting, EO-1 can respond."
This thing sounds like it can detect a fart from orbit!
What I want to know is if all this processing actually occurs onboard the sat, or if its a land based super computer brain?
Are these machines by chance running Linux? or are they using another VX-Works OS?
For the first time every I really think it could be possible for us to build a beowolf cluster of linux running space fem-bots, all we need to do is sabotage the main dev tree (if(GPS.Height>'200miles')
Year of the desktop? PAH! This year - the world!
Today volcanoes.... (Score:0, Funny)
And then we're all in trouble.
Obligatory Comments (Score:1, Funny)
"I wonder what would happen if we created a beowulf cluster of them?"
How intelligent is it? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How intelligent is it? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It was December the 3rd (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, that was me.
Disturbing (Score:4, Funny)
Does anyone else find this disturbing. Reminds me of that episode of Star Trek season 2 Episode 12, 16 minutes in, 45 seconds where.......errr never mind.
I... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:...but did it tell anyone? (Score:2, Funny)
Notice to the Slashdot grammarstapo community: there are people out there who can use both "it's" and "its" correctly--In the same sentence!
- RG>
Re:It was December the 3rd (Score:5, Funny)
What an absolutely awesome piece of self identifying hotzone locating piece of hardware
And to think - Skynet was supposed to wipe out the entire human race because it felt threatened - but now we know the truth. In reality it just got bored one day, and wanted something to watch.... kaboom, kaboom -....
I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:...but did it tell anyone? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:...but did it tell anyone? (Score:1, Funny)
If you find such a place, please let me know and I'll begin preparations to move immediately. Just msg me in private, because I don't want everyone else moving in and spoiling the place.
Re:...but did it tell anyone? (Score:2, Funny)
No, it just snickered. It's seen a couple of other things coming our way too, but whenever the operators try to get more information is just says "Oh you'll find out. You'll find out... soon enough."