Hubble Repairs Hindered By Antiquated Computer Systems 193
Andrew Moseman writes "Part of the trouble NASA is encountering while fixing the Hubble Space Telescope comes from the fact that it's been up there for nearly two decades, and therefore carries computer systems long outdated here on Earth. 'One of the main computers that the Goddard team has been struggling with during the repair attempts runs on an Intel 486 chip, the height of 1989 technology.' Many of NASA's long-running missions rely on antiquated systems — the Voyager probes each have about 32k of memory — but the scientists say they can manage."
Memory (Score:5, Funny)
In before... (Score:0, Funny)
The problem isn't the actual i486 chip (Score:2, Funny)
No manufacturer makes the turbo buttons that must be disengaged so Hubble can focus properly.
I feel their pain (Score:5, Funny)
Hello, Dark Star? (Score:2, Funny)
No TP for you! Budget problems...
You know you are getting old... (Score:4, Funny)
...when you think Hubble is an astronomer.
I read the headline and thought there were complications during poor Edwin's double knee replacement.
640K (Score:2, Funny)
Sure! How can anyone use more than even 64K (was the saying when the 8086 came out).
Re:Memory (Score:4, Funny)
C:\>_
and for some reason the mouse doesn't move.
Re:Upgrade (Score:1, Funny)
I agree. Upgrade the Voyager probes now!!
Re:Upgrade (Score:2, Funny)
A quote from the famous "Real programmers don't use Pascal" article written in 1983.
Some of the most awesome Real Programmers of all work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Many of them know the entire operating system of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft by heart. With a combination of large ground-based Fortran programs and small spacecraft-based assembly language programs, they are able to do incredible feats of navigation and improvisation-- hitting ten-kilometer wide windows at Saturn after six years in space, repairing or bypassing damaged sensor platforms, radios, and batteries. Allegedly, one Real Programmer managed to tuck a pattern matching program into a few hundred bytes of unused memory in a Voyager spacecraft that searched for, located, and photographed a new moon of Jupiter.
The current plan for the Galileo spacecraft is to use a gravity assist trajectory past Mars on the way to Jupiter. This trajectory passes within 80 +/- 3 kilometers of the surface of Mars. Nobody is going to trust a Pascal program (or Pascal programmer) for navigation to these tolerances.
If you have never read it, it's still a great read (at least for us old-timers).
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html [pbm.com]
Hey - don't forget the folks at the NASA research facility at Langley :(
Re:I feel their pain (Score:4, Funny)
I'll tell ya, I wouldn't mind unloading this thing, it's a bitch loading and saving my CV from/to cassette these days - it's difficult to find cassettes! It takes 15 minutes to load the word processor I found in COMPUTE magazine back in 1982, another 15 minutes to load/save the CV, AND, it's even more fun printing to the Timex/Sinclair 2040 roller tape thermal printer, but it makes a really great server since it can't be hacked, and moreover, it uses very little energy! I just creatively tape two rolls of thermal paper on a 8.5" x 11" paper and make a Zerox of the CV - fools most experts into thinking I did this with MS Office or Open Office! When they here how I did everything, I've cinched the JOB!
I still program in assembler code! Do you?
Re:You know you are getting old... (Score:5, Funny)
Windows has detected a new piece of hardware:
Hubble Telescope
Would you like to try and find the driver on Windows Update?
Re:Upgrade (Score:2, Funny)
Assembler? Bah. Us Real Programmers use a floppy diskette, a needle and a horseshoe magnet.
I don't usually buy extended warranties... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Upgrade (Score:5, Funny)
Can't they just remodulate the shield harmonics or reverse the polarity of the neutron flow or something?
Re:You know you are getting old... (Score:2, Funny)
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/10/24/484129.aspx [msdn.com]
Once again, airplane manufacturers have been giving serious consideration to offering Internet access in the skies. Back in 1994, Boeing considered equipping each seat with a serial modem. Laptop users could hook up to the modem and dial out. (Dial-up was the primary means of connecting to the Internet back in those days.)
We chuckled at the though of attaching the serial cable and getting a Plug-and-Play pop-up message:
New device detected: Boeing 747
As If.... (Score:5, Funny)
It's common knowledge 486s (and their variants) were pulled from the classified wreckage at Roswell NM earlier last century. Trust me, they've had plenty of time to work with those babies.
Glad I could help clarify that.
Re:Upgrade (Score:5, Funny)
Good God man, if we do that, we could turn all matter into doesn't matter, then nobody will give a fuck.
Re:Upgrade (Score:2, Funny)
So what are they using on the Battlestar Galactica? I bet it's really neat.