RedHat eCOS Flies in Space 25
Brindafella writes "Brindafella reports that Redhat is flying in space as the OS for Canada's Smallest Satellite: The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX-1)[300k PDF], one of the flock of 1kg pico-satellites launched on 1 July 03 by a Russian rocket. Redhat eCos stands for embedded Configurable operating system, an open source real-time operating system (eCos Home Page). See the eCos Programmer's Guide for the CubeSat Computer: Introduction, Hardware Model, Development Setup, and Loading the eCos. The CANX-1 site at the University of Toronto, Canada gives more details, such as: The satellite is a 10cm cube, with a mass less than one kilogram; The satellite will generate about two Watts of peak power using direct energy conversion; Main Computer Board - Atmel AT91R40807 based on ARM7TDMI Thumb Processor, 40 MHz, 1 MB SRAM, 32 MB Flash, 200 mW max, 98 x 96 x 8 mm."
Better not have the swap... (Score:1)
Re:Better not have the swap... (Score:1)
Re:Better not have the swap... (Score:3, Informative)
The FLASH is probably only for uploading new program code to run the instruments onboard - I doubt they're using it for realtime storage, since that'd best be done downstairs. Since typical FLASH systems can withstand 10,000 or so re-writes before things go bitty, and presumably these guys used good stuff, I'd say thats enough for a lot of program updates.
And what is cool about this approach... (Score:2, Interesting)
... is that it is allowing students (albeit mainly postgraduates) to actually try out new satellite concepts on a space platform.
This could have very positive effects for the overall cost of satellite technology - Mistakes are currently sooooo expensive! (Hopefully you can launch a little cluster of these fairly cheaply by piggybacking on other payloads).
I wonder if they'll sell me one :)
Re:And what is cool about this approach... (Score:2, Interesting)
However, there's more to the package than meets the eye. In the Endeavor package, we launched a pair of picosats tethered together by 50' of kevlar embedded with gold to get the antenna cross section up.
While picosats do get the cost down, development still isn't particularly inexpensive.
Re:And what is cool about this approach... (Score:2, Insightful)
The consequence of increasing knowledge of space technology is that parts of it can maybe be a little more routine (though still scary/exciting when you think that your code - possibly bugs and all - is in spa
They're using Red Hat?! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:They're using Red Hat?! (Score:1)
I am SO SORRY (Score:2)
Kidding aside, this is definitely a project I'll be lurking for a long while.
Re:I am SO SORRY (Score:1)
there's several pictures there, including a better quality 'borg' picture or two.
Direct Engery Conversion?? (Score:2)
Re:Direct Engery Conversion?? (Score:2, Informative)
Why not Linux? (Score:1, Troll)
On an ARM7 you can run Linux given a few more megabytes of space which couldnt be expensive or bulky. Considering the number of things you can do with Linux, its probably worth it.
I'm really wondering if I can pay to launch a small satellite with a tiny laser pointer that can point on various ground locations, and have it point close to me, and watch the spot on the ground at night.
Re:Why not Linux? (Score:1, Funny)
Atmel Processor Board (Score:1)
The price on these Atmel cpu's at Digi-key is pretty good ~$30, but they seem to be obsolete. I'd put a board together myself, but it's well beyond my current electronics skills.
Speaking of Atmel, if anyone is interested in getting started on playing with embedded systems for cheap, they sell a nice line of 8 bit RISC (don't laugh, I'm serious) microcontrollers called AV
I noticed... (Score:2)
research for that.
Earlier picosat technology (Score:2, Interesting)
At the time, the company I work for "unexpectedly" inherited the picosat project from another NASA and DARPA contractor. Embedded Linu
STS-113 Endeavor picosat photos (Score:2, Informative)
Enjoy!
Mubin rav to Sloc (Score:1)
Sloc unidentified Canadian satellite, response code emergency.
Sloc to Mubin rav message recieve proceeding with analysis of device....
Mubin rav; Proceed.
Sloc to Mubin rav;...Unable to communicate with human coded control device! Device is using unfamiliar uncrackable interface.
Mubin rav; destroy unfamiliar possibly hostile device.
Sloc to Mubin rav; device destroyed, reporting unusual occurance to Earth based co-ordination centre http://www.nasa.gov/ for a