[ale] [OT] Mars Lander!

[Derek Atkins]

JD <jdp at algoloma.com> writes:

> Wikipedia says that the rover runs: "VxWorks (multitasking)"
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_embedded_computer_systems_on_board_the_Mars_rovers#Performance_comparisons
>
> The CPU is a radiation hardened PowerPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 .
> I saw a bunch of MacBooks in the control room last night. I couldn't make out
> what OS the built-in workstations were running, but they appeared to be some
> sort of UNIX.

I've not been at JPLs control room, only the launch control room at KSC
in Florida.  When I was at KSC the workstations were all Suns.  But it's
possibly they have switched them out to something else in the past
decade since I was there.

> Real-time OSes are different from desktop or server OSes.  A late answer is a
> wrong/bad answer.  When I was programming spacecraft avionics, I would have
> loved to have one of those PPC processors and a modern OS.
>
> I couldn't find any current information about in 20 minutes of
> searching online and reading about the OS running on the workstations
> and servers used at JPL Space Flight Operations Facility. Most of what
> I found was historical from before the 1990s.

And what did they use then?

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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