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NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

npr.org

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Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#121

Post by diamondo25 »

abnry wrote: post #95
keanebean86 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be cool for earth satellites. On the other hand watching a stream involving something on Mars, let alone voyager, would be pretty boring! Send: ls Ok let's take a 20 minute break.

Job Posting: NASA programmer, needs at least 1 wpm typing speed and experience with compiling large projects.

The amount of preparation is much, much more than every other "accessible" installation. Typos are the worst to recover from, backspace usually doesnt exist. As I've sent commands to our Linux-running satellites, its usually prepending your commands with ctrl-c characters and a couple newlines at the end, just to make sure it runs and nothing is left in the buffer. There is also a possibility that commands get executed multiple times, and there are usually limits in transmission speed, processing speed, and frame length. Sending a lot of characters over a terminal can cause characters to be eaten, creating typos you can't see, affecting the commanding immensely.

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#122

Post by NortySpock »

beerandt wrote: post #79
Denvercoder9 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it wouldn't be. Starlink orbits at about the same altitude, but the satellites have their radio antenna pointed downwards to Earth, so they can't connect with each other.

Starlink has lateral uplink/downlink lasers, but yes that would be a complicated solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Last I heard laser links were in testing, and was currently only being used for communicating in the same orbit (a single, linear string of satellites all orbiting in the same plane and at the same altitude)

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#123

Post by Koshkin »

gundul wrote: post #108
abnry wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Job Posting: NASA programmer, needs at least 1 wpm typing speed and experience with compiling large projects.

Best programmer. -1 wpm.

Only needs a keyboard with one key.

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#124

Post by kabdib »

qzw wrote: post #7

pushes up glasses I would watch the heck out of a Twitch stream of their debugging/brainstorming sessions. I always loved the movie Apollo 13 , especially the technical troubleshooting parts.

Henry S F Cooper Jr.'s book The Evening Star describes some of the remote debugging and other problem solving that was necessary when the Magellan probe experienced computer problems while orbiting Venus. It's been a few decades since I read it, but it was pretty detailed and rather exciting.

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#126

Post by NikolaNovak »

trothamel wrote: post #120
qzw wrote: post #7

pushes up glasses I would watch the heck out of a Twitch stream of their debugging/brainstorming sessions. I always loved the movie Apollo 13 , especially the technical troubleshooting parts.

If you want to see debugging a computer in space, check out Apollo 13's sequel, Apollo 14. The moon landing is being held up by shorted-out switch that's causing the LM to abort the landing, and it's up to the programmers back home to figure out how to work around it in time to allow the landing. Apollo 13 was the story of a 'successful failure', while Apollo 14 shows how hard work and creative thinking can turn fail…

Is there actually an Apollo 14 movie? I can find Apollo 18 but not a Apollo 14 feature movie.

I saw this but it's a short documentary and may not be what you meant: https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-14-Complete-Downlink-Edition/d...

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#128

Post by mywittyname »

gundul wrote: post #108
abnry wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Job Posting: NASA programmer, needs at least 1 wpm typing speed and experience with compiling large projects.

Best programmer. -1 wpm.

I'm so fast that I can do -127wpm. Only in certain software though.

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#129

Post by londons_explore »

35fbe7d3d5b9 wrote: post #107
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lesson not taught to any modern software developer. Instead they change things all the time for no real reason other than that they want to change things.

One of the best senior engineers I worked with taught me how to run an outage. The most important thing? Stop what you are doing, take charge, and get everyone else to stop what they are doing. The best case scenario of a bunch of engineers flailing about on a bridge turning knobs is that you luck into a fix but don't know how you got there. But you're more likely to make things worse.

In my experience, the best strategy depends a lot on the severity of the outage.

If all the alarms are going off because of a loss of redundancy, then currently there is no outage. The correct move should be carefully considered, and maybe tested in the sandbox environment.

If there is currently a 100% outage, it's best to go all out on trying every possible fix, because typically you'll restore service quicker that way. Sure, occasionally you dig yourself a deeper hole, but usually it's the best strategy.

Re: NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

#130

Post by xf1cf »

programmer_an wrote: post #29

Programmer/analyst here and ready to help you NASA, just ask me and I'll clear a few hours of my agenda for you. I know people say this a lot, but in this case I really think a (at least partial) rewrite in Rust of the Hubble software would be very beneficial. We could gather some of the most distinguished coders here in hacker-news and create a task force to show them the benefits of rust's memory safety.

From what I gathered the problem is in the memory module and not memory itself. It would be like your RAM failing. No amount of rust or memory safety can help with that. Moreover you don’t exactly re-upload the entire Hubble system from earth. You may be interested in looking into NASA’s actual software integrity requirements as they are quite stringent and one of the reasons they use some antiquated languages. Rust is far too new, young, and buggy to even consider.

Appreciate the seemingly ever present optimism of rustaceans to golden hammer the language though.

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