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

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

#181
post #104
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.

In case you haven't seen it: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/

Thank you for sharing, this is amazing

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

#182
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how would an internet across the solar system work? Realistically, each ~150 ms sphere would have its own cloud infrastructure. Those systems would then bridge with one another. So idk AWS on Earth and DogeNet on Mars. I would love for a distributed model as much as the next guy, but it's unlikely to happen for the same reasons that it isn't happening today.

But if each node communicated within its 150ms sphere, and you place nodes 10ms (3,000 km?), could this serve as a mesh network?

I think you have an interesting idea, but might not be thinking of the physics involved.

> The minimum distance from the Earth to Mars is about 54.6 million kilometers. The farthest apart they can be is about 401 million km. The average distance is about 225 million km.

Loosely, the speed of light is ~300,000km/s. So 182s, 1333s, and 750s as an absolute minimum length of time from end to end.

So, there are varying orbits, that's one problem. The other problem is getting items into solar orbits.

I didn't think of this, but now you have an even bigger problem of trying to keep those items in some sort of array that is in a direct line between EarthMars.

If we hand-wave away that problem, the next problem is that each hop is adding latency, so, the direct answer is: no, it makes things slower, and it's a significantly harder problem than just communicating across that distance.

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

#183
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 execut…

Isn't there some way to ensure that what you typed is what is being executed? Dropping characters from the terminal sounds terrifying.

I don't know enough about ssh and terminals to know if it's possible to type "12345" and see "12345" echoed back to me but really what the remote session sees is "1245".

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

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

There's the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon", which covers this with the Apollo 14 mission. Highly recommended.

Ahh, yes; I've seen the series multiple times - agreed that it's great, especially for those who enjoyed Apollo 13. I wasn't sure if there was a different Apollo-14 movie OP/Trothamel was referring to...

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

#186

The cause of the failure is most likely tin whiskers [1] or radiation. [1] https://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm .

I thought NASA no longer used lead-free solder to avoid this.

I think a lot of safety-critical systems even here on earth have exemptions from lead-free regulations because of this... but even lead can form whiskers.

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

#187
post #68
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the movie Hero [0], two kung fu masters fight a battle purely in their minds. And when the mental fight was over, they only execute one physical move to finish the battle. Think of this as the computer equivalent of that scene. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Like the battle between Sherlock and Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows?

Yes. A lot of Western action movies owe their inspiration to Chinese movies (and I suppose, viceversa). In this case Hero (2002) -- or a similar movie, since I doubt it invented this trope -- is likely an inspiration for A Game of Shadows (2011).

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

#188
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both: Dance around for 10 minutes trying to out-physics each other Guy 1: Why don't I just poke him with the pointy bit Great scene though, makes me want to watch the whole movie.

Yeah, this is strictly artistic kung fu, which is basically high-mortality ballet. There are also many "realistic" martial arts films, if that's your thing. I enjoy both styles, depending on mood.

Agreed. Wuxia to be specific, which is kinda like fantasy kung fu and has a long tradition.

It includes powers like becoming weightless, killing with a single movement, flying, etc.

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

#189
post #57

How specific is the Hubble that you can only repair it with the Space Shuttle? o_O

All the operating human launch systems are just capsules meant to either free fly or dock at a station, they don't have airlocks to let people out so using them for a Hubble repair would require a lot of modification and danger to use the whole capsule as an airlock. [0]

[0] Except Soyuz I guess their orbital module would allow you to keep the descent module pressurized but it's still way outside the design so there's no telling if the module would remain operational.

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