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NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

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Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#101

Post by varjag »

shiroiuma wrote: post #76
Aardwolf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the fact that this CPU is still running at all, after such long time in such hostile environment (radiation, temperatures)!

These spacecraft don't have CPUs, at least not the way we think of them, in the sense of a single microprocessor IC. Their "CPUs" are built from discrete logic gates on CMOS and TTL ICs, the way the earliest digital arcade games were. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#Computers_and_...

The concept of CPU predates micro-processors. They were cabinet sized originally.

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#103

Post by amelius »

fuzzythinker wrote: post #47

To put the 12B miles in an easier grasp, Pluto's average distance is 3.7B miles. So Voyager 2 is a hair under 3.3 Plutos away, and Voyager 1 at 15B miles is slightly over 4 Plutos away. Another point of reference is the heliosphere, at 100AU. 1AU (earth to Sun) is 93M miles, so the heliosphere is around 2.5 Plutos away.

A more relevant measure (for software updates etc.) would be light-years or light-seconds etc.

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#104

Post by skissane »

hef19898 wrote: post #74
wannacboatmovie wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly the "megabytes of JavaScript to 'hello world'" culture of today could not even begin to comprehend how this even works

It funny, usually people on HN diss NASA et all hard for being those big, inept governkent agencies, with SpaceX being so so mich better because SpaceX get SW"engineering". And then NASA does something like this, and all of sudden it so cool! Coupd it be that those orgs aren't even nearly as incompetent as people have a tendency to think?

> It funny, usually people on HN diss NASA et all hard for being those big, inept governkent agencies, with SpaceX being so so mich better because

Many of NASA’s problems aren’t the fault of NASA, they are the fault of Congress. NASA didn’t come up with SLS+Orion all by themselves, the high-level design was dictated to them by Congress and NASA was left with the job of fleshing out the details and making it all work somehow. SpaceX needs NASA as a customer and a source of valuable expertise, it just wants it freed from being forced by Congress to spend billions on super-inefficient projects such as SLS+Orion, when SpaceX has a solution which can do more for less (Starship+SuperHeavy) and is likely to be available soon (bureaucratic delays due to the FAA and environmental agencies such as the FWS being under-resourced being the current biggest obstacle to that)

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#105

Post by fredsted »

rich_sasha wrote: post #61

They are doing it all wrong. Who runs on-prem hardware these days??? They should put it all in the cloud, they can replicate and have many instances of virtual Voyagers, not the measly 2. CDN should help with latency too, I hear their latency is measured in many hours, and is getting worse every day! Also, software update, big deal - use CI/CD! They probably don't have a Kanban board either... Dinosaurs!

I bet it doesn't even run Kubernetes.

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#106

Post by autoexec »

randomdata wrote: post #100
autoexec wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just an issue of money. Apple made a lot more money last year than NASA did.

And Apple would have made a lot more money if you spent the equivalent of Voyager 2's cost on your iPhone. It is just about money. Cheap out and buy a budget phone and you will also get budget support.

You're right, I misspoke. I should have said it wasn't about the costs. NASA can keep updating their hardware after all this time with far fewer resources than apple has, so it isn't that it's prohibitively expensive to keep supporting old devices, it's just that ultimately "It is just about money" and cell phone companies would rather have people throw out their old devices and buy new ones.

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#108

Post by hef19898 »

skissane wrote: post #104
hef19898 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It funny, usually people on HN diss NASA et all hard for being those big, inept governkent agencies, with SpaceX being so so mich better because SpaceX get SW"engineering". And then NASA does something like this, and all of sudden it so cool! Coupd it be that those orgs aren't even nearly as incompetent as people have a tendency to think?

> It funny, usually people on HN diss NASA et all hard for being those big, inept governkent agencies, with SpaceX being so so mich better because Many of NASA’s problems aren’t the fault of NASA, they are the fault of Congress. NASA didn’t come up with SLS+Orion all by themselves, the high-level design was dictated to them by Congress and NASA was left with the job of fleshing out the details and making it all work…

So SpaceX wants NASA to be able to spend all those billions with them instead of a competitor? Shroud business move, that says nothing about capabilities.

Just one question, what will be avaiable first, FalconHeavy and a fully certified Starship (which has to launch without blowing up for that), Tesla FSD or Tesla's humanoid robot?

Regarding SLS, they launched successfully last year and aim for a manned launch in 2024. SpaceX has to beat that timeline, assuming this whole thing being a race, which it isn't.

Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away

#109

Post by darkwater »

bhaak wrote: post #52
OnlyMortal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1931256466260489.5 centimetres or, if you prefer, 3167950339119.439 giraffes.

I doubt that giraffes are metric. But maybe they are some obscure SI unit? Fun fact. 1 billion km is almost 1.1 light hours. 1 billion miles is almost 1.5 light hours with less error margin. So you can easily calculate that Voyager 2 is about 18 light hours from Earth.

So hwo it "just" took 18 hours for the update to complete, according to the article? Shouldn't be at very least 36 hours, given that you need feedback from Voyager?
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