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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

#231

Post by ethanbond »

slingnow wrote: post #229
simpaticoder wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Half a century of operation. The stability of society (specifically American, specifically California/Caltech/JPL/Pasadena) must also be marveled at. That's 2 or 3 generations of engineers and scientists that were trained well enough to actually get things done. This is a marvel of teaching, technical communication, and societal infrastructure. Notably, NASA/JPL has maintained its prestige and funding for that entir…

You're going to be blown away when you discover people have been reliably passing down information to future generations for many many centuries.

"Reliably passing down information" includes a lot of stuff a lot less impressive than "reliably passing down the information required to keep operational a spacecraft mid-flight at the edge of our solar system."

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

#232

Post by gstrike »

atemerev wrote: post #73
robertlagrant wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sir, we've just had a response for Betelgeuse! They say...can they have the old Start Menu back?

Ah, so that’s what Betelgeuse dimming was about, a few years ago

[dead]

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

#233

Post by AnonC »

These two probes are mind blowing achievements. It would be lovely to read about the code and the various things it does, along with a description of the computing hardware (which machine code or assembly language or other language was used), etc.

> The update, which took almost 18 hours to complete, was transmitted to help Voyager 2 avoid the same problem that its sibling, Voyager 1, experienced last year.

> …

> If there aren’t any issues, it will trigger the Voyager 2 update on October 28.

Correct me if I’m wrong. The wording is a bit confusing. I presume the first paragraph above, when it says “to complete”, refers to just transmitting the update (and acknowledgment that it has been saved). The patching with this updated code will be triggered on October 28 after some verification checks are done.

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

#234

Post by datameta »

kzrdude wrote: post #70
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!

They are hard at work putting it in the Oort cloud.

Super low throughput and shard size, but robust vacuum gap security to defend against physical attacks.

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

#235

Post by gosub100 »

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?

the delay of James Webb 10+ years is the epitome of gov bloat and incompetence. Also the 6x or so budget bloat. Thats why NASA has a bad name.

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

#236

Post by js2 »

How do either of these still have any propellent left? If they were originally scheduled to last only four years, how did they manage to get launched with enough propellent to last decades and billions of miles past their original mission?

According to this article from 2003, the probes have enough hydrazine to last until 2034 and 2040:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/11/what-voyager-1-u...

Edit: this "Voyager Backgrounder" paper from 1980 is terrific:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19810001583/downloads/19...

The probes were launched with 104 kg (230 lb) of hydrazine. But I'm still not clear why they were so obviously overbuilt for a four year mission.

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

#238

Post by recursive »

slingnow wrote: post #229
simpaticoder wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Half a century of operation. The stability of society (specifically American, specifically California/Caltech/JPL/Pasadena) must also be marveled at. That's 2 or 3 generations of engineers and scientists that were trained well enough to actually get things done. This is a marvel of teaching, technical communication, and societal infrastructure. Notably, NASA/JPL has maintained its prestige and funding for that entir…

You're going to be blown away when you discover people have been reliably passing down information to future generations for many many centuries.

How are you measuring reliability? I actually would be kind of blown away if this was actually true.

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

#239

Post by xattt »

xvilka wrote: post #8

I hope they will publish firmware/source code at some point in the future. It would be definitely interesting to look into.

I am fascinated with routines they used for imaging. All parameters to make an image had to be sent from Earth. No auto exposure or anything.

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

#240

Post by xattt »

psunavy03 wrote: post #17
throwaway888abc wrote: post #4

Love the Voyagers story. Just get me thinking: Why there is not more missions like this ? It takes significant time to cross "somewhere there", every year one launch could not hurt ? Edit: *Obligatory video: "Uptime 15,364 days - The Computers of Voyager" by Aaron Cummings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o Also here on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=voyager

Because the program literally depended on the planets aligning a certain way that they won't align again until about 2150. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#History

Start getting the probes designed now.
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