@dang: NASA's official release: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-team-focuses-on-...
Previously submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37984202
NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
91–100 of 326 posts
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#92[deleted]
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#93Earlier 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 definitely doesn't, maybe there are some jerks that think badly of NASA, but I doubt they make the majority of us. They do a lot of engineering and science, but have been underfunded for so many years, with the government siding with private companies. For many, like me. It would be a dream to work at NASA, whatever the salary or bureaucracies it might involve. It was my childhood dream, but given I wasn't America…
Depending on where you live, ESA would be an alternative. The quite constantly look for people at their Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich, if memory serves well they do some Galileo related work there.
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Long-term updated devices might be OK for your wallet and the environment, but they're not good at making profits. They also slow down "innovation", and what would we be without 100s of useless ("necessary") functions in our modern phones? We'd have to (gasp) talk to each other at restaurants or also use proper dedicated devices like a camera and would miss some selfies!
Old mobile phones aren’t transmitting priceless scientific data. Long-term updates to old devices are a drain on the people updating them. You start a hardware company and let’s see how long you and your little team of really expensive engineers keep updating last year’s product.
> Old mobile phones aren’t transmitting priceless scientific data.
Aren't they though? Clearly it's not on the same scale, but a 5 year old phone is still perfectly capable of transmitting very valuable data and providing utility to the user.
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Long-term updated devices might be OK for your wallet and the environment, but they're not good at making profits. They also slow down "innovation", and what would we be without 100s of useless ("necessary") functions in our modern phones? We'd have to (gasp) talk to each other at restaurants or also use proper dedicated devices like a camera and would miss some selfies!
Old mobile phones aren’t transmitting priceless scientific data. Long-term updates to old devices are a drain on the people updating them. You start a hardware company and let’s see how long you and your little team of really expensive engineers keep updating last year’s product.
>Old mobile phones aren’t transmitting priceless scientific data.
No, they just have (Apple 2022 iPhone revenues alone vs 2023 NASA budget) 10x the amount of money of NASA's budget (or 3x, if we stick to net profit), and around 1000x more money are depended on them.
>You start a hardware company and let’s see how long you and your little team of really expensive engineers keep updating last year’s product.
As long as the law mandates updates and bugfixes for older products, which, in a civilized society that actually did care for waste and the environment would be decades.
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#96I really have to hand it to NASA. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 and it's still getting updates but we're supposed to be okay with the cell phones that launched 5 years ago no longer being updated.
If you have Voyager 2's budget, I'm sure someone would be quite happy to sell you a phone that receives updates for decades.
It's not just an issue of money. Apple made a lot more money last year than NASA did.
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#97Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#98Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those gravitational boosts are vital. The closest in speed so far would be 'New Horizons'. But even then NH is going at 14.5KM/sec compared with Voyagers 18KM/sec. There are no probes currently that would catch up to Voyager.
18km/s is almost understated in terms of speed, so I looked it up to more familiar measures of speed: 65,000kph or 40,000mph. The only thing I really learned here was how even in the thousands of miles or km per hour, it’s just inconceivable how fast that is. Km per second was a better measure after all.
> it’s just inconceivable how fast that is
And even more inconceivable is how slow it still is in terms of human spaceflight outside of the Solar System.
Re: NASA just sent a software update to a spacecraft 12B miles away
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have Voyager 2's budget, I'm sure someone would be quite happy to sell you a phone that receives updates for decades.
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.