More than a few of us are interested in flying technology, so I thought I would post.


I'm sure most of us already know about the Mars probe named 'Curiousity' that is soon to land on the surface with many new devices in order to measure, detect, and send back info within 14 min's (light-speed/RF) time, but only if it can pass a real test of human engineering and computer programming, in order to pierce the martian outer layers and land safely on the surface. Nuclear engine intact and all systems go...

500,000 lines of code will attempt to land this probe named 'Curiousity', under full autonomous (i.e. non-remote) computer control, and will have to slow this nuclear powered 2000lb probe from 13,000MPH to 0MPH(vertical landing) within 7 minutes. It's being dubbed the '7 minutes of terror'. A video shows the concept. There's also another video with William Shatner narrating. Supposedly even another video with Wil Wheaton.

So anyway, I will be watching in 6hrs 17mins. That will be around 1:30am EST. Maybe some of you with 6hrs on us will hear about it first...

EDIT: Added OT to title.

_________________
65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

_________________
x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

That's about 50 times as many lines as my biggest projects have been.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

It landed successfully!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/ ... _mars.html

My biggest project has 100000 lines, and 1000000 bugs.

The Shatner and Wheaton videos are different than the one you linked, and is a bit less technical. Between the two, they're the same footage, same script, just different narrator. Kinda weird that they did that. You can see both videos here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =149477451

The last time I had any glancing interaction with NASA, word was they used zero "nondeterministic" software; ie, no neural-net/statistically trained reaction control allowed at all, requiring fully delineated, individually programmed and tuned parametric responses. Anybody have any idea if that's still the case?

_________________
WFDis Interactive 6502 Disassembler
AcheronVM: A Reconfigurable 16-bit Virtual CPU for the 6502 Microprocessor

I don't know the answer to that one, but I was going to link to Ron Garrett's interesting (and sad) piece about Lisp at JPL. But it turns out he's also done a presentation on the subject, so here's a different link which encompasses both:
http://irreal.org/blog/?p=748
The original:
http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html
Cheers
Ed

ps. For off-topic threads can we please use the convention of an OT: prefix on the head post's subject? That will allow an overview of how often we go off-piste.

I followed the decent on NASA TV, it landed at 07:31 European time, which was a good time to start the first day of my vacation. Glad that it worked out OK. It just goes to show that the way to success is to prepare well!

-Tor

It was just a bit too early for me. A remarkably complex approach, but suitable for soft-landing a heavy payload. I caught the celebrations which were showing as a loop on nasa tv later in the day.

Yes, the landing was very impressive. I remember how they landed 2 previous scouts Spirit and Opportunity. I believe they were surrounded by airbags that cushioned it's fall from the martian sky as it bounced to it's destination. Hardly a way for humans to land. But I would say, after this success, NASA is one step closer to sending humans to Mars. Although at this point it would be a one way trip.

_________________
65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Yes, I was thinking of human landings too. I note that Soyuz uses late-firing retro rockets for a soft landing. Usually. https://startpage.com/do/search?q=soyuz ... ng+failure

The photojournal of the JPL is here. Mars Science Laboratory is Curiosity's Mission. More pictures here of all NASA missions.

_________________
65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Here's a PDF of NASA's (or, JPL's) C coding standards!
http://lars-lab.jpl.nasa.gov/JPL_Coding_Standard_C.pdf

Edit: and here's an article by an Erlang practitioner: http://jlouisramblings.blogspot.nl/2012 ... ehave.html