Re: Mars Rover Not Responding

From: Edward Green (nulldev00_at_aol.com)
Date: 01/28/04 

Date: 28 Jan 2004 00:15:38 -0800

David C DiNucci <dave@elepar.com> wrote in message news:<4015D6E6.BFC78902@elepar.com>...

> While I hesitate to bash NASA (I do think they're doing very important
> work, and I worked there myself for seven years), I regrettably prolong
> a thread which has been OT from its inception with this excerpt from a
> recent news article:
>
> "[Mission manager Jennifer] Trosper said the problem appeared to be that
> the rover's flash memory couldn't handle the number of files it was
> storing. ... She pointed out that the scientists had thoroughly tested
> the rover's systems on Earth, but that the longest trial for the file
> system was nine days, half of the 18 days Spirit operated before running
> into the problem."
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/26/mars.rovers/
>
> "Thoroughly tested"? If you're going to send any object, and especially
> an object with a computer and software, to a distant planet where it is
> supposed to survive for about 90 days, wouldn't it seem prudent to run
> at least a 90 day test of the object on earth before liftoff?

Oh my #$*&%'ing G*d.

Ok ... obligatory disclaimer about difficulty of ...

Screw it! This is a a languid courtesan, reclining seductively, and
saying "bash me, big boy"!

I am almost flabbergasted into textlessness. The fact that a system
... any system, not just a computer ... may work correctly in some one
or two delta range yet fail in some 10 or 20 delta range ... some
newbie tyro university graduate wet behind the ears neophyte kid might
make this mistake in a small project, and the old seasoned pro salt
seen it all manager would take this as a teaching opportunity. But in
an entire organization, a huge project putting a robot on a distant
planet, and not once did this occur to anybody!? Nobody with
sufficient experience or a long enough memory reviewed the test plans?

Anybody who has operated MicroSoft windows has had the same
experience: crap accumulates with operation.

This is the type of thing which used to get me flamed when I chatted
in the all-computer-pro group of a local ISP: since I can no longer
write even a Basic program, how can I dare comment ... oish. Wet
nurse tyro-ish newbie error. Inbred self-congratulating community.
Industrial experience of a polywog. Etc.

Help me out here, Uncle Al: I'm running out of germane insults. ;-)

Size of institutional memory buffer needs to be increased. Political
ossification makes effective project review impossible.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Mars Rover Not Responding
    ... newbie tyro university graduate wet behind the ears neophyte kid might ... sufficient experience or a long enough memory reviewed the test plans? ... ossification makes effective project review impossible. ...
    (comp.object)
  • Re: Mars Rover Not Responding
    ... newbie tyro university graduate wet behind the ears neophyte kid might ... sufficient experience or a long enough memory reviewed the test plans? ... ossification makes effective project review impossible. ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: Mars Rover Not Responding
    ... newbie tyro university graduate wet behind the ears neophyte kid might ... sufficient experience or a long enough memory reviewed the test plans? ... ossification makes effective project review impossible. ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)
  • Re: Mars Rover Not Responding
    ... newbie tyro university graduate wet behind the ears neophyte kid might ... sufficient experience or a long enough memory reviewed the test plans? ... ossification makes effective project review impossible. ...
    (comp.theory)