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NASA: DOS Glitch Nearly Killed Mars Rover
- Thread starter iLikeMyiMac
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like someone said before ms-dos is not the only dos. NASA DOES NOT USE MS-DOS. Last i heard nasa uses their own lil OS.
Nope, try looking at the FDA for starters, and chat with some people who work in industries they cover. They're really unbelievably picky, and that's when you're doing everything right.crazzyeddie said:You mean like the geniuses at the FBI and the CIA who can't even stop some terrorists on our own planet? Or the SEC, who let Enron put thousands of people out of their jobs and lose their retirement? Yeah, you're right, government agencies ARE the answer
That's a lot more than software, there are additional requirements like manual or mechanical backup systems.mac_head101 said:
There are development/deployment environments like Ada which make it very hard, but not impossible, to leave logic and exception gaps. It really comes down to proper management, and software projects rarely get that.
Sol said:
the linked article has a misleading title because the actual problem is with the file system usually associated with dos, not dos itself, which isn't even on the rover. the article seems to implicate that it was a custom vxworks problem specific to nasa.
mattthemutt said:
dude, where do you think im posting from right now? you *havent* been to mars?!
but seriously, hasnt it been a while since this happened? how is it just now getting talked about here??
When I first saw the thread name I thought it was DOS attack. (denial of service) and it got me thinking who could be swamping the signal.
Reading the thread and realizing that its a Disk Operating System problem I was a bit more enlightened and I remembered this that I read in a fortune cookie program once.
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A master was explaining the nature of Tao to one of his novices. "The Tao is embodied in all software -- regardless of how insignificant," said the master.
"Is the Tao in a hand held computer?" asked the novice.
"It is," came the reply.
"Is the Tao in a video game?" continued the novice.
"It is even in a video game," said the master.
"And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"
The master coughed and shifted his position slightly. "The lesson is over for today.", he said.
--Geoffry James, "The Tao of Programming"
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Reading the thread and realizing that its a Disk Operating System problem I was a bit more enlightened and I remembered this that I read in a fortune cookie program once.
%
A master was explaining the nature of Tao to one of his novices. "The Tao is embodied in all software -- regardless of how insignificant," said the master.
"Is the Tao in a hand held computer?" asked the novice.
"It is," came the reply.
"Is the Tao in a video game?" continued the novice.
"It is even in a video game," said the master.
"And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"
The master coughed and shifted his position slightly. "The lesson is over for today.", he said.
--Geoffry James, "The Tao of Programming"
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This story makes no sense...
The Mars Rover runs DOS?!
No, it runs a real-time operating system like all embedded systems. I can't find too much information, but a quick Google turns this up:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/mer_computer_040128.html
Maybe it employs file management similar to DOS, but I find that suspect as well, since DOS was originally written to work on slow, magnetic, removable media; seems like the design goals would be very different for much larger flash-based storage.
Plus, who on earth would have ported DOS to PowerPC?? Let alone an obscure motherboard running a specialized version of PowerPC. Whoever wrote that article is not very technically-minded...too many holes.
The Mars Rover runs DOS?!
No, it runs a real-time operating system like all embedded systems. I can't find too much information, but a quick Google turns this up:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/mer_computer_040128.html
Maybe it employs file management similar to DOS, but I find that suspect as well, since DOS was originally written to work on slow, magnetic, removable media; seems like the design goals would be very different for much larger flash-based storage.
Plus, who on earth would have ported DOS to PowerPC?? Let alone an obscure motherboard running a specialized version of PowerPC. Whoever wrote that article is not very technically-minded...too many holes.
Counterfit said:Doesn't anyone here remember Pro-DOS? It ran on *gasp* APPLES!
It's already been said in here, but I guess it bears repeating: MS-DOS WASN'T THE ONLY KIND OF DOS!
This is true, but look at the way "DOS" is used in context:
Notice how DOS is being used as adjective when its not? This implies to me the proper form of DOS, which of course refers to MS-DOS, the most famous DOS there has ever been. Also, they talk about DOS as if it were a standard, ie. MS-DOS:
If they were talking about a generic DOS, would they refer to it as DOS?
Now I don't know, maybe that guy who claims he works on embedded systems can straighten this out, but I've never heard of an RTOS being referred to as (or containing a) "DOS". Would you call Flash RAM a "disk" in the first place? It serves the purpose of a hard drive for the Rover, but with the benefits of no moving parts and far less power consumption. That's why this story sounds like bunk to me, but admittedly I only tinker with embedded so I'm certainly not an authority.
I think everyone here should go actually learn about what they are talking about before they immediately criticize people, I am sure thousands of the smartest scientists in the world had to work very hard to choose the software to run this and its probably the best, and like they said it was a Flash memory issue. And try dropping your computer from the top of earths atmosphere after a few million mile journey and see if it boots.
DOS stands for "Disk Operating System". The System 1.0 (anyone here used that on their 128k Macs?) was a DOS, because it ran of of a floppy disk. The term isn't used today due to the massive 250GB hard drives that allow us to collect a lot of junk that would take up a planetful of floppy disks.
Let me repeat this ONE MORE TIME (like so many others have done already)!!!!!!!!
DOS != MS-DOS!!!!!!!!
DOS != MS-DOS!!!!!!!!