Message-ID: <UYb9reO00UkVE=u04P@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 89 03:16:58 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #497

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 497

Today's Topics:
	 Re: Magellan Status for week of 06/13/89 (Forwarded)
			 Re: Orbital queries
		  Re: Space Station computer system
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Date: 15 Jun 89 17:04:07 GMT
From: att!cbnewsl!sw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Stuart Warmink)
Subject: Re: Magellan Status for week of 06/13/89 (Forwarded)

yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes:
 
>                      MAGELLAN WEEKLY STATUS
>                              June 13

>      The Rocket Engine Modules (REMs), while well below upper
> temperature limits now, will get warmer as the spacecraft draws
> closer to the sun [...]
> [...]. Martin Marietta and JPL are formulating jointly a test
> plan, using spare components, to determine the maximum safe
> temperature for the REMs.

So what are they going to do? Turn the Sun down? Recall the spacecraft? :-)
(I know...)

That reminds me of a comment made by TRW after Pioneer 10 "officially" left the
solar system. It was along the lines that if something broke on the probe, it
was under warrantee, and all you had to do was take it back to TRW and they 
would fix it for free!
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stuart Warmink, Whippany, NJ, USA    |     sw@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (att!cbnewsl!sw)
-------------------------> My opinions are just that <------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 15 Jun 89 23:47:21 GMT
From: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!jep@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu
Subject: Re: Orbital queries


  jep in Response 1 forgot to .signature!
 
   jep@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu

      John E. Prussing
      Department of Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering
      University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

------------------------------

Date: 13 Jun 89 23:28:00 GMT
From: usc!polyslo!csun!fedeva!premise!mirror!frog!john@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov  (John Woods)
Subject: Re: Space Station computer system

In article <218100023@s.cs.uiuc.edu>, carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> /* Written 12:39 pm  Jun  2, 1989 by psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM in s.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space */
> /* ---------- "Space Station computer system" ---------- */
> (...) with 4 megabytes of RAM and running X-Windows,
> /* End of text from s.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space */
> 4M & X-windows? Bahahahahahahahahahaha! They'd better fire 'em up now, if
> they want to finish by next century. I can't believe this - as was mentioned,
> these things are behind the times TODAY, much less in 5 or 10 years.
> 
OK, so what would you have them do?  Draw up all their plans with pencilled-in
boxes saying "Here Be Computeres"?  While I grant that their computer
contractor is relatively unlikely to ensure enough flexibility to change
the computer systems easily as technology advances, they are also unlikely
to absolutely enforce today's technology.  They have to design the things
sometime:  leaving the computers to the last minute and saying, "OK, hand
me a copy of PC Byte Week, let's see what's hot this month" certainly doesn't
allow for trivial details like checking for radiation hardness,  (unless
you don't mind if the Space Station computers only work 2 times in 3...)
or for verifying the software (if they start now, X11R4 might almost be
bug-free by 2001, from what I hear... :-)

Hot, sexy computers may be fine for a software-development LAN that goes
into operation next week and isn't expected to last two years, but that
isn't how you design large, real-world (or real-orbit :-) projects.  (Unless,
of course, you expect this to actually be a vapor-station, in which case
it's alright to design it with vapor-hardware running vapor-software... :-S )

-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu
    People...How you gonna FIGURE 'em?
    Don't bother, S.L.--Just stand back and enjoy the EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS...

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End of SPACE Digest V9 #497
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