Fabio ManganielloJul 30, 2023

The engineers who designed the #Voyager probes half a century ago even thought of the possibility that a wrong sequence of commands may point the antenna dish away from earth (like someone did a couple of days ago).

And they implemented a self-adjusting mechanism that a few times a year scans the positions of a few known stars to infer the position of the earth, and point back the antenna in the right direction.

50 years later, these wonderful machines are still working, tens of billions of km away from earth, with only 69 KB of RAM, and even a wrong sequence of commands won't put them out of use, while nowadays 4 GB of RAM aren't even enough to start VsCode or IntelliJ.

The more I understand how they were designed, the more I feel like an early Medieval engineer looking at the Pantheon or other marvels of Roman architecture. Some amazing skills, knowledge and attention to details have been lost from that generation to ours.

Show threadApuntes de ciencia
@blacklight The knowledge and attention to details in today onboard software systems is equivalent to that of those days, I assure you 🛰️
Jul 30, 2023 at 10:20amWeb
Show threadsteeph's old profile – Now at @[email protected]Jul 30, 2023
@ApuntesCiencia @blacklight I don't know in what way, but I'd like to read more about that.
Show threadApuntes de cienciaJul 30, 2023
@steeph @blacklight I make satellite control centers for a living, and in my company there is a division fully devoted to onboard software, so I’m exposed to that as well. There is this concept of autonomy by which space vehicles need to be fully resilient to ground and or communications mishaps. In case you are interested I recommend this book https://amzn.eu/d/grBBm12
Amazon.es

Show threadFabio ManganielloJul 30, 2023

@ApuntesCiencia if you mean in aerospace engineering, I may believe you - I've seen seminars from ESA on how they use Ada for fault-proof code and it's beyond impressive.

If you mean commercial code outside of aerospace... Well, it's another thing.

Show threadApuntes de cienciaJul 30, 2023
@blacklight I meant aerospace only, yes. But both institutional (such as ESA) and commercial (such as my company) at the end of the day, shall fly stuff. I make satellite control centers for a living, and in my company there is a division fully devoted to onboard software, so I’m exposed to that as well. I learnt Ada as part of my internal training, big fun.
Show threadPatrick Van OosterwijckJul 31, 2023
@ApuntesCiencia @blacklight Sadly I know better.
Show threadmattJul 31, 2023
@ApuntesCiencia @blacklight what is/are 'onboard software systems' ?
Show threadApuntes de cienciaJul 31, 2023
@maphew @blacklight Onboard SW refers to software that runs within a vehicle (ship, car, aircraft…). Due to déformation professionnelle I use it for SW that runs aboard spacecrafts
Show threadDavid J. AtkinsonAug 2, 2023
@blacklight @maphew @ApuntesCiencia “Embedded software controllers”
Show threadApuntes de cienciaAug 2, 2023
@meltedcheese @blacklight @maphew Technically “onboard” refers to vehicles (cars, ships, spacecrafts…) while “embedded” systems run everywhere, from a washing machine to a smart cable
Show threadDavid J. AtkinsonAug 2, 2023
@blacklight @maphew @ApuntesCiencia A distinction without a difference:)
Show threadKye.br Aug 12, 2023

@ApuntesCiencia @meltedcheese @blacklight @maphew do you have seen changes on the quality of onboard system.

I'm asking because you mentioned cars. And well they are not as reliable.

Show threadApuntes de cienciaAug 12, 2023
@Kyebr @meltedcheese @blacklight @maphew No, sorry. My expertise is spacecrafts and, even then, I don't do onboard but ground systems, although I'm somewhat exposed to those as well as you may imagine (the space and the ground segments talk to each other...)