Lauren WeinsteinOct 21, 2023

NASA is sending a patch to Voyager 2, at 16 bits per second. Launched in 1977, it's ~12.5 billion miles away, almost 19 light hours, data sent using the BIG dish in Canberra. If all goes well when they activate the patch, they'll roll it out to Voyager 1 next.

Hope they still remember the root password.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-team-focuses-on-software-patch-thrusters

NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters

The efforts should help extend the lifetimes of the agency’s interstellar explorers.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
GrahamOct 21, 2023
Show threadLauren Weinstein
It's worth noting that the INTENDED lifespans of Voyager 1 and 2 were FIVE years. They've now been operating about half a century, a full order of magnitude more than anticipated. Probably the best use of plutonium ever.
Oct 21, 2023 at 3:50pmWeb
Show threadLauren WeinsteinOct 21, 2023
Also note that a variety of #Google services don't even last 5 years before being shut down.
Show threadDave MandlOct 21, 2023
@lauren In general I'm shocked about assumptions about how long apps should work. So many apps effectively die after a few years, making everything you created using that app unusable, or requiring you to make painful conversions. This is a regular thing.
Show threadEnema CowboyOct 21, 2023
@dmandl
And then there are people who have decided to maintain old COBOL systems in this day and age. The crapulent application that I work on is over 20 years old, and product management thinks it will go for another 20.
@lauren
Show threadLauren WeinsteinOct 21, 2023
@Enema_Cowboy @dmandl To be fair, we're using much the same UNIX-era tools from the 70s with modern Linux systems, in some cases with very similar code going back decades. If it works, it works.
Show threadMichael GemarOct 21, 2023
@lauren I’m always impressed at how far past their intended life many space probes end up surviving. (I suspect that NASA may low-ball their estimates to make the initial mission cost cheaper, and allow them to apply for mission extensions separately once the hardware is proved out.)
Show threadLauren WeinsteinOct 21, 2023
@michaelgemar Eventually the plutonium will die out and that will be the end. But it's still far beyond remarkable.
Show threadTai xzoOct 23, 2023
@michaelgemar @lauren Probes are expensive, so if the mission needs them to last 5 years there needs to be like a 99.99% chance that they will do so. Of course, engineering to that level of reliability also ends up making it like 90% likely that they will last ten times as long.
Show threadNicolas Ward Oct 21, 2023
@lauren Whenever I complain about host patching at work I think about applying updates almost 19 light-hours away on a 50 year old computer and it mostly always working.
Show threadRealGravitas -Citizen SaboteurOct 21, 2023
@lauren Best place for it too, if you think about it.
Show threadPeter van BroekhovenOct 21, 2023
@lauren Second best
Show threadLauren WeinsteinOct 21, 2023
@pvanb No image.
Show threadPeter van BroekhovenOct 21, 2023
@lauren Oh weird, I don’t see it on the web either. Basically this…
Show threadskryOct 21, 2023
@pvanb @lauren I see the video. Maybe it just took awhile.
Show threadsli_mucOct 21, 2023
@lauren @Gte I love the approach to software development - just think for a moment that would be the way to software on your computer instead of deep space ❤️
I know I'm unrealistic and just daydreaming :)
Show threadVaughnOct 21, 2023
@lauren well best use short of a time traveling Delorian but we get you.
Show threaddonOct 21, 2023
@lauren by far!!
Show threadMark T. TomczakOct 21, 2023
@lauren pound for pound, it seems like you just can't beat the spicy rocks box for longevity. ;)
Show threadLuke HarbyOct 22, 2023
@lauren space exploration peaked in the late 70's