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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=802181316-17122007>When you are talking about control systems like this
they normally will have two processor board based imbedded systems per function
being monitored. These are communicating back to a couple of
redundant systems that manage the data flow and then send data on to the
communications systems (redundant again) that deals only with the
communications to ground control. All systems are configured to be
redundant to N+N, so if you have two system running in a redundant fashion then
there would be two additional system running in redundant fashion. With
the number of systems this required it necessitates the use of single board
processors optimized to run with RAM disks and minimal ancillary
hardware.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=802181316-17122007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=802181316-17122007>Answer is that this is done all the time and NASA has
this down to an art form.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> kclug-bounces@kclug.org
[mailto:kclug-bounces@kclug.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Brian
Kelsay<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, December 17, 2007 8:13 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
kclug<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: Linux on a Saturn V?<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Quick answer, yes, it could. Long answer, maybe, it's not as
easy as you think. <BR><BR>A lot of what's complicated about
space-flight software is that it must be automated and more importantly it
must be timed just right. Linux or any other SpaceFlight OS is going to
need to monitor fuel burn rate, thrust and altitude. It will need to
monitor and control gimbals on the engines, various consumable stores and
other instrument based readings. It will need to make decisions based on
these readings and not get locked up or confused. It will need to be
able to transmit all these readings back home and send some radio signals or
change frequency at minimum when key decisions are made. These are to
let ground control know what is going on when they are not in control or too
far away to make quick changes. The further away the craft is, the
longer it takes to send a command. <BR><BR>Can it do it, definitely
yes. But each craft and mission is different. I'd bet that
they want the hard real time Linux for this.<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Dec 17, 2007 6:40 AM, Oren Beck <> wrote: <BR>
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style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Ok-
this a question of "could it ever ?"<BR><BR>Several folks have
proposed American funding for Big Dumb Boosters. <BR>Think a
cloned only slightly updated Saturn V. Problem being that NASA has made
"Lawn Ornaments" of all the unused ones they had, then shredded or burned
all the project docs. <BR>Which included ***ALL** known copies of the
software. So even if that mythical "found one complete in a warehouse"
scenario were true... We would have to recreate software not only to
fly the bird, but to support it. That is quite likely the same level of
complexity as writing code for ANY such giant rockets. If we copy a
Saturn V or make the not yet hatched Saturn VI. <BR> Thus it becomes
viable to consider Linux and it's ancillary tool sets<BR><BR>Then again -
would you ever be able to find enough coders in any other STABLE viable OS?
<BR><FONT color=#888888><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Oren Beck<BR>816.729.3645
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