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Ubuntu for the International Space Station.

760 points posted to Linux by badblood 06/18/07

Ground Control, Windows Has Problems....

The International Space Station is again suffering from computer problems.

The space station, experiences regular computer glitches. Iin 2001 most of the problems were related to Microsoft's Windows NT, while Russian-made software seemed to be more reliable. In the last few days they've had problems with the Russian software...the only hope is Linux!

Dell provide Ubuntu to the International Space Station (with Russian and English tech support!).

reg
06/18/07		 As Long As you Have a HARD REAL TIME version of Ubuntu,
I am all for it.

But for now, I don't think such a product

http://www.real-time.org/hardandsoftrealtime.htm
pranavtrehun007
06/18/07		 They run the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION on Windows.............. I am amazed that it was working till now.
badblood
06/18/07		 Part of it runs on Windows - the American bit; part of it runs on Russian software (tetris?!?) - the Russian bit. None of it seems to work properly....

What's strange is it doesn't all run on the same system. Opensource Linux is a great way to break down international barriers!
reg
06/18/07		 Ah, but when are they installing the Orbital Trump Casino ?
bennish
06/18/07		 they don't RUN the space station on windows, guys. It just has computers with windows. The thrusters, oxygen, etc aren't controlled by a bloody pc. be realistic.
kenjennings
06/18/07		 Minor systems are on Windows -- experiments and such. I've heard astronauts and ground control on the NASA cable channel and web casts talking about BSODs more than a few times.

What's really horrific about the space station is how large it is and it can still only support three people, and the crew spends an enormous amount of their time dedicated to maintenance activities, because there aren't enough people on the station to concentrate on science.
badblood
06/18/07		 I heard that with NASA cut backs they use Microsoft Works.
barius
06/18/07		 NASA has their own firmware UNIX-based OS that is neither Windows nor Linux related. In fact, Windows wouldn't have a hope in the world of running on the ISS Command & Control computers because these are still running 80386SX-20 CPUs (no typo, it runs on 386's). Please don't act all surprised that the ISS runs on such 'old' hardware, there are many good reasons for it (mostly the needs of C&C are very limited and the power requirements are very low).

The astronauts do get to bring laptops though, and these are usually of the PC variety.
badblood
06/18/07		 The computers run on a network - that's a Windows network, no?
reg
06/18/07		 No.
badblood
06/18/07		 You seem very certain. Are you an astronaut?
badblood
06/18/07		 The credit for the first "laptop" computer in space goes to a Mac Portable flown on STS-43 in 1991.
reg
06/18/07		 no - I AM A SPACE CADET
badblood
06/18/07		 In 2000 NASA was using Windows NT and 95. It says so

http://www.spaceref.com/iss/computer/
barius
06/18/07		 As stated, the laptops are typically PC based, thus Windows is pretty common. However, you seem to have networks confused with operating systems. A LAN is not Windows. LANs are usually TCP/IP based these days, and most of the traffic on them will be SMB (NetBIOS/SAMBA). I'm not sure if the LAN on the ISS is TCP/IP based, I would expect it is, but it could be using another protocol like IPX.
badblood
06/18/07		 The network described in the link above runs Windows NT and 95. I am not an astronaut so I don't know, just sharing what I read.
polyzelf
06/19/07		 Badblood, an OS is not a network. Furthermore, the actual ISS computers (the ones that are in direct control of the ISS, not the astronaut's laptops) are not running on any flavor of windows. Here's a hint... it's not the laptops causing the problems.
badblood
06/19/07		 Well what is it? From what I read they use all sorts of different computers and software and in 2001 it was windows NT that caused the fuss. What' the problem this time? Tetris?
badblood
06/19/07		 Here's a quote from an article about NASA's on-board laptops:

"This modified Thinkpad is referred to by NASA as the PGSC - the Payload and General Support Computer. PGSC's are used for everything from locating the shuttle's position in space during docking and operating scientific payloads to sending email and scheduling overboard urine dumps. The PGSC will serve as the basis for the standard portable computers used by U.S. Astronauts on the International Space Station as well as the Space Shuttle."

Seems to me that Windows is helping the shuttle do some pretty important things....
badblood
06/19/07		 Here's another (from 2001):

"The standard operating systems for the PGSC is Windows 95. Earlier programs designed for the PGSC ran under MS-DOS programs and are able to function on PGSCs using DOS 7. In addition to a number of standard off the shelf applications (word processing, spreadsheet, email), specialized software has been written for the PGSC by the Space Operations Computing (SpOC) Team at NASA JSC. Applications range from locating the shuttle in orbit and timing deorbit engine burns to tracking the location of materials in middeck lockers and dumping waste water overboard."
kenjennings
06/19/07		 Now its getting frightening.
jmxz
06/19/07		 Interestingly, this is one of the closer Ideas to being Implemented -- just that it's Honeywell and Wind River rather than Dell and Canonical doing the

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5714800202.html
Linux was selected for a NASA experiment aimed at proving the feasibility of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software for scientific space missions. A key requirement was for application development and runtime environments familiar to scientists, to facilitate porting applications from the lab to the spacecraft.
...
NASA's "Dependable Multiprocessor" (DM) experiment is among four scientific payloads scheduled for launch in November of 2009, in the "New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission. Honeywell Aerospace was chosen to be the lead contractor for the DM experiment, while Orbital Sciences was selected to build ST8's "Spacecraft bus."

In order to attain success, Honeywell will have to overcome several obstacles -- primarily through enhancements to Linux via custom high-availability middleware, it appears.
...
Wind River said that as a whole, the DM system's Linux-based software would enable the ST8 to "process and analyze its own data to make instant decisions about what is observed without having to send the information to Earth and wait for a reply." The environment will also be able to dynamically adjust the level of fault tolerance for various subsystems, according to their criticality, the software vendor said.
So I'd say this one (well, actually Wind River's Linux for the New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 mission, rather than Ubuntu for the ISS) is just about as "Implemented" as the Ubuntu/Fedora Multiboot one marked implemented earlier ( http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/61771)
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