[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

A couple of interesting MER-related stories (1, 2) on Space.com today, although it seems to me that many of the details in the first story we learned from Doug's November 6, 2006, interview with Squyres.

[MarkL]

What I mean is that software advances require a good dose of inspiration and yes, that often visits a struggling programmer at 4AM while bleary eyed, head-in-hands and stoked on caffeine. I'm not saying breakthroughs in software should not then be battle tested before flying though.

Taking a dispassionate look at the technical accomplishments of the MER engineers and scientists, you can't help but be awe-struck. For three years, and through severe thermal cycling each sol, without a single pit stop, both rovers have:

Maintained outstanding mobility (even allowing for Spirit's gimpy foot)
Flawlessly managed their power and communications subsystems
Maintained a virtually complete, functioning set of instruments
Made over a hundred thousand scientific observations
Never forgotten to "phone home"

However optimistic the mission managers secretly were about these platforms, this must go way beyond their wildest expectations. All to the good. But largely the result of outstanding hardware design and testing. The software is utilitarian and does what it has to (and perhaps runs at the limit of the RAD6000, whose descendants are found in: 's). We need better.

[djellison]

The software is utilitarian and does what it has to

You're clearly not going to moved on the issue - but I strongly object to that statement. If it did what it HAD to - then it would have none of the recent upgrades. If it did what it HAD to - it would have uninstalled itself and shut the vehicles down at sunrise on Sol 91

Doug