Posted on 11/09/2006 1:31:55 PM PST by Zakeet
Space shuttle Discovery was moved to the launch pad Thursday to await a launch that could be as early as Dec. 6 — an effort to avoid potential New Year's Eve computer glitches.
The worry is that shuttle computers aren't designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. NASA has never had a shuttle in space Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.
"We've just never had the computers up and going when we've transitioned from one year to another," said Discovery astronaut Joan Higginbotham. "We're not really sure how they're going to operate."
Starting Dec. 6, launch opportunities would be available as late as Dec. 17 or 18. With a 12-day mission, that would mean the shuttle is back on Earth before New Year's Eve.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs3.com ...
I'd be interested in finding out if any of you folks out there who are more knowledgeable about computers than I think this problem is as silly as it appears.
I think it's silly as hell.
The first experiment in time travel! I love it!
I am fairly sure this would have been tested on the ground via simulations. Flight software goes through extreme testing. But NASA may not want to test in space considering other recent concerns.
Silly by today's standards, perhaps. Just remember when the Shuttle's electronic architecture was 'frozen' -- early '70's? This problem crops up with a lot of long-leadtime military hardware like combat jets. You design the stuff to the cutting edge, but by the time the system actually get's built it's a couple of generations out of date, at least.
Their Shuttle software is over 30 years old. Runs on an 8086.
Then comes the Y2038 bug.
Their problems may be worse than we imagine. When was the last time you ever heard of a suttle flight up during the daylight savings time change, hmmmmm?
We tested it already. It is not a problem. At ALL - Media Hype.
The worst problem that I saw with that was that the food plant I worked in came up with no unexpired inventory because of dates. The problem was fixed before noon.
At the grocery store I picked up a sauce mix that had an expiration of 1905. I mention this to the clerk and said I was surpised that they were making this exact sauce in this same package 100 years ago (with my straight face, of course). She thought a minute and then exclaimed "I bet I know what happened". If a grocery clerk can figure it out that quick, it just isn't a problem.
Possibly RCA Cosmac processors. 8+2parity bits, iirc. SOS - silicon on saphire for cosmic ray hardening, and they
run the Pioneer/V*ger probes, and other than distance,they seem to have held up well.
Oops, I know why. Pre-Microsoft SW...
Joan, I don't care if you ARE an astronaut.
"Transition" is a noun. It is not a verb.
Written in machine language. I was on the development team writing some of the maintenance code.
You gotta be kidding me. All that technology and their computers can't handle the roll over of a new year?
Here's an idea... set the clock to Dec 31st and see what happens.. geez. It's pretty hard to test you know
They actually run System 4 (AP-101's) with an embedded OS. Same as the F-15
Note to self: When invading the US, do it on Dec. 31st
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