NASA Boldly Goes where No Popcorn is Required

I have plenty of friends who have been talking about seeing the new Star Trek movie but only a few have been paying attention to the real space adventure. Since launching on May 11th, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and their crew has been busy on the the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

STS-125/SM4 Crew Patch

If you think Star Trek is great, you haven’t seen anything yet. You can watch the scenes from a real space adventure at http://hubblesite.org/servicing_mission_4/.

This episode stars:

Commander: Scott D. Altman
Pilot: Capt. Gregory C. Johnson
Mission specialist 1: Michael T. Good
Mission specialist 2: John M. Grunsfeld
Mission specialist 3: Megan McArthur
Mission specialist 4: Michael J. Massimino
Mission specialist 5: Andrew J. Feustel

For more information on the crew of STS-125, The Final Mission to the Hubble Space Telescope check out http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/hst_sm4/

 

Disney, Microsoft and NASA

When I was new to software development I thought about what companies would really be cool to work for. It seemed fantastic if I could someday get a job at Disney, Microsoft or NASA. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized it’s all about the project and not necessarily the company. Fortunately, over the years I did have opportunities to do really fun projects while working for both Disney(ABC’s Enhanced TV) and Microsoft(Information Highway PC).

I never did any work for NASA although we do have 30 WinPatrol’s licensed at one of their sites in Georgia. Growing up in the 1960’s I’m still a big fan of NASA but lately they’ve really been getting a bad rap.

I thought we had just gotten over the jokes about astronauts in diapers when more scandal has hit the news. Reports this week are that on more than one occasion an astronaut was intoxicated before blasting off. I don’t know how drunk he or she was but somehow this didn’t shock me. I might need a little help before I sat on the top of a huge cylinder of rocket fuel about to be ignited. It’s kinda like the accusations in Paul McCartney’s divorce that he drank and smoked pot. Hello? Was this a surprise to anyone?

The really scary news from NASA is that a worker intentionally sabotaged equipment that was suppose to be sent to International Space Station on the next Space Shuttle mission. Wires were cut in a computer designed to report stress measurements on the space station structure.

I’m too old to start a new career with NASA but I’ll still be cheering for them every time they go into outer space.

WGA Crashes Space Station Computers?

It’s nice to have redundant systems but when all three redundant computers fail you know you’re in trouble. This is the predicament facing residents of the International Space Station. Luckily, if their computer problems can’t be fixed the Shuttle Atlantis is currently docked and can bring crews home.

The computers which are failing control the orientation of the space station which is critical for power generation. NASA’s Station Manager Michael Suffredini claims nothing has changed recently in either software or hardware but I have my own theories.

I think one of three things have caused the crashes

1) The Russian based computers have been infected with spyware. I’m sure as bored as folks on the space station get who knows what web sites they visit.

2) Tuesday’s Windows update caused the failure because Microsoft didn’t tested their changes on computers required to control solar panels while in orbit.

3) The Russian computers failed WGA(Windows Genuine Advantage) verification and won’t reboot to Windows.

While these are just theories but I did see a similar problem reported by Engadget; “Russian ATM runs unactivated copy of Windows”.

Seriously though, I’m just very glad that Atlantis is available for a rescue in case the computer problems aren’t resolved. This could have been a tragic situation.