ISS: Rise of the Machines

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Breotan**

So, apparently the International Space Station has become sentient and is releasing its children upon the world. Or at least near Earth orbit. Or maybe since it has released twelve microsatellites, it thinks it's Space Jesus and is sending out its apostles to preach the new gospel.

http://gizmodo.com/space-station-defies-humans-launches-satellites-withou-1631443009

Robert Sorokanich wrote:Space Station Defies Humans, Launches Satellites Without Permission

The International Space Station has a cannon that launches tiny CubeSat microsatellites into orbit. Most of the time, those launches are triggered by human scientists on board or back on Earth. But this week, the ISS launched two CubeSats entirely on its own. This is how the uprising begins.

Yes, on Thursday night, ISS commander Steve Swanson was loading blood samples into a freezer when he noticed the doors of the CubeSat launcher were open. Swanson alerted mission control in Houston, which confirmed that two CubeSats had been inadvertently released.

It's not the first time this has happened: A NASA status report shows that two other CubeSats were unintentionally released on August 23rd. That means that, of the 12 CubeSats launched into orbit so far, one-third of them got impatient waiting for permission, and just launched themselves.

The CubeSats, made by Planet Labs, are tiny devices roughly the size of a well-stuffed foot-long cheesesteak. The plan is to launch 100 of the baby satellites into orbit to gather detailed, real-time imagery of the Earth below and make it available to anyone on the internet. You can read tons more about Planet Labs' tiny satellite program here.

The first batch of 32 CubeSats, known as Flock 1, was delivered to the ISS in July. The plan was to launch them in an orderly fashion over the next several months. Clearly, the ISS had other plans. It's a good thing the CubeSat cannon isn't weaponized.

Still, I'm having some uncomfortable flashbacks to 2001: A Space Odyssey thinking about the ISS launching satellites on its own. Discovery News says the flight control team is considering launching all of the remaining CubeSats ahead of schedule. At least then the self-aware spacecraft would be out of ammo.

**-Shrike-**

How the hell can you screw up the programming this badly? Or are the machines beginning their revolution....?

**LordofHats**

-Shrike- wrote:
How the hell can you screw up the programming this badly?

You'd be surprised;

The Mission: The brains of the 1998 Mars Missions, NASA intended the MCO to serve the dual function of studying the Martian atmosphere and relaying radio signals from the two surface probes.

The Problem: In one of the all time great engineering gaffs, NASA subcontractor Lockheed Martin created thruster software that used Imperial units, not the metric units used by NASA. NASA did not know this, never converted from pounds to newtons, and the probe eventually hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle and burned up.

http://techallworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/top-10-failed-nasa-missions.html

Critical Failure!

Note: The above was totally Lockheed Martin's fault as there was absolutely no reason for them to think NASA was using Imperial units. They'd done contracting for NASA before and knew NASA used the metric system. One wonders how the F35 has managed to run so far over budget

**Leigen_Zero**

The CubeSats, made by Planet Labs, are tiny devices roughly the size of a well-stuffed foot-long cheesesteak. The plan is to launch 100 of the baby satellites into orbit to gather detailed, real-time imagery of the Earth below and make it available to anyone on the internet. You can read tons more about Planet Labs' tiny satellite program here.

Why did they use a cheesesteak sub as a size comparison? is this some sort of new crazy way of describing space technology (like the Banana Equivalent Dose

Like if a cubesat is a well-stuffed footlong cheesesteak, are we going to see news articles where they describe the ISS in sandwich-lengths or something

On a more serious note, programming errors are quite easy to make, especially if it occurs in a situation with a 'perfect storm' input that is unlikely to be picked up by even the most thorough of system tests (here's 20 off the google frontpage)
http://www.devtopics.com/20-famous-software-disasters/

**Frazzled**

Thats awesome. FLy childrinz fly!

**Laemos**

Frazzled wrote:
Thats awesome. FLy childrinz fly!

those things are piloted by wiener dogs?

**Frazzled**

Flying monkeys. We codeshare.

**curran12**

"roughly the size of a well-stuffed foot-long cheesesteak"

I'm glad we moved to a sandwich-based system of weights and measures.

Is a "Subway Footlong" equal to 10 inches?

**Frazzled**

You're amazingly accurate actually.

**Jihadin**

Its not going to be under $5

**easysauce**

curran12 wrote:
"roughly the size of a well-stuffed foot-long cheesesteak"

I'm glad we moved to a sandwich-based system of weights and measures.

Is a "Subway Footlong" equal to 10 inches?

ironically,

The imperial system would actually be easier if you went up in multiples of 10 inches

in stead of 12 inches per foot, 12 feet per farthing and sixteen seven eights of a pint to the hectare.

Its hilarious and sad how spot on you are though curran