cool article, interesting quote

In article , Viral writes

What are tested?

If you must use the broken google interface to Usenet set the reply options to quote the message properly or most people will not know what the hell you are on about.

apporx 4 million lines of code in the average car these days,

In article , Walter Banks writes

wow! Surely the money could be far better spent? When you look at what the result of all the money has done... I was going to say "gained" but there has been no gain in any sense in Iraq.

It is staggering but that is politics for you.

Not blowing up or killing anyone is probably a good start. :-)

Well... unless you're designing ICBMs or electric chairs or something, I suppose...

They did drop the Enterprise from a 747 - I remember the two-page ad in some magazine: "A Spacecraft Has Landed On Earth", or some such. So at least some of it got tested in "flight". Maybe I should say, "in glide", or "in drop-like-a-rock". ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Hmm... is a fence across the Mexican border more or less than a moon program?

Hmm... what's the price of a trip to Mars voluntarily offered to all those who are illegal aliens? :-)

with

No, most aircraft have taxi tests, then high-speed taxi tests, then almost flying tests...

The most likely thing for simulations to do right and the only flight phase possible to test in anything close to the real environment.

No, that was the real thing, though with all unnecessary humans watching from the ground.

Not at all! Those spacecraft had been flight tested before humans got a ride.

None of it "man rated".

Or the stupidity of putting humans into space at all. The only functions they've served, so far, is to fund NASA and to die.

John

Certainly not; a viewing of "The Right Stuff" makes that quite clear!

Bubba the Love Sponge (an off-shoot of Howard Stern) is up to offering money and 10 minutes in the spot light for guys who are willing to get their private parts electrically zapped. I suppose this is better than the animal abuse he used to perform (and was arrested for)...

They couldn't test the control loop stability of the entire bizarre vehicle at hypersonic speed and varying/sloshing fuel loads, altitude, and temperature.

John

No, that's the mark of a simple, linear system.

John

dollar

Back when that first Mars rover landed - Spirit, or Opportunity - you know, the one with the air bags, there was a call-in show on CNN or something which was like a discussion of the pros and cons of the mission, which was, I guess, the least expensive mission yet, comparativiely, like $300 mil or something really ludicrously low. Well, I called in, and got through! I was on cable TV! So, I asked, "Is it not true that if the US were to refrain from purchasing, say, ONE aircraft carrier, or ONE nuclear missile-carrying submarine, that the savings would pay for the entire budget of NASA?"

The consensus was, pretty much, yeah.

Thanks! Rich

Hell, I'd volunteer for that trip to Mars -- assuming that I had a reasonable shot (one chance in 10 or better, let's say) at living for a year or so once I got there. Illegal aliens would have to get in line behind me.

Jon

In article , Joel Kolstad writes

If the US lost all the illegal aliens the economy would grind to a halt :-)

In article , Keith writes

what are you on about? What is "man rated"

Haha... very nice, John.

For control systems, I've done simulations where you let the various parameters of "the model" randomly change themselves over time while still continously inputting random commands and ensuring the outputs make it to their commanded positions/values/whatever without going haywire (oscillating, becoming metastable); I've yet to meet a real physical system where a control loop that could tame such a simulation couldn't tame the physical system as well.

But I wouldn't be surprised if you've met far more ill-behaved systems than I ever have (control systems is definitely not my area). I'm probably taming a golden retriever compared to your wild boars...

---Joel

I seirously doubt that, although you could probably convince me that inflation would be pretty high for awhile, thereby slowing the economy. But I'd be surprised if it was worse than the years of the Carter administration... :-) (And I do have a great deal of respect for Carter the habitat-for-humanity-hammering-man, even if his presidency wasn't that impressive.)

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one as well, John. Certainly as far as the Apollo missions are concerned. I'm proud and happy to have been alive during those years.

Now, however, it's clear that robotics have a lot to offer. The science done by the Martian rovers has been fantastic. And they're still going, way past their sell-by date...

Re funding: compare to Iraq. Re dying: compare to Iraq...

Steve

Try google, if you don't know what you're talking about.

Hint: Not all code is created equal. Would you bet your life on Windows code? It is certainly not "man rated".