Lunar Computer & Software Team

[TheBigDog]

Our lander is going to act as a sort of server/device controller for the moon expedition. It is going to need a computer as a backbone for this job. What I am envisioning is a solid state PC with a host of USB ports. There is no need for audio, video, keyboard, or mouse. The computer will be controlled via a webpage that it hosts. When communications are established with Earth it will give those connected the ability to transfer files and command the rovers. It will support multiple sessions at a time.

We need a team who will spec out this computer system. I figure it will come in two versions; a low power version for the rovers and a higher power version for he lander. It needs to be capable of operating in the extreme low temperatures and with minimal power requirement. It does not need fast processing, just enough to support the mission.

It will be linked to accessories and power them. The moon based communications will be of the 802.11 standard, so the USB ports will power these radios on the lander and the rovers. There will also be a host of cameras, which will also be of the USB type for power and linkage with the rovers and lander.

We should be able to test this whole system here on Earth. When it arrives on the moon it will have a longer lag, but the control should already be familiar to us. The software can be developed on standard systems and tested. We don't need the special computers until we have some funding down the road.

So, who is interested in being on the lunar computer and software team?

Bill

[Roadam]

Everyone everywhere as it seams.

The best thing would be to look what kind of components exist on tme market, from which manufacturer, and compare them with our needs.

I dont know if anyone know exactly how we will put together all those things. But I suspect that we will mostly be brainstoming-idea-engineering-control team. I mean that such space faring things arent really made in ones garage. There surely is a few regulations and techinical reasons why everything cleaned and put together in clean rooms. So we would surely design those things, but probably put manufacture on someone elses shoulder.

So lets grab a shopping cart...

[TheBigDog]

The "manufactured in a clean room" side of space exploration is part of the myth that this contest is killing. It is part of why the costs are so astronomically high.

Try LittlePC.com for hardware possibilities.

Bill

[Roadam]

All right then.

Still I doubt that electronics for home PCs would work wery well on radiation bambarded moon.
And surely there have exists many already built components that didnt made it into space. With discount price.

[Buffy]

We can probably establish now that because of the weight of the hardware required, we won't be using Windows as the operating system...

Intel giveth and Microsoft taketh away,
Buffy

[freeztar]

Yeah, I think Linux is a must. (Or something propietary)

[Roadam]

Doesnt almost all nasa rovers use linux?

I am curious how would OS react to sudden change of zeros an ones in one of hardvare components due to sudden radiation kick. Maybe three or more processors would be necessary for reliable operation.

[alexander]

I would think so, though not in the sense that you are thinking of, roadam... they use the kernel and build all the software with some gnu tools on top, technically it was running an ultra customized, minimalistic linux kernel, but aside from that, there was likely very little that would resemble your typical linux system...

I am curious how would OS react to sudden change of zeros an ones in one of hardvare components due to sudden radiation kick. Maybe three or more processors would be necessary for reliable operation.

get with the space age, mista, solid state HD, and you shield your electronics extra hard so no sonic radioation gets to it, and you shield your drives even more!.... sheeeeesh... (jk)
seriously, it will start spewing errors into logs.... worst that can happen is a kernel panic... just push the reset button, and you are all good... hey we may take a couple of prizes at once, for sending an autonomous craft to the moon, and another one for sending an IT person to reboot it

Web page control is good and all, but i want to be able to ssh into my lunar bot
OMG epic idea, how about going with this setup, but making that bot a mini ded box. this way we can sell hosting on the moon!

So for processors, etc, i think for the purpose, we should look at mips chipsets, perhaps on fanless mini boards...? USB is good, multiple usb controllers would work awesomely to provide support for multiple devices, as well as programmable controllers.

Lastly, all on board firmware needs to be running on C, and there should be an interface with it, PHP would be cool and all, but its too cumbersome and it is something that can be done from earth, if you only want to control the video cameras... You gotta realize you want to minimize the amount of traffic being sent to this thing, because it is a slow connection with a lot of signal loss. So a scripting interface for the controls, upload a script, it is ran, data is sent back upon completion.... communication speed is not like to a server in your rack, it's more like to a credit card machine in Zimbabwe, if you get my analogy here...batch processing is therefore probably what you will be looking at...

we won't be using Windows as the operating system

aaaw, windows would make us have to send an IT guy with the system, i mean you are gonna get a bsod no matter how hard you try to clean up the system... hell i got one just after freshly installing windows, on first logon!