Comments on: The Mars Curiosity Rover is Basically a PowerMac G3 with Wheels

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:06:09 +0000

I note that nothing is lost with this ‘old’ technology. The photos are of EXCEPTIONAL quality and the rover doesn’t have to do a wide variety of things. All of what it needs to do it can do with the processing power and storage that was designed in to it.

By: sphonic

sphonic — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:50:34 +0000

Below is a link to a detailed description of the HW specs. http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/081012_msl_update.html

By: Jim K.

Jim K. — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:44:36 +0000

Hearing this story over and over again (Apollo, the Space Shuttle, Casini-Huygens, etc.) one does begin to wonder if in designing these missions that take 5-10 years to execute the hardware up to launch time, if there couldn’t be a little more parallelism in the design tracks, fixing the parameters of things like processing power, storage, transmission bandwidth (and transmitter power), cam and other instrument resolution within the package constraints, but later in the process, and still with time to evaluate the component’s soundness and stability.

By: Kevin B.

Kevin B. — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Anonymous,

Actually, it was 2.5 billion dollars. The design was basically “frozen” back in 2004. That’s why, for example, the cameras are only 2 MP. You can’t cram the “latest and greatest” untested hardware in a vehicle like this at the last minute. Imagine, for example, that they had decided to stuff the latest Intel CPU into this thing and then, when the rover was halfway, to Mars, discovered that it had a bug comparable to the famous P3 bug.

What I’m seriously telling you is that if you want to see a piece of crap then you should see what a rover designed by people who post anonymous comments in Internet forums looks like…

Kevin B.

By: vdiv

vdiv — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:57:54 +0000

But, but, but…. it is the same color!

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:15:24 +0000

FYI, we know the PowerPC chip is an IBM one. IBM made them, Apple used them, just as it uses Intel chips today. And on one even mentioned OSX anywhere in the article. VxWorks is the OS for the Airport Extreme routers. RTFA.

By: MAx agnelli

MAx agnelli — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:07:48 +0000

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/VxWorks Is a Unix Like OS, not OSX, please…

By: Svenborgia

Svenborgia — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 19:56:01 +0000

NASA is underfunded because your politicians would rather spend public money on warmongering than advancing the nation. Maybe you should complain to your government if you are not satisfied?

By: Michal

Michal — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:27:46 +0000

FYI

PowerPC 750 CPU is IBM product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_7xx

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/apollo/20090720/index.shtml

By: Theo Vosse

Theo Vosse — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:10:14 +0000

Once the design on a machine like this is completed, it is very, VERY expensive to go back and change it, especially when many other components depend on it. So why do that, when you’ve got something that works properly? This is just good engineering, very good, as a matter of fact.

Not to insult you, but a team of engineers that replaces components just because a faster CPU is available would have turned this mission into a huge failure.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:38:55 +0000

You’re seriously telling me we landed a million dollar PIECE OF SH*T on Mars? Are you kidding? My old laptop is more powerful than this!

By: Prescott Perez-Fox

Prescott Perez-Fox — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:28:17 +0000

I hope NASA’s control software is laden with stitched leather.