[PLUG-TALK] Curiosity Landing at OMSI

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com> writes:

Keith> I just got back from the landing party at OMSI.  We filled two
Keith> big rooms with over 1000 people, and there were more in the
Keith> halls and outside.  We were jumping up and down and shouting
Keith> and hugging along with JPL mission control.

I watched at home.  

I was a little surprised when the surface team leader dude didn't seem
to know what direction the rover was pointing, when one of the HAZCAM
images was clearly looking into the sun.  Dude, do you not know what
direction the sun is?  Talk about celestial navigation, that's a
pretty easy star to pick out!

Keith> The only problem was the NASA News anchor talking over the
Keith> mission control readout of the numbers.  They gave latlong to 6
Keith> decimal places - I didn't hear the digits.  They landed flat
Keith> within 5 degrees.  Here's an estimate of location:
Keith> http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7397&st=30

I wonder if anyone knows what the mission control dudes are using for
their desktop consoles.  It's pretty clearly a unix of some kind.  I
thought I recognized some of the graphics applications as Free
Software.  Anybody know?  I did some perfunctory google searches, but
got nothing definitive.  I would guess Sun or HPUX or something.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net