A Mars Spacecraft Has Been Running on Windows 98 Era Software for 19 Years, But No More

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A Mars Spacecraft Has Been Running on Windows 98 Era Software for 19 Years, But No More
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The software was originally designed over 20 years ago based on the now-outdated Microsoft system.

orbiter’s MARSIS software, 19 years after the spacecraft launched. The MARSIS instrument, the first radar sounder to orbit another planet, aided in the discovery of evidence for water on Mars in 2018. MARSIS sends low-frequency radio waves towards the planet using a huge, 131 foot long antenna, as the Mars Express spacecraft orbits around Mars.

The MARSIS does all of that using highly outdated software that hasn’t been updated since the spacecraft launched in June 2003. The software was designed in an environment based on Windows 98, which doesn’t work with the modern-day internet unless you jump through a lot of hoops.

“Previously, to study the most important features on Mars, and to study its moon Phobos at all, we relied on a complex technique that stored a lot of high-resolution data and filled up the instrument’s on-board memory very quickly,” Cicchetti said. “By discarding data that we don’t need, the new software allows us to switch MARSIS on for five times as long and explore a much larger area with each pass.

The indoor portable evaporative air cooler distributes cool air through the honeycomb cooling media while the dust filter cleanses the air.

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