[sci.space.shuttle] Spinning Shuttle

gordon@hymir.cs.cornell.edu (Jeffrey Adam Gordon) (01/19/90)

This morning I briefly heard that a "communication" to the shuttle
caused it to start spinning somehow.  Any more details?

- jag -

spudcrl@wpi.wpi.edu (A man and his sword) (01/19/90)

In article <36192@cornell.UUCP> gordon@cs.cornell.edu (Jeffrey  Adam Gordon) writes:
>This morning I briefly heard that a "communication" to the shuttle
>caused it to start spinning somehow.  Any more details?
>
>- jag -

    Yes.  The pilot was reaching for the radio, and hit the "yoke" with his
    arm.  8)   (kidding, btw.)

					--Curt

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*  spudcrl@wpi.wpi.edu   *        on IRC        *           This space        *
*  Curt R Lindmark       *       Defender       *         intentionally       *
*  Born to be strange    *  A man and his sword *           left blank        *
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stealth@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mike Peltier) (01/29/90)

In article <19500002@hpfipgt.HP.COM> pgt@hpfipgt.HP.COM (Paul Tobin) writes:
>
>							Standard
>procedure is for the shuttle to echo the received data back down for
>comparison with the original data.  This was done, but the HUMAN
>operator failed to note the mismatch!  Somebody was asleep at the
>wheel.

Why was a human relied upon to determine whether or not the data
matches?  That seems sorta silly, when you can just do something
similar to "cat echoed_data | diff - real_data | wc -l" and test
that against zero.  If it's not, simply retransmit.  I don't see any
need for a human in that loop.

-- 
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Michael V. Peltier         | Computer Aided Engineering Network      
1420 King George Blvd.     | University of Michigan,  Ann Arbor       
Ann Arbor, MI  48104-6924  |    stealth@caen.engin.umich.edu          

lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (02/02/90)

In article <48518e97.1766d@june.engin.umich.edu> stealth@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mike Peltier) writes:
: In article <19500002@hpfipgt.HP.COM> pgt@hpfipgt.HP.COM (Paul Tobin) writes:
: >
: >							Standard
: >procedure is for the shuttle to echo the received data back down for
: >comparison with the original data.  This was done, but the HUMAN
: >operator failed to note the mismatch!  Somebody was asleep at the
: >wheel.
: 
: Why was a human relied upon to determine whether or not the data
: matches?  That seems sorta silly, when you can just do something
: similar to "cat echoed_data | diff - real_data | wc -l" and test
: that against zero.  If it's not, simply retransmit.  I don't see any
: need for a human in that loop.

Then some wise guy says "ls -l *_data" and discovers that neither file
has been modified in the last 11 months...

Or that echoed_data and real_data are hard links to the same file...

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov