ajs@hpfcla (03/12/86)
> Today on the radio I heard that the crew compartment of the shuttle > was located and that NASA was going to bring it up. A newspaper report quoted someone as saying something like, "We're talking about debris, not a crew compartment, and about remains, not bodies." > Now I could see getting information from the recorders, but the > on-board computers? The same article quoted a person who worked on the computer systems some years ago, as saying nothing useful could be gained from retrieving the systems. Alan Silverstein
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (03/13/86)
In article <150@sdics.UUCP> wargo@sdics.UUCP (Dave Wargo) writes: >One question I had was this. The radio said that NASA could get a >better idea of what went on in the final seconds of the flight from >the onboard recorders and the computers. >Even if the computers had not had there bits scattered (ie broken >pcb's) what info would be left after power was stopped? The Shuttle computers have non-volatile main memory. Cycling power on and off doesn't affect it's data contents. This caused much confusion among new programmers (e.g: me) at Rockwell's lab in Downey, who were used to no power == no memory. ( :-) It also caused much amusement among the old hands). The effects of sea-water, on the other hand, are less predictable, but certainly not beneficial. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp(+)TTI 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Geniuses are people so lazy they Santa Monica, CA 90405 do everything right the first time. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe