Will Ubuntu apply to Mars-One mission?

[drawkcab]

Ridiculous nonsense.

[JDShu]

In regards to Ubuntu in particular, it is a desktop operating system. The requirements for a computer for space travel are completely different from casual desktop, so the answer to the OP is no.

[moma]

JDShu: In what cave have you been hiding during the last year? You should apply to Mars-mission!

Ubuntu is more than a desktop system. Ubuntu is a phone, it is a TV, media center, server, cloud server, tablet and a desktop operating system. There is NO other OS that is more suitable for space travel and colonization of other planets. Your buntu has the most advanced collection of software ever built.

Ubuntu is:
Desktop: http://www.ubuntu.com/business/desktop
Tablet: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7
Phone and PC-in-phone: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android (video: pc-in-phone)
TV: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tv
Media center: http://www.mythbuntu.org (or Google for: Ubuntu XBMC)
Creative arts: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ub...o/Applications
Server: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server
Cloud: http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud (Google also for: JuJu Charms)



See also: http://i1.no/0eml/

Luckily they have employed Kai Staats.... He is Linux-guru and developer of YDL linux...
Linux (or Ubuntu) is actually ready for take off!

[Paqman]

There is NO other OS that is more suitable for space travel and colonization of other planets. Your buntu has the most advanced collection of software ever built.

See now I just think you're pulling our leg.

When it comes to actual spacecraft they tend to either use custom code, or an industrial OS like VxWorks. General purpose computers such as those used personally by astronauts seem to usually run Windows, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few Linux machines flown. Likewise I wouldn't be surprised if some of the embedded systems had Linux buried in them somewhere.

There's no reason why Ubuntu couldn't be useful in space, but saying it's a better than everything else is no more true in space than it is on Earth.

[JDShu]

ok fine, the astronaut's personal computer, smartphone, whatever using ubuntu? sure, I guess anything can be used.

Operating system running life critical operations? Not Linux, that would be ridiculous.

[moma]

They will not send three different operating systems to the space or Mars. They cannot manage that kind of complexity there!

MarsOne will most likely teach the crew Linux. All crew members can fix sw&hw bugs + modify the software for their purpose and research field; they are clever people and they have plenty of time, spending years and years in their small confinements. They will not return to earth.

Closed source systems (proprietary code) is almost certainly excluded from the mission. The settlers must have the code available when needed, immediately without delays or discussions. All devices (instruments, servers, tablets, TVs) should have the same code base, so the question is; What are the choices?

[Paqman]

Well, according to SpaceX the Dragon Capsules that Mars One say they'd like to use to build their outpost actually do run on VxWorks:

https://spacex.com/downloads/dragonlab-datasheet.pdf

[JDShu]

Well, according to SpaceX the Dragon Capsules that Mars One say they'd like to use to build their outpost actually do run on VxWorks:

https://spacex.com/downloads/dragonlab-datasheet.pdf

Makes sense. IIRC Curiosity also uses VxWorks.

What I've been trying to get at is that Linux, and especially Ubuntu, is fundamentally too unstable to be used for mission critical operations. The strength of ancient operating systems like VxWorks is that it has been used and tested for decades with no major changes and is rock solid. This is completely opposite to how Linux is developed, which is often described by the devs as "evolution". Things change, sometimes break, but the OS as a whole moves forward in the long run. This is what makes Linux awesome but wholly unsuitable for bringing people into space.

Now theoretically, somebody could fork off the stable branch of the kernel, and work on fixing relevant bugs for several years, but that's an enormous task and quite pointless when alternatives exist.

Open Source by the way is mostly irrelevant. You can bet that everybody involved in the mission will have access to the source, regardless of license. It would be plain stupidity to simply use a binary blob or something. The idea of an open source license is that anybody can modify and distribute the code. When you're an astronaut in space, you don't care that unrelated people on earth can look at your source code and modify it. you only care that YOU can examine the source, and that people in your organization can modify and push code. You don't need an open source license for that, you just need a deal with the provider.

[Paqman]

What I've been trying to get at is that Linux, and especially Ubuntu, is fundamentally too unstable to be used for mission critical operations.

Ubuntu yes, Linux no.

Linux is used for a lot of embedded systems and is perfectly stable. However, if you crack one of those systems open you'll find a prehistoric kernel.

Now theoretically, somebody could fork off the stable branch of the kernel, and work on fixing relevant bugs for several years, but that's an enormous task and quite pointless when alternatives exist.

The embedded Linux folks do basically that AFAIK.

SCADA systems (of which vehicle control systems are basically a type) are fundamentally very, very conservative in design, to the point where they just don't implement a lot of stuff that you'll find in a general purpose operating system. That's starting to be a bad thing particularly where security is concerned (case in point: Stuxnet). There's a huge amount of inertia, but given that the customers are always more interested in reliability than bling it's hardly surprising.

You don't need an open source license for that, you just need a deal with the provider.

100%. These days you're also a lot more likely to have ongoing support in the form of software updates for systems in service, the end user doesn't really care whether the code monkeys that wrote it are in-house or work for the manufacturer.

[JDShu]

Ubuntu yes, Linux no.

Linux is used for a lot of embedded systems and is perfectly stable. However, if you crack one of those systems open you'll find a prehistoric kernel.

The embedded Linux folks do basically that AFAIK.

SCADA systems (of which vehicle control systems are basically a type) are fundamentally very, very conservative in design, to the point where they just don't implement a lot of stuff that you'll find in a general purpose operating system. That's starting to be a bad thing particularly where security is concerned (case in point: Stuxnet). There's a huge amount of inertia, but given that the customers are always more interested in reliability than bling it's hardly surprising.

Fair enough, you clearly know more about embedded systems than I do. I'm still skeptical that even those kernels would work for space travel specifically without years of extra work, unless perhaps one already exists.