Hubble in double trouble

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Andrew Moore

It could be Pauly Shore #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 10:29 GMT

Because ""If it rhymes, I can cause trouble in it"

Stuart

Voltages #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 10:52 GMT

Maybe they shouldn't have tried to overclock it....

Neil Barnes

And today, the British government released... #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 11:49 GMT

their UFO records.

Coincidence, surely... but I for one welcome our little green overlords!

Anonymous Coward

Contingency testing? #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 11:49 GMT

I would have thought it good practice to regularly alternate between the two systems (say every 6 months or annually)?

That way, no big surprises when the backup kicks in, or not.

It would give time to organise repairs on the next Shuttle flight before both systems fail...

Wize

Patches #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 11:49 GMT

Its not been fired up in ages. It will be downloading all the windows service packs and rebooting.

petebog

Aliens #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 12:54 GMT

Hs to be, surely. They've finally got fed up with all our spying on their remote homes and decided to do something about it.

andy gibson

Safe mode #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 12:54 GMT

Are all the pictures coming back in 640x480?

Yorkshirepudding

system anomalies? #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 13:06 GMT

[proffesor frink mode]

thats how it starts with the anomalies and the killing and the robots and aliens glaven mm-hai!

[/proffesor frink mode]

i for one welcome are metal overlords may death come swiftly to their enemies

Anonymous Coward

Testing #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 14:06 GMT

It's not been tested because things don't break when they're sat in nice cool space, in a shielded, vauum or inert gas atmosphere, they break when they're turned on or off.

Alistair

ROTM #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 16:20 GMT

This is how it starts, I tell you. 2001: A Space Odyssey went wrong at about the time HAL detected a probable fault in the high-gain antenna amplifier module, that Dave Bowman and Frank Poole were unable to diagnose when they pulled the unit for testing. Soon we will be reaching for our helmets as our new Linux-powered overlords make their plans against us. You have been warned! NURSE!!

ian

Have they called the help desk yet? #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 17:43 GMT

Desk: <click> Yes, this is the help desk, what is the problem?

Me: My space telescope won't boot up.

Desk: Please check that the power cord is connected to the mains.

Me: Yes, but it is in orbit about the Earth.

Desk: Sir, there is no need to earth the unit.

Me: <click>

Bounty

OMFG! #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 17:43 GMT

" they break when they're turned on or off." yeah, that's why they should have been tested! That's like never running a test restore, because it could wear on the tape and drive.

(The thing was never turned on, and look, even in the vacuum of space it broke.... maybe all the radiation and cosmic rays had something to do with it, too bad we didn't know about this, say BEFORE the last servicing mission.)

Mine's the one w/o the holes in the rainhood.

Mike Flugennock

@Alistair re: Discovery high-gain antenna amp fault #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 19:55 GMT

Actually, if you'll recall, it turns out that HAL was only lying about the AE35 unit fault...remember? Bowman does an EVA to pull it, he and Poole throw it onto the bench, test it, find nothing wrong, and decide to do another EVA to reinstall it and let it run until it fails, and then...well, you know. HAL just wanted to get them both outside so that he could wreak havoc unmolested.

Talk about "FAIL and You"...

Anonymous Coward

@Contingency testing? #

Posted Monday 20th October 2008 23:26 GMT

While I agree with you that the computers should be "rotated", it appears from the article that there's no easy way to just switch. Everything has to be powered down or at least "safed", then brought back up step-by-step, and tested before use. If NASA was routinely switching back n' forth between computers, surely one of those times it just wouldn't come back, and it wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.

BOFH rule no. 5---"If it ain't broke, don't fu%$ing tamper with it."

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