Re: Curiosity rover on Mars

[csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson)]

Jeffrey R. Carter <ggsub@pragmada.co.cc> wrote:

> On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 7:41:05 AM UTC-7, Peter C. Chapin wrote:
> > The Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars earlier this week.
> > Congratulations to NASA and to all those who worked on the daring and
> > controversial new landing system---which apparently worked perfectly. I
> > saw a NASA video that mentioned that there was 500,000 lines of code in
> > the EDL (Entry, Descent, and Landing) system. Does anyone happen to know
> > if there is any Ada on board that spacecraft?
> 
> According to
> 
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/159637/what-is-the-mars-
curiosity-rovers-software-built-in
> 
> it's in C, possibly "mostly auto-generated".

     If you watch one of the 5-minute-long NASA animations of the
landing sequence on YouTube (search for "Seven Minutes of Terror"), a
screen goes by with the text "500,000 L1NES OF COD3".  I initially
though COD3 was some sort of special purpose language that NASA created
to fit the requirements of spaceflight.  Then I noticed the '1' in L1NES
and now I suspect that they were probably just being cutsy with the
text.  Does anyone know?

                        Charlie
-- 
Nobody in this country got rich on his own.  You built a factory--good.
But you moved your goods on roads we all paid for.  You hired workers we
all paid to educate. So keep a big hunk of the money from your factory.
But take a hunk and pay it forward.  Elizabeth Warren (paraphrased)