From: "Condic, Marin D." <condicma@PWFL.COM>
Subject: Re: Y2K Issues
Date: 1998/10/23
Date: 1998-10-23T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <F3740247C2BED111A0AE00805FEA9C92017FFDA4@pwflml02.pwfl.com> (raw)
dennison@TELEPATH.COM writes:
>In article <362f066a.164357874@news.geccs.gecm.com>,
> mark.bennison@gecm.com (Mark Bennison) wrote:
>> eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) thought long and hard and
>> wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>> >starting to become important. (You may not build things expected to
>> >work for over 2000 years, but there is already one satellite in orbit
>> >with an expected useful lifetime four times that.)
>>
>> Just to satisfy my curiosity...
>>
>> Why would a satellite be designed with an expected useful lifetime of
>> 8000 years? What does it do that will still be of interest in that
>> time frame?
>
>Perhaps it's supposed to keep track of continental drift. :-)
>
I recall seeing an article several years back that was talking about a
satellite that was essentially a big huge chunk of metal with mirrors on it.
The idea was that they wanted something with a fair amount of mass placed in
a very stable orbit off of which they could bounce lasers to make precise
measurements for geological purposes - or as you suggest - keep track of
continental drift. Since the satellite had no battery powered gonculators or
fuel driven fragistats on board, the only real limitation to its life span
was how long it would stay in its proper orbit - which I could image to be
8000 years. But then again, without any computerized whozits on board, it
wouldn't likely have much of a Y2K problem, would it? ;-)
I'd be interested to hear about any satellite - operational or planned -
which had any non-trivial electrical or mechanical apparatus which was
expected to operate for 8000 years. And I'd like to know if that was just an
accidental byproduct or if it was a design requirement.
MDC
Marin D. Condic
Real Time & Embedded Systems
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney
Government Engines & Space Propulsion
M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600
Ph: 561.796.8997 Fx: 561.796.4669
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
next reply other threads:[~1998-10-23 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 59+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-10-23 0:00 Condic, Marin D. [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-10-19 0:00 Y2K Issues John J Cupak Jr
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-19 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1998-10-20 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1998-10-19 0:00 ` dewar
[not found] ` <362B8D2F.802F42E6@lmco.com>
1998-10-20 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-23 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1998-10-20 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-22 0:00 ` Mark Bennison
1998-10-22 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-25 0:00 ` Michael Feldman
1998-10-26 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1998-10-26 0:00 ` Joel Seidman
1998-10-27 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-26 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-27 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-27 0:00 ` John Herro
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-28 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Dave Wood
1998-10-27 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-29 0:00 ` system
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-11-02 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1998-11-04 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-11-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1998-11-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-11-08 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1998-11-08 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-06 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-27 0:00 ` Gautier de Montmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` adam
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Arthur Evans Jr
1998-10-28 0:00 ` adam
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Al Christians
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1998-11-04 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-28 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1998-10-28 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-29 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-10-30 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-31 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-11-02 0:00 ` dennison
1998-10-30 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-10-30 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-10-31 0:00 ` dewar
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1998-10-29 0:00 ` Mark A Biggar
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