Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 09:36:56 +1200 From: C.R.Harding@massey.ac.nz To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Speaking of PR Message-ID: <199703172212.OAA07938@freefall.freebsd.org>
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With all the discussion here about promotion and PR I thought I'd
copy this to the list, from the regular "SpaceNews" bulletin posted
to sci.space.news:
-----8<-----cut here-----8<-----
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY MARCH 17, 1997
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.
[...deleted....]
* LINUX TO FLY ON STS-83 *
==========================
The Linux operating system will again ride into space in support of a
US Space Shuttle mission. Bruce Perens reports that a Debian
distribution of Linux will be used on Shuttle mission STS-83 as part
of a hydroponics experiment. The hydroponics experiment will test the
feasibility of growing plants without soil in space that could
eventually provide oxygen and food to astronauts.
Sebastian Kuzminsky, an engineer working on the computer that controls
the experiment which is operated by Biosciences Corporation said, "The
experiment studies the growth of plants in microgravity. It uses a
miniature 486 PC-compatible computer, the Ampro CoreModule 4DXi.
Debian GNU/Linux is loaded on this system in place of DOS or Windows.
The fragility and power drain of disk drives ruled them out for this
experiment, and a solid-state disk replacement from the SanDisk
company is used in their place. The entire system uses only 10
watts". The primary role of Linux in the hydroponics experiment on
STS-83 is to control water and light for the growing plants as well as
send telemetry and video of the plants to scientists on the ground.
Linux is a commercial-free operating system designed over the past
several years by programmers using the Internet to exchange their
ideas and code. It offers features (including AX.25 packet radio
networking) and capabilities unmatched by commercial operating systems
at any price. Linux was successfully used during Shuttle mission
STS-75 in support of the tether experiments carried out on that
mission. The ground-based software designed for the tether
experiments was originally written on a 64-bit DEC Alpha computer
running Digital Unix, and as Linux is similar to Unix in design and
structure, it was a simple matter to port the software from the Alpha
to a 32-bit IBM Thinkpad laptop running Linux that was carried on the
Shuttle.
More information on Linux may be found on the World Wide Web at the
following URL:
http://www.linux.org
--
Craig Harding Acting Director, Massey University Television Production Centre
"I don't know about God, I just think we're handmade" - Polly
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