NASA's control room flooded with Macs during Mars Curiosity landing - Page 3

 

Yeah, i miss that. Here in Portugal the government gives everything to Microsoft, you even need a Windows OS to declare your taxes.

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Apparently the quote was made up and intended as humor. It just wasn't that humorous.

I found it very humorous.

That's because you thought it was a real quote. ;)

On the contrary. Since ti was posted as a reply to my Chick-fil-A comment and didn't have a link the most likely reasoning was that it was fake, regardless of how authentic it appeared to some at first glance. Most humour comes down to the formulation of the words. This was well done.

It's real money, but it's not like it's flushed into space. It's paid out to scientists, engineers, and administrator in the form of salaries. NASA seems bad because that number seems really high but when you compare it to the rest of the government it's a tiny drop in the bucket

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget#Total_outlays_by_agency

NASA requested 18.2B for 2012 and received 17.7B.  The DOD got 683B, which was more than 8 times the next biggest government agency.  This is on a total budget expenditure of $3.796T.  So the DOD is 18% of the federal budget and NASA is 0.47%.  BTW, yes 17.7B is real money, but it's absolute peanuts when looking at our total expenses.  For those wondering, yes, the DOD has a budget more than 38x bigger than NASA's.

 

Cut that defense budget in half and give NASA an extra 100B for the rest of the decade and let's see what they could do on a real budget.

 

 

 

Federal 1963 budget: $111,316,000,000

NASA 1963 budget: $4,291,279
After inflation: $32,607,752.40

1963 NASA budget was .00386% of our expenses that year. (cue some rant about modern NASA being more wasteful w/o taking into account cost increases beyond inflation)

 

 

 

Historic budget info and calculator:
http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/l/65/1963

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4214/app2.html
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm/

Edited by SSquirrel - 8/6/12 at 1:32pm

 

 

Is there any agency in the world MOST important than NASA ( if you compare its contribution to science and the everyday life ) ?

Complaining about the money NASA receives and making a blind eye to the USA huge military in a world where military force NO longer makes any serious punch is almost a crime.

 

People forget that most discoveries are accidental, and without an agency like NASA where would you find reasons for swimming into the unknown?

Only an idiot would try to imply that a Unix based OS isn't suitable for work. As such these sorts of people should be ignored. This however is garbage. Last I knew NASA space based systems ran on one variant or another of a realtime operating system. Further many of the machines installed in mission control where Sun based machines. In any event I would fully expect NASA to mix and match platforms to suit the needs of the tasks at hand.

In this regard I suspect that the large number of *NIX based systems in mission control just means that Apples hardware is very easy to integrate into the installation. Deep down Mac OS is UNIX so it should fit right in. It would be interesting to know though how many of those NASA specific apps are COCOA based as opposed to XWindows based. I did not get a chance to notice.

Absolutely agree. NASA and Apple and Co. represent the very best science and technology the United States has to offer humanity—invasions of Iraq, Grenada, etc.....not so much. If it were up to me a whole lot of that military spending would be diverted to NASA, medical research, education, veterans rehabilitation, American job creation programs, etc. America is armed to the teeth and can fight and no-one in their right mind will seriously mess with the U.S.A./NATO unless they want to be wiped off the face of the earth, and this will remain the case even if our military spending were cut back by at least 50-60%. 

Why would you think the remark was bigoted? As I read it, I thought he was referring to the shooting in Wisconsin and the Mars landing, and how great and terrible things happen at the same time.

I think you're right that many of the machines in mission control are Sun based. At the very least it was an OS that I wasn't completely familiar with when I worked in there a few months ago during the SpaceX mission.

Gazoobee this is complete lunacy.
considering that we now have private companies doing what NASA did far cheaper I'd have to say that is complete bull crap. Further knowing a few people that once worked in industry supporting NASA I can say with complete satisfaction they weren't interested in efficiency or cost control. This is even more uninformed as the military is taking incredibly deep cuts. Frankly cuts at a time when we should be preparing for war.

The vast majority of our budgetary problems these days are directly the result of the welfare state. Giving money to the shiftless and lazy is just plain stupid. Any reasonable person should be concerned about government waste it has nothing to do with your political perspective. NASA wastes money just like every other governmental organization sometime they are even directed to do so by congress. The big problem with the space program these days is the big project mentality, the current example being the drive for a Mars exploration program. It is complete stupidity to go after Mars when we don't have viable space based craft, shielding technologies for those craft and a host of other technologies in place to keep those in those craft viable as humans over the duration of the trip.

I liken the need for space craft to support our endeavors in space as a bit like the Navy. A countries first Navy vessel is never an aircraft carrier but rather a smaller vessel and it's support ships. Before we go to Mars we really should get some experience building ships suitable for long durations in space. You mean what you have posted here.

 

Dear Mr. Lane:

 

If you're going to write the news we read, please pick up a dictionary and learn the difference between the words "historical" and "historic."

 

Thanks!

Nope. Of the dozen or so aerospace systems I have worked, Linux has never even once been remotely considered for flight control based software. Used heavily on GSE and mission operations but never on the actual important stuff. I am sure there are few isolated designs that use it, but Linux is a distant afterthought for the most part.

Being fully aware of both, his comment was still offensive and bigoted. That might not have been his intention, but the sparseness of the comment would leave one to think his intentions where less than honorable.

 

Does this mean we can stop paying Congress? :)  Given what they have actually managed to vote on the last 3 1/2 years, they seem pretty shiftless and lazy to me.

 

 

 

 

 

Uhm I'm sorry but, what the ****?  Where do you see deep cuts to the military?  2000-2011 DOD budget INCREASES every single year.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Defense_Spending_Trends.png

Oh come on here, Apple sells electronic gadgets and computers, it is really nothing special in the overall view of things. There are many companies and universities making real contributions to the betterment of humanity. Your statement is enough to turn stomachs in people with a wider view of the world. Ask the people in Grenada what they think of the invasion. Or for that matter the people in Iraq. Frankly the world is suffering more from our lack of military intervention than because of it. There are many bad players out there right now leading to suffering by millions. Look at North Koreea, Syria, Eygpt, and a host of African countries where people suffer at the hands of their governments. That would be totally assinine!! There is plenty of money in the budget for that sort of thing, it is called welfare! That is complete BS.
More BS.

I'd like too.

The reality is they have been shiftless and lazy and only seem willing to find nonproductive leftist agenda items. NASA is a perfect example where coherent direction from congress could lead to stream lining the organization and getting us back on track with space exploration. It is unfortunate but congress seems to have forgotten that Aeronautics and Space are the reasons NASA was created and are what NASA should be focused on.

 

Since when is the GOP all about leftist agenda items?  They have practiced the fine art of saying no and having a record breaking number of filibusters.  There are unending debates about the usefulness of the auto bailout, the Fannie/Freddy/banks bailout, the health care bill and the stimulus package.  Many good things have come about as a result.  Many things seem to pretty clearly be money that was flushed down the drain. 

 

I'm not sure if Congress are the ones we should have guiding NASA.  It seems like they just need to loosen the purse strings.

Interesting. The NASA budget and money spent on education and medical research etc. is somehow "welfare"; and you seem to be against your taxes going for these programs...fair enough, that's your money and so  that is absolutely your right. But one thing that has always puzzled me about hawks is the lack of consistency in their economic outlook...they moan about "government spending" and "welfare" ad infinitum, yet somehow military spending—the biggest government spending program of them all—somehow gets let off the hook every single time and the blind eye is always conveniently turned, much as it was when Wall Street—those corporate welfare bums—got bailed out by your and my hard-earned tax dollars. 

 

As for asking the people in Iraq what they think of the war, uh, have you ever been to Iraq and spoken to them? You probably should do that or at least stop blindly believing what Fox News Corporation propaganda rams down your throat. With respect, do yourself a favor and read some Chalmers Johnson (Blowback, The Sorrow of Empire, etc.). Johnson is no flakey hippie but an ex-CIA hawk who saw where current trends have led America. He provides an excellent analysis of this stuff. 

 

I respect you not agreeing with my opinion but "That is complete BS" and "More BS" don't exactly constitute brilliant deductions, my good fellow.

Steve Ballmer turns bright red when he sees that. Promises to wipe that grin off Phil Schiller's stupid face.

OS XI naming scheme to use celestial objects? 

 

I thought we've considered that a given ever since Leopard went with a space-themed intro movie and Desktop background.

Now that's what you call an APPLE ORCHARD!

The Wizard of Troll strikes again...

 

Idiot Alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at all those creative professionals.

 

Pandering for some recognition? Sorry, but your broad generality just doesn't wash from my direct experiences.

It's nice to see the macs slowly taking over the world. But I'm also noticing a trend in movies and TV, where a Mac computer will have it's logo covered over. Two and a half men being the most up front example. Every time Ashton Kutcher is using one of his computers, there is a glaring sliver decal covering the Apple logo.

 

This logo sticker covering needs to stop.....

 

Because it's advertising for which Apple isn't paying. They won't stop until Apple gives them money.

I also noticed a lot of Android phones after the landing, when everyone was taking pictures and texting. Makes sense, as I'm sure these are the sort of folks that like to hack their mobile devices.

 

Sarcasm?

 

He wanted a MBP, but the guy at Best Buy told him THIS one was just as good. Now his PC can't run any of the same software as everyone else.

Have you asked?

I haven't been to all of those countries, but I have had business relationships with most of them and few, if any, were happy to see the US invade.

As I said, I agreed that we're spending too much on the military and that NASA's budget is not out of line with its objectives. I simply objected to the hyperbolic statement that NASA's budget is "a fraction of a fraction of a nothing". When people start treating $18 B as "a fraction of a fraction of a nothing", you know they've lost any sense of value or perspective.

BTW, I believe your figures are wrong. NASA peaked at over 4% of the national budget and is now 0.5%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget

Your percentages are far, far too low.

Really? I fully explained my position and apologized for not clarifying more fully my statement long before you put in your two cents. There was nothing in the original statement or the following remarks that a should have been construed as bigoted or insensitive. You are the one with evil thoughts in their head. The comments were sparse as I did not want to derail the thread however I thought intelligent readers would be able to detect the sadness in my remarks nevertheless.

 

Cool! I see a couple Macs there, and a lot of Suns. (Lately I kind of forgot Sun existed, but I used to envy a coworker with a Sparcstation!)

 

The main think I get from that control room though is a craving for salty snacks. Looks like the peanuts flow like wine.