NASA recently faced a challenge when, “evaluating the suitability of a laser for making terrestrial measurements in an orbiting satellite by measuring laser beam quality and efficiency over extended life tests while simultaneously simulating the heating and cooling cycles typical of orbit,” National Instruments reports.
“Using National Instruments LabVIEW 7 for Mac OS X to combine data from multiple CCD cameras and GPIB and RS232 instruments for comprehensive laser beam analysis, taking full advantage of the multithreading features and object-oriented techniques to produce a stable, flexible, and scalable product at a low cost,” National Instruments reports. “High efficiency is the key to any laser-based space mission. NASA laser efficiencies are typically below five percent. A one or two percent improvement can greatly reduce the size of the solar array, cooling system, and the overall mass of the satellite required to support the laser. But with lasers, as efficiency increases, stability decreases. NASA scientists searching for a highly stable and efficient laser needed a comprehensive and reliable test tool to aid in its development.”
National Instruments reports., “Before development of this system, NASA scientists used two or three PCs running four or more applications to run tests on their lasers. Frequent system crashes made long-term tests difficult. When tests were completed, it took scientists several hours to gather the relevant data from each of the applications. It was a full-time job for one scientist to maintain the test system. NASA asked Mink Hollow Systems to combine all of the functionality into a single, stable Mac OS X application.”
“Since implementation in fall 2003, the system has proved to be very stable and has saved NASA scientists hundreds of hours per year,” National Instruments reports.
Full article here.
1st post. I am cool. MS rules.
These NASA people are geeks!
ron you are cool
i did not understand one word of that
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Welcome back little boy….did your mommy let you out to play for the day?
For Mac Beth:
A few years ago, the nice people at company that makes stuff to see how bright a light is, made a really neat thing for the nice people that make and fly space ships. But, the bad, bad, PC that they used kept breaking, and this made the space people sad.
So the nice people at the company put the PC in the trash, and used the nice Mac computer to measure the bright light. It worked really good and the space people were very happy.
Everyone lived happily ever after, except the nasty mean people that make the bad PCs. Maybe they will get a Mac and they can be happy, too.
The End
Mac beth…
basically, what theyre saying is…. according to the scientists at NASA… WinDoze sucks…. and Macs rule !!
Ron and “PP” are one in the same…. I guess he likes to praise himself because his mommie doesnt do it often enough..
windoze crashes? no way…
moo.
donnie ..
just how much “bloat-code” can you pile on top of DOS before it starts to crumble like a house of cards ??
Never thought I could do the old emotional bellyflop for an OS, but OSX really has a hold on me. And this kind of article gives me hope that my favorite will become more widly appreciated. ‘Cause these guys at National Instruments are no MacHeads, right? Their mainpage talks about “Leveraging the PC and its related technologies” with no mention of Macs or Apple. And the article doesn’t talk much about Macs either, except to say that they used a G4. But as more and more great results like these come in, useage of our platform will spread, won’t it?
So if Dr. Evil where to use Mac OS X for this “Lazer”, he would rule the world!
Thank god evil people use MS windows!
Well, to coin a line from an old song…. (for Apple, anyway)..
“….. the futures so bright, I hafta wear shades !..”
With all the good press concerning Va Techs “Big Mac” Super Computer Cluster and the Colsa Corporation trying to do them one better….
( http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=59375 )
I’d say that the Evil Empires days of world domination are numbered !
Coming from the Agency that JUST NOW approved the 486 for space flight, These people are smart but still about 20 years behind, look at the POS Space shuttle.
And the PC’s they were using were probably 8088’s
Funny how they dont mention the fact that LabVIEW 7 also runs on a Windows XP 64 platform…
“…..Funny how they dont mention the fact that LabVIEW 7 also runs on a Windows XP 64 platform..”
Well, Duh !!…
They do say this…. or didnt you read it ??
“…….National Instruments reports., “Before development of this system, NASA scientists used two or three PCs running four or more applications to run tests on their lasers. Frequent system crashes made long-term tests difficult. When tests were completed, it took scientists several hours to gather the relevant data from each of the applications. It was a full-time job for one scientist to maintain the test system. NASA asked Mink Hollow Systems to combine all of the functionality into a single, stable Mac OS X application.”
NoNo,
thats because we dont CARE!
and Winblow 64 is still in beta.
Only thing worse thans windows, is windows beta
They do say this…. or didnt you read it ??
DID YOU READ IT…They used 4 APPS, NOT ONE…DUUHH!!!
Only thing worse thans windows, is windows beta..
I would say the only thing worse than windows, is OS 9…Are you A.D.D.?
NoNo, its called IC radiation hardening and long spacecraft development cycles.
As far as the Shuttle goes, you have to understand the design to truly appreciate it. Go to the bookstore and look for “The Space Shuttle for Idiots”
I do understand the design, Problem is, its older than dirt….By the time they do get a new spacecraft up and running, it’ll be 20 yrs old
“……DID YOU READ IT…They used 4 APPS, NOT ONE…DUUHH!!!”
Ok…so your point is … uhhh what ??
That it takes a WinDoze machine crashing through 4 applications to perform the same function that a Mac can do … WITHOUT crashing … on just ONE application ???
Oh yeah… now THATS a great selling point for those who write that overbloated DOS code up in Redmond, huh ??
“…..I would say the only thing worse than windows, is OS 9…Are you A.D.D.?…..”
Well, at least OS 9.x still is lots more stable than any flavor of DOS !! ..LOL !!
Not only that, but theres no spyware, trojans, viruses, annoying pop-ups, nor any malware which affects an OS 9 system !!
And the best part is….. with OS 9…. you NEVER NEVER NEVER have to use any Micro$oft products….
Can you say the same thing for your WinDoze machine ??
I think not !!
Oh yeah… now THATS a great selling point for those who write that overbloated DOS code up in Redmond…
Last time I checked, we dont right in Dos, We write in C and just like the space shuttle, OS X is built on 50 yr old technology.
50 yr old Unix is a great selling point to huh?
Remember back in the early 90’s when MS actually wrote most of the code for Mac, even the OS…???
I’m the guy who funded this project. Little PC background: We had 8 PC’s for 4 data systems. Needed 2 machines per station. a single machine couldn’t function using commercial packages. Each machine had to be rebooted every morning. An average of 3 to 4 would crash overnight. These were all Win2000. Then WinXP shows up. XP was soon banned, yes, banned from NASA GSFC (our division) for several months due to security issues. Only this past year was XP Pro “allowed” to operate on the NASA network. Anyway, we tried the XP version for 2 machines with the updated commercial software packages, no luck. There is no “poor programming” or “we don’t know what we’re doing” or lack of PC experience. They simply could not work.
What were they, Dells?
“……..Remember back in the early 90’s when MS actually wrote most of the code for Mac, even the OS…? “
FYI……. Billy Bob NEVER wrote any of the Mac OS….
If you remember that far back….. (highly doubtful) … then you must remember that Billy needed a platform for his only application …. it was called “Micro$oft Works” .. (an oxy-moron for sure)….
He proposed this application to Steve Jobs, who, mistakenly gave him a prototype of a (then) new Macintosh running the latest OS…
Billy, then reverse-engineered the Mac OS, and piled the new GUI code on top of his DOS system….
and he called it “WinDoze”….
I suggest you try to find a copy of the film “Pirates of Silicon Valley” …..
While its slightly “hollywood-ized” ….. it does point out a lot of truths…. and that is one of them !!