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Covered at Sen is the news that a software glitch is causing problems for the Light Sail project launched by the Planetary Society
The privately funded Planetary Society, a California-based space exploration advocacy group, has not been in communication with its LightSail since Friday, two days after it hitched a ride to orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B robotic mini shuttle.
This is also covered at the Planetary Society blog:
It is now believed that a vulnerability in the software controlling the main avionics board halted spacecraft operations, leaving a reboot as the only remedy to continue the mission. When that occurs, the team will likely initiate a manual sail deployment as soon as possible.
...
The manufacturer of the avionics board corrected this glitch in later software revisions. But alas, LightSail’s software version doesn’t include the update.
The team are hoping for a reboot to bring the device back to life, either from a ground transmission or charged particle glitch, although attempts to reboot from the ground look to have failed to date.
Cal Poly is automating the reboot command transmission to be sent every few ground station passes, on the hope that one command sneaks through (we don't send the command on every pass because a successful reboot triggers a waiting period before beacon transmissions begin). But as of right now, we can’t do much except wait, hoping a charged particle smacks the spacecraft in just the right way to cause a reboot. LightSail is capable of remaining in orbit about six months in its CubeSat form.
Additional background on the project is available in a previous SN article, and ongoing updates at the mission control page for the LightSail project.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @08:54AM
Not just a bug but a vulnerability. Let me guess, SQL injection?
And now, presumably, someone changed the admin password to "Hacked By Chinese!".
Shouldn't have connected the spacecraft to the internet. That would also have been an easy way to avoid the risk of the cable getting tangled in the boosters.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Friday May 29 2015, @09:59AM
Yeah, I think speaking of a vulnerability is nonsense.
As more beacons are transmitted, the [CSV] file grows in size. When it reaches 32 megabytes—roughly the size of ten compressed music files—it can crash the flight system. The manufacturer of the avionics board corrected this glitch in later software revisions.
Hmm, nobody would possibly ever need files bigger than 32 MB.
(Score: 2) by ticho on Friday May 29 2015, @01:48PM
But it _is_ a vulnerability, just not a security vulnerability.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @01:58PM
Actually it could be a security vulnerability, depending on the exact path leading to the crash. Often things that can lead to crashes for arbitrary data can also lead to security breaches with specially crafted data.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Friday May 29 2015, @02:19PM
Then I completely misunderstood the meaning of vulnerability (quite possible). Care to elaborate?
To me a vulnerability means there has to be an attacker, or as this random military page [dod.mil] defines it:
System vulnerability is defined to be the intersection of a system susceptibility or flaw, access to the flaw, and the capability to exploit the flaw.
(Score: 2) by ticho on Friday May 29 2015, @06:19PM
The system is simply vulnerable to having too many records in the CSV file, just like, I don't know, a human body is vulnerable to open fire.
The definition you linked to is still talking about a _security_ vulnerability.
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Friday May 29 2015, @03:54PM
My god! Ten compressed music files?! We're all gonna die!
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @03:27PM
So they didn't run apt-get -y install no-crash-no-die32 right before launch?
(Score: 1) by Drake_Edgewater on Friday May 29 2015, @06:29PM
From their last podcast, Bill Nye said that they were suspecting a Single event upset [wikipedia.org] (SEU) might have occurred.
Basically, a SEU occurs when a cosmic ray of solar or galactic origin hits an electronic device in space, causing a state change (i.e., changing a 1 to a 0). It is a big headache for satellites and space missions.
Therefore we can say that the Lightsail mission was attacked by a Solar-Quasar-Localgroup (SQL) injection.
(Come on, it's Friday, laugh).
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @09:34AM
LightFail more like!
Lol, amiright?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @09:56AM
So they have a launch window and the guy who is writing the software is making changes right up to the launch window, misses a critical update?
ooops
Got to wonder what the management politics were on this one.
Better follow the Russians and fire the whole staff, rehire the competant ones back and try again with lesson learned.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:01AM
So they have a launch window and the guy who is writing the software is making changes right up to the launch window, misses a critical update?
That's agile development, dude!! Where have you been all these years?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:04AM
http://superuser.com/questions/767414/why-does-systemd-hang-during-reboot [superuser.com]
(Score: 2) by That_Dude on Friday May 29 2015, @10:11AM
What is this charged particle glitch you speak of? I want to be the first kid on my block to have caused a confirmed particle glitch!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 29 2015, @01:12PM
Well, it's just as simple as typing the good ol' Cx M-c M-butterfly. Of course on emacs [xkcd.com]; you are using it, aren't you?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @02:01PM
I'm using Emacs, but unfortunately my keyboard lacks the butterfly key.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:48PM
You need to draw a little line down the middle of the Apple command key and it will look like a butterfly. It's one of those easter eggs built into every Mac keyboard ;-)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bitshifter on Friday May 29 2015, @12:35PM
OK, so some people screwed up.
Shit happens.
Still, I hope they manage to get over it, and continue.
This is too important.