🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3227@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@hypatia.rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
>In article <24055@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> labc-4da@e260-4d.berkeley.edu (Bob Heiney) writes:
>I don't know how much I can find out about the history of the programs
>(design and implementation issues), but I can get an answer for just about
>any technical question concerning the GPCs.

>What else do you want to know?

Thanks for the interesting info on the computers.  I don't recall this from
the 1984 CACM article.

The flight software (both on the ground and on-board) gives me the
impression of being crufty.  On the failed attempt last Friday, the
countdown was halted at 31 seconds; thats exactly when control of the launch
is turned over to the on-board computers.  So why do they decide to hold the
launch at that point?  Most of what causes the countdown to hold will have
existed for several minutes at least, so why don't the ground computers
decide to hold the launch then, or have the on-board computers say "I'm
gonna hold when I get control".

On another subject; I recall reading that the Shuttle's computers were so
stuffed that to add something, something else had to be removed.  With a
16MB address space, it would seem that more memory could be added and this
could be avoided.
--
                Glen Overby     <ncoverby@plains.nodak.edu>
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