

Mars Curiosity. Where is Linux? - christianbryant
http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/mars-curiosity.-where-is-linux.html

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taylodl
Don't fix it if it isn't broke. NASA has lots of operational experience with
VxWorks. They know all its warts and how to avoid potential issues. They also
know the power consumption of the kernel. Compared to the cost of the overall
mission the cost of VxWorks is negligible, yet the risk of replacing it with
another kernel is quite high. It just doesn't make any sense.

~~~
gvb
Plus timeline: the Curiosity software was being written starting in 2005(?)
and completed in 2008.[1] WindRiver released its _first_ version of linux in
2005... and that was its "Platform for Network Equipment", not a suitable
candidate for Curiosity's RTOS.[2] It wasn't until 2007 that they acquired
FSMLabs and thus acquired an embedded real time linux (RTLinux). [ibid]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Mars_Science_Labora...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Mars_Science_Laboratory)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Systems#Wind_River_L...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Systems#Wind_River_Linux)

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rcwoolley
For more information about Wind River's work with NASA's JPL go to
<http://blogs.windriver.com/> and search for "mars".

