Debian Rides Space Shuttle!!! and other Debian news (fwd)

Petr Barta orinc na czech.net
Čtvrtek Únor 20 09:09:16 CET 1997


Mam tady jednu zajimavost - mozna vas bude zajimat, kam az se vsude Linux
nedostane... ;-)


					Petr Barta

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	Debian Rides Space Shuttle: Press Release

NEW COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM RIDES SPACE SHUTTLE

A radically different new computer operating system is controlling an
experiment on a Space Shuttle mission in late March. The experiment
tests "hydroponics", a way of growing plants without soil that could
eventually provide oxygen and food to astronauts. The computer
controlling the experiment runs "Debian GNU/Linux", an operating system
built by a group of 200 volunteer computer programmers who
tele-collaborated over the Internet and never met each other. The
system has many earthly uses - it can replace conventional operating
systems such as Microsoft's "Windows 95" on personal computers. In a
departure from conventional operating system practice, the volunteer
group is giving the system and all of its source code away for free.
Details are available on the group's web site: http:/www.debian.org/ .

The space shuttle experiment will fly on mission STS-83 in late March
and early April. Sebastian Kuzminsky is an engineer working on the
computer that controls the experiment, which is operated by Biosciences
Corporation. Kuzminsky said "The experiment studies the growth of
plants in microgravity. It uses a miniature '486 PC-compatible
computer, the Ampro CoreModule 4DXi. Debian GNU/Linux is loaded on this
system in place of DOS or Windows. The fragility and power drain of
disk drives ruled them out for this experiment, and a solid-state disk
replacement from the SanDisk company is used in their place. The entire
system uses only 10 watts", said Kuzminsky, as much electricity as a
night-light. "The computer controls an experiment in hydroponics, or
the growth of plants without soil", said Kuzminsky. "It controls water
and light for the growing plants, and sends telemetry and video of the
plants to the ground".




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