Spirit lands on Mars!

[Fred Bloggs]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Fred Bloggs <[email protected]>
wrote (in <[email protected]>) about 'Spirit lands on Mars!',



So it can. That's not the problem




Yes, because you have to understand *what business you are in*, in order
to understand WHEN and HOW to apply those 'universal principles of
management'.

Here is Mr Martian, who knows Maxwell's Equations (although he calls
them '12469's Equations') but doesn't know what toast is. Do you think
he can design an electric toaster?

Here is Mr Marketing, who has been hired to boost the sales of the
company's electric razors. So he starts a TV ad campaign in March.
Result? Nada. Because about 90% of electric razors are sold in December.

If you make consumer goods and your engineers come up with a cost-
saving, why do you NOT reduce list prices? Because retailers will demand
compensation for all the stock they are holding.

Right- you are talking about the formation of what's called an
Integrated Product Team, or IPT, for product development, which consists
of the representative component expertise that makes it happen.

 

[Paul Burridge]

Lander is a good name as that's all it appears to have done

Not necessarily. It might have crashed.

In 40 or 50 years when we have lots of people or good robots on Mars
we might start to find out what went wrong with all the failed Mars
surface missions (which is most of them). It must be hugely annoying
to work on a project for years and have very little idea why it
failed.

At least Mars Express is still going so I can cheer for Europe as a
whole, even if my British pride has been dented.

Kudos to NASA, that's a fine machine they've landed. Let's hope
Opportunity gets down safely too in a couple of weeks.

Yes. But did you spot the difference between the pictures sent back
from the Spirit and those sent back from Mariner (I think it was) in
June 1976? It's not as if we haven't seen that same god-foresaken,
desolate landscape before.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Such Insight! And a truism which repeats it's self over and over without
end.

A program I consulted on, was way behind schedule. I was to mentor less
experienced staff, and play catch-up. I was stymied at every step by
managements ego, and finally, when they realized I HAD figured out the
problem, they ended my contract for fear I would tell the customer. (Not my
job.) But also because the Manager didn't want me to succeed when she was
failing. Get this, on the verge of cancellation she has been promoted to
Manager of all engineering functions in the division. I think they are
going to close it altogether and she can go down with the ship! Blew a
154 Million dollar contract!
She has a MBA, and is not an Engineer!

I know! There is some incredible stuff going on. I recently put a
development back onto a schedule track it should have been on three
years ago, wasting similar amounts of money on failed and very expensive
operational testing- and also what I consider an inestimable opportunity
cost. I wrote up a full design disclosure and engineering proposal,
crossed all the t's, dotted all the i's, and created a rock solid paper
trail with the in-house Patent Counsel. My reward was to not even
receive the courtesy of a response from program management, who I know
personally as former talentless laboratory co-workers, and I was nearly
charged with insubordination- apparently management is uncomfortable
with people going that far that fast- this was a three day effort- and I
was given a deadline to be interviewed by a Program Communications
Facilitator- which is another name for a psychologist. I am not fazed by
this nonsense- so I just went through the motions of compliance, deleted
all my work, and withdrew from the program. Then it turned out a
disloyal in-house employee had leaked my ideas to the contractor-despite
being classified as proprietary- and one of them was implemented
immediately.

 

[Bob Stephens]

Not necessarily. It might have crashed.


Yes. But did you spot the difference between the pictures sent back
from the Spirit and those sent back from Mariner (I think it was) in
June 1976? It's not as if we haven't seen that same god-foresaken,
desolate landscape before.

Kind of looks like northern Iraq.

Bob

 

[Baphomet]

I worked on the telemetry receiving equipment NASA uses to
communicate with their satellites.

--
We now return you to our normally scheduled programming.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Wow! I worked on some telemetry equipment for NASA too but that was way back
when and for the L.E.M.

 

[Baphomet]

Lander is a good name as that's all it appears to have done

In 40 or 50 years when we have lots of people or good robots on Mars
we might start to find out what went wrong with all the failed Mars
surface missions (which is most of them). It must be hugely annoying
to work on a project for years and have very little idea why it
failed.

At least Mars Express is still going so I can cheer for Europe as a
whole, even if my British pride has been dented.

It would be interesting if the Spirit can locate the Beage. If so, I wonder
if recovery would be possible. Personally, I think there is still hope for
the Beagle.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Wow! I worked on some telemetry equipment for NASA too but that was way back
when and for the L.E.M.

I worked for Microdyne for four years, on almost every current and
new product as it was prepared for release to production. I was assigned
to the production floor, but spent time working in engineering as well.
I had a reputation for raising the bar on performance and system
quality. The last system I worked on was their RCB2000 DSP based dual
receiver and combiner package.

 

[Martin Riddle]

Kind of looks like northern Iraq.

Bob

Iraq? I thought it was Afghanistan.

 

[Paul Burridge]

It would be interesting if the Spirit can locate the Beage. If so, I wonder
if recovery would be possible.

Hauling Beagle onto the back of a low-loader and returning it to
Earth? I don't think so. Anyway, the British government coudn't afford
the fee.

Personally, I think there is still hope for
the Beagle

Yes, as in "****-all hope." I'm genuinely sorry for the guys who
worked on the project, though. I guess it ruined their Christmas.

 

[Frank Bemelman]

It would be interesting if the Spirit can locate the Beage. If so, I wonder
if recovery would be possible. Personally, I think there is still hope for
the Beagle.

What would the distance be, between the two? And exactly where is the
Beagle? Isn't it a needle in a haystack? But yes, it would be nice
if the two would meet each other

 

[Roger Gt]

I know! There is some incredible stuff going on. I recently put a
development back onto a schedule track it should have been on three
years ago, wasting similar amounts of money on failed and very expensive
operational testing- and also what I consider an inestimable opportunity
cost. I wrote up a full design disclosure and engineering proposal,
crossed all the t's, dotted all the i's, and created a rock solid paper
trail with the in-house Patent Counsel. My reward was to not even
receive the courtesy of a response from program management, who I know
personally as former talentless laboratory co-workers, and I was nearly
charged with insubordination- apparently management is uncomfortable
with people going that far that fast- this was a three day effort- and I
was given a deadline to be interviewed by a Program Communications
Facilitator- which is another name for a psychologist. I am not fazed by
this nonsense- so I just went through the motions of compliance, deleted
all my work, and withdrew from the program. Then it turned out a
disloyal in-house employee had leaked my ideas to the contractor-despite
being classified as proprietary- and one of them was implemented
immediately.

Can't believe they sent you to a psychologist! Such nerve!
I was sent to classes on a regular basis, like "electrical Code Compliance"
and they covered UL1459! I explained that the latest was UL1950, which I
had used, and the instructor wanted me to pirate a copy for him! None or
this applied to the Satellite equipment we were supposed to build!
Then the ethics classes, three of them. What a joke! They don't know the
meaning of the word.

 

[Roger Gt]

"Baphomet" schreef in bericht

What would the distance be, between the two? And exactly where is the
Beagle? Isn't it a needle in a haystack? But yes, it would be nice
if the two would meet each other

But even it they met, would they speak the same language?

 

[Paul Burridge]

But even it they met, would they speak the same language?

Not if Microsoft wrote it.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Can't believe they sent you to a psychologist! Such nerve!
I was sent to classes on a regular basis, like "electrical Code Compliance"
and they covered UL1459! I explained that the latest was UL1950, which I
had used, and the instructor wanted me to pirate a copy for him! None or
this applied to the Satellite equipment we were supposed to build!
Then the ethics classes, three of them. What a joke! They don't know the
meaning of the word.

This program was recently zeroed - stop work orders issued- and another
gravy train comes to a squealing halt. I am sure the management resumes
will record this as another career success- a welcomed challenge to
their wisdom, energy, creativity, thinking-out-of-the-box (which they
were never in), and just general overall exceptional performance-
looking forward to f_...king up the next one too- and the next one - and
the next one- and the next one after that- climbing every step of the
ladder to executive management super-stardom- this will be the rule and
not the exception. In the meanwhile, we can always hope the motivation
for starting the program in the first place was unrealistic.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

What would the distance be, between the two? And exactly where is the
Beagle? Isn't it a needle in a haystack? But yes, it would be nice
if the two would meet each other

There was a piece I heard about second-hand recently from The Observer
which staggered me. Stanford are helping look for it. Incredibly, they
don't need the radio Tx (all of 5 W) to be working. Checking for the
EMC from the processor onboard is "within their capabilities".
That's on *Mars*!

Also found this site:
http://www.d-entwistle.fsnet.co.uk/Beagle/signal.htm

 

[Mario Trams]

"Baphomet" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht

What would the distance be, between the two? And exactly where is the
Beagle? Isn't it a needle in a haystack? But yes, it would be nice
if the two would meet each other

They are located about a quarter Mars perimeter from each other.
That's around 5300km. As far as I know, they are planning to drive
the baby up to 100m per sol (around 25 hours) - on flat terrain.
This makes some fifty thousand sols that would be needed
And the rover should also perform some scientific work...

The situation with Opportunity that will land hopefully with the
same success within 3 weeks is not better, as it will come down
on the opposite side of Mars (relative to Spirit).

But seriously, it would be really interesting to get at least some
pictures from such stranded missions (including Polar Lander) in
order to be able to pin down the problems much better. Or better
said, in order to get an idea at all...

Regards,
Mario

 

[Mario Trams]

"Baphomet" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht

What would the distance be, between the two? And exactly where is the
Beagle? Isn't it a needle in a haystack? But yes, it would be nice
if the two would meet each other

They are located about a quarter Mars perimeter from each other.
That's around 5300km. As far as I know, they are planning to drive
the baby up to 100m per sol (around 25 hours) - on flat terrain.
This makes some fifty thousand sols that would be needed
And the rover should also perform some scientific work...

The situation with Opportunity that will land hopefully with the
same success within 3 weeks is not better, as it will come down
on the opposite side of Mars (relative to Spirit).

But seriously, it would be really interesting to get at least some
pictures from such stranded missions (including Polar Lander) in
order to be able to pin down the problems much better. Or better
said, in order to get an idea at all...

Regards,
Mario

 

[Andre]

They are located about a quarter Mars perimeter from each other.
That's around 5300km. As far as I know, they are planning to drive
the baby up to 100m per sol (around 25 hours) - on flat terrain.
This makes some fifty thousand sols that would be needed
And the rover should also perform some scientific work...

The situation with Opportunity that will land hopefully with the
same success within 3 weeks is not better, as it will come down
on the opposite side of Mars (relative to Spirit).

But seriously, it would be really interesting to get at least some
pictures from such stranded missions (including Polar Lander) in
order to be able to pin down the problems much better. Or better
said, in order to get an idea at all...

Yup- could be useful might even be able to find out why MPL broke.
Perhaps they might find one of the Russian probes with the Spirit
rover (IIRC quite a few landed and then stopped working a few seconds
later)

-A

 

[Keith R. Williams]

But even it they met, would they speak the same language?

I'd expect the Beagle to speak English. So, no. ;-)

 

[Mario Trams]

Yup- could be useful might even be able to find out why MPL broke.
Perhaps they might find one of the Russian probes with the Spirit
rover (IIRC quite a few landed and then stopped working a few seconds
later)

I don't know where exactly they [the Russian landers] landed. But
it is quite a long time ago when they landed and they are very
likely covered by sand meanwhile.

Regards,
Mario