Time to Think

So much for software engineering!

I just read on Spirit mission status website that the source of problem with the Mars rover has most probably been a faulty flash memory chip. The funny thing though is that the operating system software has been resetting itself continuously (for more than 60 times) because it could not check the OK status on the memory! This has drained the battery power of the rover to death.

I think this is a heck of a flaw in the design of operating system! One of the mission managers said in an interview that the software is designed in such a way that if any part of the hardware in its priority list fails to respond during the boot up process, the computer will automatically interpret it as a failure and starts resetting itself. What kind of stupid software does that? It is like programming it to kill itself. Maybe they have put Windows on the Mars rover to make it compatible with their PCs on Earth!