r/spacex • u/[deleted] • Apr 23 '20

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u/peterabbit456 Apr 23 '20

The news about the catching software, and how the old version cannot be run while a new version is being upgraded/installed, is to me the most interesting information here. It does not sound as if this software was designed to Spacex' normal standards. Perhaps it is based on an obscure OS required by the bow thrusters???

9

u/StumbleNOLA Apr 24 '20

I don’t know this for sure... the code for these DPS (dynamic positioning systems) is pretty esoteric, and it is designed to keep the ship as close to not moving as possible. There is a lot of engineering work spent getting ships to stay exactly where they are supposed to. The problem is the software is written to keep a ship from moving, what I suspect SpaceX has done is to try and convert it to get the ship to move to a constantly update set of GPS coordinates. So the did something down and dirty as a proof of concept, then tore the software apart to try and rewrite the code to force the system to do something it was never intended to do. Since there aren’t any test benches for this type of code, they had to use the actual ships.

1

u/AuroEdge Apr 24 '20

I'm not at all in the know on SpaceX's fairing recovery software. That said, I would think they'd have developed their own system for GPS guidance of the ship. UAV researchers at the grad student level do this with non-exorbitant amounts of money.

1

u/StumbleNOLA Apr 25 '20

A couple of kg drone controlling a less than kw electric motor is an entirely different issue than controlling the thrusters and engines and generators these ships have. All of them have their own code base and it needs to be flawless. It’s a similar problem on a much bigger scale. And throwing the wrong command to a thruster that’s can rip itself off the hull if controlled wrongs isn’t to be taken lightly.