Pete's QBASIC Site

It occured to me that NASA would use some very fast software on the vehicles they propel into space. Was just wondering if anyone knew the compiler used. ASM ,C++,etc.
Seeing space travel as a weight problem , id imagine memory would be limited.
Whats your thoughts people ?

i dunno, but seeing they spend billions on equip, they might make their own programming system. But my best bet would be either C++ or the rough rocket sience coding that Basic replaced long ago, just a more advanced one now,.. hmm,. oh well..

Well, it would have to be a language that could manipulate robotics. You know like motors or pistons.

Basic can run motors and (pistons? do you mean pnematics/hydrulics? and that uses the motors so that a bit off, heh heh memory metal is the same but no motors are involved) But thinking of NASA using QB sounds funny,.. maybe they've made their own? oh well..

No I mean like BASIC for the STAMP board. NOTE THAT IS AN EXAMPLE>

Well I know that for their image processing (analysis of pictures taken by their satellite and space station they use their custom language that is about 250 faster than C++ to get the information they need.

for the rest I believe they once used Ada, and still do for some parts, as well as C++ (for more recent projects that don't need to rely on older code.

WOW! 250 times faster than C++, that's FAST!

Well, what i have heard Nasa still has those same programs running that back in 70?s. Why? Because those programs works fine and modifying them all as modern day languages would be a huge project.



Lol, dont know how true this is.

I'm pretty sure Bill Gates would come up with something....

(A Space Shuttle run off of Windoze = fireball)

Seeing as much of their programs are direct robotics, they don't really need a language for it.

They can build it directly, not having to use a central processor to controll stuff.


As for image sending and such, it's nothing, just a matter of packing bits and transmitting as a radio stream.

Seeing as it's a 45 minute travel for radio waves from Mars to earth.. having it pack and send the images in 0.001 seconds really doesent matter that much.


And a language can't be 250 times faster or not. A language is always slow, infact, it stands still. It's the generated compiled code that matters, and that is handled by the compiler. A good C++ compiler may very well generate code that is 250 times faster than a sucky C++ compiler.


And according to their site (long time since i read it though, like in 98 or something) NASA use ASM to code their stuff. As it's all they really need.
For bigger things, such as semi AI and such, they usually use ADA or simillar, but in the end, it's the ASM code they fiddle with.

Recently they have been using FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) for their Mars missions. So they would use a Hardware Description Language (e.g. VHDL, Verilog .... ABEL? ewwwww) rather than software.

-abionnnn

Also They WOULD have to use microprocessors (Yes that's like a CPU) to manipulate the robotics from input as radio signals and output along the circuts for the right motor, which can only be done by a microprocessor.

Unless of course you have a radio signal that could directly effect wether a circut is on or off...Which would be a bad idea in space....

And ASM of course needs a CPU or microprocessor to do it.

So it needs a CPU or a microprocessor Z!re!