A Mars Spacecraft Has Been Running on Windows 98 Era Software for 19 Years, But No More

The days of dial-up web, AOL Instant Messenger, and Myspace could also be over on Earth, however on Mars, the early years of the web nonetheless dwell on. A Martian spacecraft has been working on software program designed greater than 20 years in the past in a proprietary setting primarily based on Microsoft Windows 98, and is lengthy overdue for an improve.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is updating its Mars Express orbiter’s MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ioniospheric Sounding) software program, 19 years after the spacecraft launched. The MARSIS instrument, the primary radar sounder to orbit one other planet, aided within the discovery of proof for water on Mars in 2018. MARSIS sends low-frequency radio waves in the direction of the planet utilizing an enormous, 131 foot lengthy (40 meters) antenna, because the Mars Express spacecraft orbits round Mars.

The MARSIS does all of that utilizing extremely outdated software program that hasn’t been up to date because the spacecraft launched in June 2003. The software program was designed in an setting primarily based on Windows 98, which doesn’t work with the modern-day web except you leap by a variety of hoops. “After decades of fruitful science and having gained a good understanding of Mars, we wanted to push the instrument’s performance beyond some of the limitations required back when the mission began,” Andrea Cicchetti, MARSIS deputy principal investigator, who led the event of the improve, stated in a statement.

The new software program was designed by the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, which operates the spacecraft. The group behind the brand new software program applied plenty of upgrades that may enhance the instrument’s capability to ship and obtain indicators, in addition to its on-board information processing “to increase the amount and quality of science data sent to Earth,” in keeping with ESA.

“Previously, to study the most important features on Mars, and to study its moon Phobos at all, we relied on a complex technique that stored a lot of high-resolution data and filled up the instrument’s on-board memory very quickly,” Cicchetti stated. “By discarding data that we don’t need, the new software allows us to switch MARSIS on for five times as long and explore a much larger area with each pass.”

The new software program will probably be used to review areas close to the south pole on Mars, the place indicators of liquid water on the Red Planet had been beforehand detected in lower-resolution information. With MARSIS ditching its Windows 98 period software program, will probably be capable of look at these areas a lot faster, utilizing excessive decision information. Figuring out whether or not Mars had liquid water is essential to understanding whether or not the planet was ever liveable throughout its early historical past, and if it might have presumably hosted some type of life.

Mars Express has been exhausting at work for the previous 19 years, with the spacecraft’s mission being prolonged seven instances to date. Although it’s presently ESA’s lowest-cost mission, Mars Express has been delivering beneficial information on Mars, and its moon Phobos. And with the brand new software program replace, the group behind the spacecraft is anticipating better issues from this retro orbiter. “It really is like having a brand new instrument on board Mars Express almost 20 years after launch,” Cicchetti stated.