I have doubts.  

(It could be hype by a Java zealot talking to the press.)

The report doesn't really "say" Java was used in this instance.

It only says the Mars Rover Devices use it as an operating system.
This seems to be a general statement which doesn't necessarily
mean it is used in all cases, or even this one.

As far as an "Operating System" is concerned, do the devices
actually "boot" to Java?  Or do they really mean the Mars
Rover Devices use Java as an application to do certain things?

BT


Tracy Johnson
MSI Schaevitz Sensors 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Wonsil [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:13 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: More Java news
> 
> 
> http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=39220&DE=1
> 
> When the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Mars 
> Exploration Rover,
> Spirit, successfully landed on Mars on January 3, 2004, Java 
> was there too.
> The Mars Rovers devices, developed by the NASA Jet Propulsion 
> Laboratory
> (JPL) in conjunction with Wind River, use Java as a low-cost, 
> easy-to-use
> operating system.
> Why Java? James Gosling, JPL advisory board member and 
> "Father of Java,"
> explains that it's due to Java's ability to transcend many 
> platforms. "They
> can have scientists all over the world looking at the data but
> collaboratively deciding on the way the mission should proceed," said
> Gosling. "They are all speaking different languages when they 
> talk to the
> rover but everybody in the control room is using Java."
> 
> Spirit is sending as much as 150 megabits of data daily to 
> NASA scientists,
> and that datastream will increase when the sister rover, 
> Opportunity, lands
> on January 24. To deal with this data, Sun Microsystems and 
> NASA built four
> operational storage servers at the JPL that altogether can hold four
> terabytes of data.
> 
> The Java program used on the robotic rovers is nearly 
> identical to the JPL's
> online program Maestro that allows site visitors to guide a 
> simulated rover
> across a 3-D Martian terrain. (To try out the Java-based data browser
> Maestro and drive a simulated dune buggy on Mars, see
> http://mars.telascience.org/.)
> ...
> 
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