> younger engineers often have the capability but not the inclination
Kids these days... Why would someone in their right mind think working on the Voyager project could damage their careers? You can work on new and fancy tools all you want to improve supporting tools, and it's still one of the coolest space missions active. Plus, it has a real end - at some point, support will be further reduced and the person will move on to another space exploration job, with the extra golden star of having been on the Voyager.
I highly recommend watching "Its Quieter in the Twilight" (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9rrxr)
a cool documentary about the engineers still running voyager (a lot of them have been on it for decades)
As the should. Voyagers are still active and this maintenance is needed in case issues occur. In a way due to the +24 hours oneway communication to correct software issues should they occur, this will help speed corrections up.
Now I wonder how the test it ? Is it on a software emulator on modern equipment or do they have a Voyager replica ?
They have a simulator for one of the three computers on Voyager, the Computer Command Subsystem. They don't have a simulator for the other two computers, the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem and the Flight Data Subsystem. They used to have a Voyager replica, the Capability Demonstration Lab, but they got rid of it after they moved the Voyager team into a satellite office following the end of the main mission. There's more information here if you're interested: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2016-2415
> The succession problem matters most in the next decade. After that, the question becomes academic. There will be no Voyagers left to maintain.
Well, the Voyagers will still be there, there will be just no way to contact them anymore once the power runs out or communication is lost (whichever happens first)...
Regarding "that almost nobody on Earth fully understands anymore", I claim this is nonsense, and definitely not an obstacle.
I've audited codebases in languages that I haven't programmed in. It is a matter of grasping a few basic concepts, like branch execution, branch destination, where data is stored, how it is communicated. Don Lancaster told us how to do this: https://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/enhance_vI.pdf.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 35.3 ms ] threadKids these days... Why would someone in their right mind think working on the Voyager project could damage their careers? You can work on new and fancy tools all you want to improve supporting tools, and it's still one of the coolest space missions active. Plus, it has a real end - at some point, support will be further reduced and the person will move on to another space exploration job, with the extra golden star of having been on the Voyager.
this is correct link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9rrxrg
Maybe only a few COBOL codebases still active can beat that? Or not?
Reading, analyzing and assembling documentation could be probably done by LLMs.
And by including old code and snippets into the training set, the LLM could be fairly proficient in writing this code probably too?
Maybe someone knows more about the use/not-use of LLMs in this context?
Now I wonder how the test it ? Is it on a software emulator on modern equipment or do they have a Voyager replica ?
They have a simulator for one of the three computers on Voyager, the Computer Command Subsystem. They don't have a simulator for the other two computers, the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem and the Flight Data Subsystem. They used to have a Voyager replica, the Capability Demonstration Lab, but they got rid of it after they moved the Voyager team into a satellite office following the end of the main mission. There's more information here if you're interested: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2016-2415
Well, the Voyagers will still be there, there will be just no way to contact them anymore once the power runs out or communication is lost (whichever happens first)...
I've audited codebases in languages that I haven't programmed in. It is a matter of grasping a few basic concepts, like branch execution, branch destination, where data is stored, how it is communicated. Don Lancaster told us how to do this: https://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/enhance_vI.pdf.