SpaceX uses Chromium, Google’s open-source foundation for the Chrome web browser, for the touchscreen user interface on the Crew Dragon, said Sofian Hnaide, a developer who worked on the Crew Dragon display technology used in the Demo-2 launch that carried the two astronauts to the space station. SpaceX began the effort to demonstrate its design ideas to NASA, but SpaceX stuck with it.
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“We liked all the modern features that comes with browsers out of the box,” Hnaide said during the AMA, adding that Chromium gave SpaceX access to lots of programmers already skilled with the technology.
That means a web app written in HTML and JavaScript, just like millions of websites, is showing the astronauts what they need to see, and interpreting their taps and swipes. That’s a departure from traditional aerospace programming methods using lower-level languages.
Touchscreens exemplify SpaceX’s modernized computing approach, but the Dragon capsule also has more traditional hardware buttons for critical actions like responding to a cabin fire, said Wendy Shimata, who manages the Dragon software team.
Linux inside Starlink
The Chromium-based interface connects to vehicle control software written in the C++ language and running on the open-source Linux operating system. SpaceX maintains its own Linux variant, said Josh Sulkin, leader of software design for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, but it’s a close cousin to the version running inside every Android phone.
For Starlink, SpaceX’s growing network of satellites to deliver internet access to computers on Earth, “each launch of 60 satellites contains more than 4,000 Linux computers,” Sulkin said. Most of those govern tiny computers called microcontrollers with narrow but often important responsibilities.
“The constellation has more than 30,000 Linux nodes (and more than 6,000 microcontrollers) in space right now,” he said, referring to a computing system that’s part of a larger group working in parallel.
Modern methods
SpaceX incorporates not just modern software, but also modern software development methods like frequent updates.
SpaceX updates its Starlink software weekly, said Matt Monson, who leads Starlink software work and previously worked on the company’s Dragon. “By the time we launch a batch of satellites, they’re usually on a build that already [is] older than what’s on the rest of the constellation,” he said. “On this kind of project, pace of innovation is everything.”
SpaceX also held a week-long hackathon with astronauts Behnken and Hurley, letting them try the software during the day, then rebuilding it each night to incorporate their feedback for the next day’s tests.
SpaceX also uses A/B testing, which lets the company test changes on a subset of satellites, he said. It’s a method widely used in more conventional programming, for example to gauge whether a website loads faster.
Updates can be critical. “We’ve had many instances where a satellite on orbit had a failure we’d never even conceived of before, but was able to keep itself safe long enough for us to debug it, figure out a fix or a workaround, and push up a software update,” Monson said.
Modern software means modern software problems, like security. SpaceX uses several security methods to keep its spacecraft, systems and data safe, said Jeff Dexter, who runs SpaceX’s flight software and cybersecurity programs.
For example, SpaceX uses end-to-end encryption to protect data sent to and from Starlink satellites from interception, and all hardware runs software signed by SpaceX to help block outside software, he said. It also runs automated tests to hunt for problems in software.
“We have a dedicated team that identifies how our vehicles and satellites could be hacked so we can eliminate or prohibit these sorts of threats when we’re building our vehicles,” Dexter said.
Even what SpaceX programmers do for fun sounds serious. One Redditor asked if they play Kerbal Space Program, a spaceflight simulator game good for those who enjoy orbital mechanics.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
