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Given how much you cram into your SoC, do you ever dread how you are going to debug in-silicon failures? You probably planned for better visibility on this chip, but those great intentions got thrown out the window during tapeout crunch, despite your strong objections. So now you are going to have to make due.
Now imagine that the failure is actually a couple hundred million miles away on the Mars surface and the communications and control relaying satellite orbiting Mars isn’t responding. The world is watching and reporters are calling every second. Not only do you have to debug a failure nobody has ever seen before, but you have to create a software workaround, and you have to do both fast. And you have to do all this despite the unresponsive communication link. How are you going to do it?

Speaker:
Michael Sims, Research Scientist, NESC Deputy Chief Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center

Abstract:
Designed for a nominal 90 day mission the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER rovers) Spirit and Opportunity are still alive after 6 Earth years on the surface of an alien and continually surprising planet. We have had a great deal of good luck but also have been able to utilize a strong and diverse team of scientists and engineers to cobble together a continuing string of 'pulling rabbits out of the hat' tricks to live yet another day. This talk will describe some of what we have accomplished, how we have blended our hardware, software and human resources to continue one of the most successful missions in human history. It is the team working together, and standing on the shoulders of those in our past and using the best tools in our computer prosthesis arsenal - Human 2.0 if you will - that we have been able to achieve such remarkable success both in engineering and in science.

Bio:
Michael Sims is Research Scientist in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA Ames, Co-Investigator on the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Deputy Chief Scientist for NASA Engineering and Safety Center and cofounder of the Center for Collaboration Science and Applications (CCSA, http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/ccsa/). Michael received a BS in Physics and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Rutgers University and has been at NASA Ames Research Center since 1987. His research includes robotics, machine learning, visualization, and tools for enhancing and easing scientific modeling and collaboration. Previously he served as agent for artificial intelligence, robotics and human factors for NASA’s missions beyond low Earth orbit in the Office of Exploration. Michael is actively involved in plans for future planetary missions including robotic activities and human settlements on the Mars and the Moon. On the MER mission, in addition to being Long Term Planning Lead, for 7 of MER’s 9 camera he serves as payload uplink lead and designed and built the software system which is used on each rover for automating most of that work.

Presentation Notes:

Slides for this presentation are unavailable.