Author Topic: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B OTV-4) - May 20, 2015 to May 7, 2017 - UPDATES  (Read 191874 times)

Offline catdlr

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #220 on: 05/21/2015 09:33 pm »
GoPro Camera Captures The Launch Of Atlas V Rocket With the X-37B / AFSPC-5 Mission

Published on May 21, 2015
GoPro Camera Captures The Launch Of Atlas V Rocket With the X-37B / AFSPC-5 Mission

And LightSail

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Offline catdlr

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #221 on: 05/21/2015 09:34 pm »
POW! Remote Camera Gets Beaten Up By The Atlas V / AFSPC-5 X-37B Launch

Published on May 21, 2015
Remote Camera Gets Beaten Up By The Atlas V / AFSPC-5 X-37B Launch

Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline Star One

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #222 on: 05/21/2015 09:36 pm »

Maybe the Hall effect thruster was stuck in the other engine location, or the materials they are testing for 'NASA' are TPS mounted external to the vehicle.

That or they supper pimped it....

Wonder if we'll see anything of it when it eventually lands.

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #223 on: 05/21/2015 09:45 pm »
Here is something interesting, a sub-contractor for the flaperons and ruddervators mentions a 4th flight unit, now I assume its a 4th set of flaperons/ruddervators, or could it be a 4th X-37B ? .....nahhh :)

http://www.lx3.net/development-manufacturing-x-37-space-plane-flaperons-ruddervators.html


"Currently on DQ4 (4th Flight Unit)"


Well there was the X-37A, and then combined with the two X-37B's make three units.  Perhaps the X-40 counts as well even though it was a subscale model?

Offline catdlr

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #224 on: 05/22/2015 05:22 pm »
GoPro East Of The Pad Captures Atlas V AFSPC-5 X-37B / LightSail Launch

Published on May 22, 2015
GoPro East Of The Pad Captures Atlas V AFSPC-5 X-37B / LightSail Launch

Video Credit: Matthew Travis / Zero-G News

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Offline catdlr

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #225 on: 05/22/2015 05:30 pm »
Atlas V AFSPC-5 X-37B / LightSail Launch Captured By GoPro South Of The Pad

Published on May 22, 2015
Atlas V AFSPC-5 X-37B / LightSail Launch Captured By GoPro South Of The Pad

Video Credit: Val Phillips, Editing By Matthew Travis / Zero-G News

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Offline zubenelgenubi

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #226 on: 05/27/2015 03:40 pm »
Software Glitch Pauses LightSail Test Mission
Jason Davis' blog on The Planetary Society web site, posted 2015/05/26 21:35 UTC
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150526-software-glitch-pauses-ls-test.html

An informative read.

One recovery method is waiting for a cosmic ray strike on electronics to cause a reboot.

One of the commenters asked why the .csv beacon file overflow > system crash failure mode wasn't caught in the design or ground testing phases?

Once a reboot occurs, they plan a manual sail deploy ASAP.

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Online edkyle99

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #227 on: 05/27/2015 04:09 pm »
Haven't heard of any sightings of this supposed "X-37B" so far.

 - Ed Kyle

Offline kevinof

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #228 on: 05/27/2015 04:25 pm »
Software Glitch Pauses LightSail Test Mission
Jason Davis' blog on The Planetary Society web site, posted 2015/05/26 21:35 UTC
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150526-software-glitch-pauses-ls-test.html

An informative read.

One recovery method is waiting for a cosmic ray strike on electronics to cause a reboot.

One of the commenters asked why the .csv beacon file overflow > system crash failure mode wasn't caught in the design or ground testing phases?

Once a reboot occurs, they plan a manual sail deploy ASAP.

Zubenelgenubi

wow. Very poor s/w testing process there. Scary that their only "hope" is a random cosmic ray to zap it into a restart.


Offline HammerD

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #229 on: 05/27/2015 04:33 pm »
Software Glitch Pauses LightSail Test Mission
Jason Davis' blog on The Planetary Society web site, posted 2015/05/26 21:35 UTC
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150526-software-glitch-pauses-ls-test.html

An informative read.

One recovery method is waiting for a cosmic ray strike on electronics to cause a reboot.

One of the commenters asked why the .csv beacon file overflow > system crash failure mode wasn't caught in the design or ground testing phases?

Once a reboot occurs, they plan a manual sail deploy ASAP.

Zubenelgenubi

wow. Very poor s/w testing process there. Scary that their only "hope" is a random cosmic ray to zap it into a restart.

Agreed.  Testing boundary conditions (such as the maximum size of a file) is pretty common in software engineering/testing and computer science.  They do teach you about that stuff, at least with my CS degree it was very common, we had to have all sorts of checks in our code.   I'm surprised/shocked that this wasn't part of their testing/checking.  Sounds a bit like they trusted/relied a bit too much on the supplier of the original software.

Darren

Offline Andrewwski

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #230 on: 05/27/2015 05:10 pm »
I've worked with the same flight computer board and we encountered the exact same issue (before we were on orbit).  The manufacturer of the board is awful with documenting issues and their revision control is extremely poor (at least as presented to the customer), so this does not surprise me - even though we encountered this issue about 18 months ago.  We actually ended up dumping this board because of issues like this.

This also shows the importance of having a hardware watchdog timer - automatically resetting the computer if it doesn't issue a command within a certain interval.  I'm actually surprised that they did not include a hardware watchdog on the spacecraft - even in cubesats, it's an encouraged practice.
« Last Edit: 05/27/2015 05:10 pm by Andrewwski »
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Offline Star One

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #231 on: 05/27/2015 05:14 pm »

Haven't heard of any sightings of this supposed "X-37B" so far.

 - Ed Kyle

Apparently from prior comments read elsewhere it's not the easiest of vehicles to find.

Offline zubenelgenubi

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #232 on: 05/27/2015 05:14 pm »
Software Glitch Pauses LightSail Test Mission
Jason Davis' blog on The Planetary Society web site, posted 2015/05/26 21:35 UTC
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150526-software-glitch-pauses-ls-test.html

An informative read.

One recovery method is waiting for a cosmic ray strike on electronics to cause a reboot.

One of the commenters asked why the .csv beacon file overflow > system crash failure mode wasn't caught in the design or ground testing phases?

Once a reboot occurs, they plan a manual sail deploy ASAP.

Zubenelgenubi

wow. Very poor s/w testing process there. Scary that their only "hope" is a random cosmic ray to zap it into a restart.

Agreed.  Testing boundary conditions (such as the maximum size of a file) is pretty common in software engineering/testing and computer science.  They do teach you about that stuff, at least with my CS degree it was very common, we had to have all sorts of checks in our code.   I'm surprised/shocked that this wasn't part of their testing/checking.  Sounds a bit like they trusted/relied a bit too much on the supplier of the original software.

Darren

The other method to accomplish reboot is sending a reboot command from either the Cal Poly or Georgia Tech ground stations.  Multiple attempts over the last few days have not (yet) worked.  (It's in the article.)

Maybe TPS members/donators need to have a few words with Bill Nye et al about using their donations to best effect?

Just a thought,
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Offline Andrewwski

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #233 on: 05/27/2015 05:19 pm »


The other method to accomplish reboot is sending a reboot command from either the Cal Poly or Georgia Tech ground stations.  Multiple attempts over the last few days have not (yet) worked.  (It's in the article.)

Right, but this requires the computer to be able to interpret the uplinked commands - which if it is frozen, it will not.  Not including a hardware watchdog timer is a poor design decision.
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Offline kevin-rf

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #234 on: 05/27/2015 05:22 pm »

wow. Very poor s/w testing process there. Scary that their only "hope" is a random cosmic ray to zap it into a restart.

Most likely comes down to money. constrained time for SQA.

Sounds like they didn't have the time and money to test the system for extended periods before flight. A clue is in the hope for a cosmic reset before the flight ends. The reason is most likely it is not a rad harden embedded system. They expect resets and built the system to deal with and handle them.

Raise your hand for how many times you tested something, had it pass SQA, get released to the wild, and then found the SQA test didn't cover everything and had to issue a fast patch. I would raise my hand, but I don't have enough ;)   
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Offline zubenelgenubi

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #235 on: 05/27/2015 06:27 pm »

Haven't heard of any sightings of this supposed "X-37B" so far.

 - Ed Kyle

Apparently from prior comments read elsewhere it's not the easiest of vehicles to find.

I've seen it naked-eye from suburban Washington DC, and it can be one of the brighter satellites visible on a given night--I've even used it as "tonight's featured satellite pass" at the star party series that I host.

(My notes from the October 26, 2014 program list an estimated maximum magnitude of +1.5, estimate via Heavens-Above.)

But, "discovering" it in the first place, that has been a challenge.

Looking back through the SeeSat-L archives:

OTV-1 launched April 22, 2010
1st usable observations made May 20, 2010
Ted Molczan wrote a great summary of the "discovery" process in this post:
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2010/0190.html

OTV-2 launched March 5, 2011
1st observation March 9, 2011

OTV-3 launched December 11, 2012
1st observation 19 minutes after Centaur MECO

And, there have been times when the OTV has been "lost" for some time after an orbit change.

I'm sure the amateur satellite observers are doing their best to find OTV-4.  It's interesting that there has yet been no posted success.

I'm curious how long it will take to find this craft.  Also, when found, if the intrinsic magnitude will be the same or different (particularly fainter) from the previous three flights.

Respectfully submitted,
Zubenelgenubi
« Last Edit: 05/27/2015 06:51 pm by zubenelgenubi »
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Offline zubenelgenubi

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #236 on: 05/27/2015 07:05 pm »
OTV-4 X37B located and orbital elements
Greg Roberts reports that the OTV has been found!  He had some help from other amateur astronomers in South Africa.
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2015/0190.html
Orbit is 312 km X 325 km X 38.0 degrees

Well done!
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Offline ZachS09

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #237 on: 05/27/2015 07:18 pm »
Just because LightSail-A shut down, does that mean it failed?
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Offline kevinof

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #238 on: 05/27/2015 07:18 pm »
agreed but also the s/w is supplied (I think) by the board manufacturer and I got to say that 20 years ago I was dealing with such suppliers who knew h/w but didn't have a clue about s/w and tools.  Would expect that today these suppliers can carry out the basic sqa testings.

Having a buffer/storage area overflow is a very basic test and common across all platforms. Just think it's such a shame that something so simple and common as this error could doom a sat.





wow. Very poor s/w testing process there. Scary that their only "hope" is a random cosmic ray to zap it into a restart.

Most likely comes down to money. constrained time for SQA.

Sounds like they didn't have the time and money to test the system for extended periods before flight. A clue is in the hope for a cosmic reset before the flight ends. The reason is most likely it is not a rad harden embedded system. They expect resets and built the system to deal with and handle them.

Raise your hand for how many times you tested something, had it pass SQA, get released to the wild, and then found the SQA test didn't cover everything and had to issue a fast patch. I would raise my hand, but I don't have enough ;)

Offline Prober

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 501- AFSPC-05 (X-37B) - May 20, 2015
« Reply #239 on: 05/27/2015 08:14 pm »
I've worked with the same flight computer board and we encountered the exact same issue (before we were on orbit).  The manufacturer of the board is awful with documenting issues and their revision control is extremely poor (at least as presented to the customer), so this does not surprise me - even though we encountered this issue about 18 months ago.  We actually ended up dumping this board because of issues like this.

This also shows the importance of having a hardware watchdog timer - automatically resetting the computer if it doesn't issue a command within a certain interval.  I'm actually surprised that they did not include a hardware watchdog on the spacecraft - even in cubesats, it's an encouraged practice.

if they charge an arm and leg for the board; the customer needs some type of insurance their hw is up to do the job.
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