HARDWARE in SPACE! The Kernel at the Edge of the Universe
summary
History traces from vacuum‑tube Sputnik to Apollo's 36K words of core rope and IBM's discrete‑transistor Gemini computers, showing repeated surprises like Apollo consuming ~60% of US microcircuit output in 1963 and tape‑based triple modular redundancy voting. Most attitude control still avoids Linux, but recent missions prove off‑the‑shelf SOCs can fly: Ingenuity bundles a Qualcomm Snapdragon running Linux for payload and comms, the helicopter succeeds as a constrained tech demo while raising questions about radiation, redundancy, and data confidentiality.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Open source in space
- 2:27Space software constraints
- 6:43The dawn of space flight
- 12:51Computers in Gemini missions
- 17:55Apollo guidance technology
- 27:26Skylab and lessons learned
- 31:53Linux in modern space
- 34:09Ingenuity and COTS hardware
- 37:23Future and Q&A
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