Mars probe running Windows 98 receives software update after two decades
Patch management for the latest versions of Windows may be a concern for most of us based here on Earth, but in the meantime, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft has been able to launch its Windows 98-based system in 19 years. The first update has been received.
The mission was first launched to search for signs of liquid water on Mars, including a suspected 20×30 km lake of salt water buried under 1.5 km of ice in the Red Planet’s south polar region.
The updates were conducted by engineers from the Istituto Nazionale d’Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, and funded entirely by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
what does this mean?
The agency said the upgrade will enable the spacecraft to see Mars and its moon Phobos with a better level of detail.
The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on Mars Express sends low-frequency radio waves toward the planet using its 40-meter-long antenna.
Most of these waves are reflected from the planet’s surface, but significant amounts travel through the crust and are reflected at the boundaries between layers of various materials below the surface, including ice, soil, rock and water.
By examining the reflected signals, scientists can map the structure beneath the surface of Mars to depths of a few kilometers and study properties such as the thickness and composition of its polar ice caps and the properties of volcanic and sedimentary rock layers.
However, the space agency did not elaborate on the specifications of the hardware that will receive the update. Tom’s Hardware It is speculated that it could have a Pentium 90 processor, which means it could potentially run classic games like Doom as well as explore the mysteries of Mars.
“Previously, in order to study the most important features on Mars, and its moon Phobos at all, we relied on a complex technique that stored a lot of high-resolution data and the instrument’s on-premises. The board used to fill up memory very quickly,” said Andrea Cichetti, deputy principal investigator and operations manager for MARSIS at INAF.
He added: “By removing the data we don’t need, the new software allows us to switch MARSIS on up to five times longer and explore a much larger area with each pass.”