396: How Linux Got to Mars

Tim Canham, the Mars Helicopter Operations Lead, shares Linux’s origins at JPL and how it ended up running on multiple boxes on Mars.

Plus the challenges Linux still faces before its ready for mission-critical space exploration.

Special Guest: Tim Canham.

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Links:

• Debian running on Rust coreutils — tldr: uutils/coreutils is now available in Debian, good enough to boot a Debian with GNOME, install the top 1000 packages, build Firefox, the Linux Kernel and LLVM/Clang.
• uutils/coreutils — An attempt at writing universal (as in cross-platform) CLI utilities in Rust.
• Steam Link now available on Linux — Special thanks to Collabora for helping make this possible.
• Steamlink Repo
• Steam Link on Flathub
• Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games to Run on Linux — Proton has been receiving many updates in the past few months as well, with the introduction of the Soldier Linux runtime container and Proton Experimental on top of the regular Proton releases.
• Diversity, Flexibility, and Linux: Prioritizing Generous Transfer | Linode
• JB Telegram
• All Jupiter Broadcasting Shows
• NASA’s Perseverance Drives on Mars’ Terrain for First Time — NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars March 4, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance.
• [Video] Cassini Burns into Saturn After Grand Finale
• Curiosity — NASA’s Mars Exploration Program
• nasa/fprime — A flight software and embedded systems framework.
• Wind River VxWorks RTOS
• Field-programmable gate array - Wikipedia
• JPL CubeSat ASTERIA — ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was a technology demonstration and opportunistic science mission to conduct astrophysical measurements using a CubeSat.
• Pick: ocenaudio — Easy, fast and powerful audio editor.
• Pick: nativefier — Make any web page a desktop application.
• Linux Action News 179 — Canonical reveals long-term Ubuntu plans that you might have missed, and the "double ungood" warning from Linus this week.
• Post-show Pick: Jellyfin 10.7.0 — Note: Non-reversible database changes. Ensure you back up before upgrading.