Patch management for the latest versions of Windows may be of concern to most of us located here on Earth, but in the meantime, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft has received its first update to its Windows 98-based system in 19 years.
The mission was launched first Signs of liquid water discovered on MarsWith a suspected 20x30km lake of brackish water buried under 1.5 km of ice in the South Pole region of the Red Planet.
Updates were handled by engineers National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), Italy, and fully funded Italian space agency (ASI).
What does this mean?
The company said the upgrade would enable the spacecraft to see Mars and its moon Forbes with better level details.
Mars’ advanced radar for surface and ionospheric sound (Mercy) The Mars Express instrument uses its 40-meter long antenna to send low-frequency radio waves to the planet.
Most of these waves are reflected from the surface of the planet, but a significant amount travels through the crust and is reflected in the boundaries between the layers of various substances beneath the surface, including ice, soil, rock and water.
By examining the reflected signals, scientists can map the structure beneath the surface of Mars a few kilometers deep and study features such as the thickness and structure of its polar ice caps and the properties of volcanic and sedimentary rock layers.
The Space Agency did not go into details about the specified hardware specs, however Tom’s hardware It was speculated that it might have a Pentium 90 processor, which means it could be possible Play classic games such as Doom Explore the secrets of Mars as well.
“Previously, to study the most important features of Mars and its moon Phobos, we relied on a complex strategy that stored a lot of high-resolution data and filled the device’s on-board memory very quickly,” said Andrea Sichetti, MARSIS. Deputy Chief Investigator and INAF Operations Manager.
He added: “Excluding data we don’t need, the new software allows us to launch MARSIS for five times longer and explore much larger areas with each pass.”
