NASA Uses Node.js in Space Suits – Director of Software Engineering Confirms | Hacker News Reader

NASA Uses Node.js in Space Suits – Director of Software Engineering Confirms

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58 pointslindstorm21 comments

Misleading title

> Just to be clear Node.js does not run IN a spacesuit. It does however support spacesuit operations, processing, logistics, etc...

(source: https://twitter.com/CollinEstes/status/741994459349417984)

Important addendum: Node is not for real-time safety-critical systems https://mobile.twitter.com/d4rw1n1s7/status/7430105947862507...

"Not in the way you are probably thinking, but used for ground ops leading to spacewalks, checks and balances obv" - Collin Estes

There's a whole bunch of space system support software that isn't hard scientific code (which is handled by a totally different team), but rather for specific management-related tasks. This code is written in all the web technologies and frameworks one would expect.

Edit: I'm wondering about the downvotes, since I've actually written such software.

lol, someone commented : "A NASA investigation into the death reports that the astronaut was killed by a leak -- not oxygen, but memory."

Made me think of Lisp at JPL, one of my favourite software-dev history stories. http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html

Presentation at EnterpriseJS Austin:

Spacesuits and Node.js - How open source will change NASA

https://vimeo.com/168064722

Forth code ran on the Rosetta lander's space qualified, radiation hardened, 16-bit Harris RTX2010 processor. The OS could even be changed via the radio link by writing new code to EEPROM [1].

Let Node try that ;) On second thought...

[1] http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/2003ESASP.532E..72B...

So now we update the saying to "JavaScript is eating the universe", right?

Why would NASA somehow be invincible to hype?

Reverse hype is hype. Node is a high level language that is quite good. It might not be as fast as go or c, but it doesn't need to be to be useful. Don't blame the langue, blame the programmer.

Node is not a language

Linguistics would beg to differ.

As in have you ever heard the term, "program in node". If we lived our lives to only technical definitions it would not be a good one.

There is research behind this, not sure why the down vote.

Although considering the comment being replied is a throw away account, I imagine that person is also a moderator who doesn't like debate to their troll comment.

People call the language "node" because they're ashamed to admit they're just writing javascript, since javascript has such a horrid reputation for amateur, poorly-performant bloatware.

This is also just troll. An engineer looks at a tool, as it is. Sometimes a plastic screw may be better than a steel one. Look at any tool as it is, not as a religion.

I'm not trolling. You think people are immune to stigma just because they work in tech?

Tools are rarely chosen purely on their merits. Look no further than the Black&Decker vs DeWalt thing back in the early aughts. Literally the same tool but with a yellow, "construction-y" motif? Much better reputation for being durable.

People didn't buy Black & Decker because they didn't want to be looked down upon for using pleb-tier tools.

I'm saying there are use cases for node. Maybe not as ideal of core infrastructure where scalability and latency are of the most important. But there may be use cases where a new engineer could contribute faster, cleaner, and more effectively with node. An amazing engineer with node, can do far greater things than a mediocre engineer in golang, or what ever the fashion language of the year is. Node has its place, and should be respected.

"Don't blame the langue, blame the programmer."

Would you mind repeating this the next time HN front page contains more stories and comments (hype?) about how C language is the cause for poor software quality?

It's always nice to feel appreciated, but the validation-seeking pile-on in that Twitter thread is a little awkward.

Reward yourself with a cookie then go read your Github Issues tab, guys...

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