Old Farts Rule: "As the solar system’s edge grew tantalizingly close, NASA asked Ms. Dodd and her team to increase the amount of data collection. The problem: 8-track recorders from 1977 are not exactly bursting with extra space. Could she even find anyone who specialized in that piece of recording technology? “These younger engineers can write a lot of sloppy code, and it doesn’t matter, but here, with very limited capacity,” said Ms. Dodd, “you have to be extremely precise and have a real strategy.” At 52, Ms. Dodd is a relative newcomer to Voyager, first working on the mission in 1984, when Voyager 2 — a companion spacecraft also launched in 1977 and still inside the solar system — was headed toward Uranus. But she was able to find her man: Lawrence J. Zottarelli, 77, a retired NASA engineer. He came up with a solution. But would it work? Mr. Zottarelli waited at Voyager mission control one afternoon last month to find out. The first of the newly programmed data dumps was set to come down. Ms. Dodd, Dr. Stone and Mr. Zottarelli watched two old Sun Microsystems computers like children watching for a chick to peck through an egg. “Nine, eight, seven,” Dr. Stone counted down. “Everything’s fine,” said Mr. Zottarelli, flashing a thumbs up and hiking up his trousers. “You’re on your own now.” "
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 18:59:36 +0000
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