Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ames.arc.nasa.gov!mike
From: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Old fashioned control room
Keywords: controlroom  oldfasioned
Message-ID: <23407@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 4 Apr 89 16:19:24 GMT
References: <2108@botter.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center
Lines: 42

In article <2108@botter.cs.vu.nl> wallagh@cs.vu.nl () writes:
>
>I've an other question about the Space shuttle.
>Last summer I visited (briefly) Houston Mission Control, and there
>I was showed around in the mission-control room.
> 
>2 Things where very surprising:
>a). It's much much smaller than you expect it to be (from TV).
> 
>b). The equipment looks very oldfashioned.
>My question is: Why? The tourguide said: Because there no need for 
>newer equipment.

There is an apparent upgrade in progress. Take a look at the MOCR
pictures on the next mission and you'll notice a number of 
SUN workstations starting to creep into the room. I suspect they
have some sort of major upgrade in the works, but probably won't bring
it on like until extensive offline testing has been done. They should
always retain the ability to go back to the old system. . .

Endevour : Houston, do you see that comm system overtemp readings?

Houston : Stand-by Endevour, the file-server just crashed.

----------------

Speaking of the old system, I have a training manual for console
operators. It is crude beyond belief, even MS-DOS would be an improvment.
I don't have it with me, but I recall that the users had to expressly
input bitmasks to select which data screen they wanted to see.

I'll see if I can dig it out sometime and post some more detailed info.
----------------

You're right about the size of MOCR, it doesn't look any larger than
a large living room. I was kinda disappointed when I saw it.


          *** mike (cerbral GURU, insert M&Ms to restart) smithwick***
"Oh, I'm just a NOP in the instruction set of life, oh, ohhhh, hmmmmm"

[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]