Launched about 25 years ago Windows 98 it was already mostly forgotten by home users, but it is still present on some devices that work today. One of the devices running the operating system that Microsoft released in 1998 is, Mars Express probeOrbiting the Red Planet.
With a mission to seek signs of liquid water on marsspacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) started his journey in 2003 and continues to work until today. But in order to continue helping researchers, an update to its system was required, which was carried out last Tuesday (21).
According to the agency, the update has been sent to the software responsible for managing the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and the Ionospheric Sounding instrument (MARSIS). Originally developed in the 1990s, it was born in the most modern Windows 98-based environment of the time.
However, researchers have started to encounter some difficulties in operating the equipment in recent years due to the lag of the operating system. However, ESA decided to update the space probe that found water on Mars in 2018 to improve its performance.
Contribution to Science
this Mars Express probe update with Windows 98 It has introduced various improvements in the operation of the device, which will facilitate the work of operators around the world. Freeing up more memory space by discarding unnecessary high resolution images recorded by MARSIS is one of them.
According to ESA researcher Andrea Cicchetti, the device will be able to work much longer after the new files are uploaded and will contribute to Mars studies. “By removing redundant data, the new software allows us to activate MARSIS five times more and explore a much larger area with each pass,” said the expert.
Source: Tec Mundo
