Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why

allears

Why in the name of all that's holy would you use a Microsoft product on a mission like this? Just about the only thing you can trust about MS is that their software is buggy.

fuzzfactor

From the comments: ‪Andy Meyers‬ ‪@andymeyers10.bsky.social‬ · 3h I said “launch window”, not “Launch Windows”!

bilekas

There was a literal meme in spaceforce about this. Have we learnt nothing ? Microslop will now troll people outside of the Earth, a great achievement for them. So does this mean they now also have... 2 Copilots... ? Terrible joke.

Rooster61

We can't even leave the planet without MS enshittifying our equipment. God, I really want out of this timeline

jmacklin308

We migrated earlier this year and had a similar problem. Outlook (classic) works differently than the OWA version. They keep the classic version so people don't spontaneously throw a chair out a window. It's being phased out slowly.

unethical_ban

I want to say something like "oh well, this is certainly a non-critical piece of software". Hopefully it's the convenient dashboard and there are other, more hardened consoles for fallback or something. But in all seriousness, and without glibness or sarcasm: I cannot comprehend how there is any "unexpected" software running on that spacecraft, regardless of operating system. EDIT*** For those who like me only watched the video and didn't read the thread: This is on a laptop that is non-critical, it is not a part of the spacecraft. Whew. Now I'm sad that one of the Linux distros didn't try to pitch themselves to the astronauts for a sponsorship... Would have been especially on brand for Pop_OS.

rich_sasha

Is it just me that finds it terrifying that theres any Windows bits on a spaceship?

kaybe

Oh ya I remember how some computer pulled a windows update over a satellite connection during a research flight (aircraft). That was super expensive, wow. Now Microsoft servers are banned at the outgoing point since you couldn’t reliably stop it the computer itself and new teams with new computers come in.

rationalist

computer virus noun A program which can covertly transmit itself between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as CDs, USB drives, floppy disks, etc., often causing damage to systems and data. A software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer.

netsharc

The astronaut's quote needs to be a billboard ad.. "I also see I have 2 instances of Outlook, and neither of those are working".

dgb23

Bashing on MS products and on ReactJS (apparently used by spacex UIs) is a common pastime here and I'm guilty of it myself. But here we're talking about actual space rockets flying to space with humans in them. My expectation would be that something like https://tigerstyle.dev/ would be followed or the NASA rules linked from there https://spinroot.com/gerard/pdf/P10.pdf

nasretdinov

The poor technicians having to RDP with (what I imagine must be) a horrible latency. Although still might be better than some corporate environments lol

rmrfchik

I didn't expect they are running Windows up there. Shouldn't be specialized and curated ... smthing else?

liendolucas

Is this actually true? What's next? A BSOD? I would have ever ever in my life bet that Microsoft software could be shipped in a spacecraft carrying human beings. Unbeliveable.

stackskipton

Everyone likes to point and laugh, sure, I'm getting a chuckle as well. However, on more practical level, what are other options? Outlook, the desktop application works really well with local copies, is pretty low bandwidth and very familiar to end users. IMAP with Thunderbird is probably only other option that would satisfy the requirements. EDIT: Yes they need to get email in space. It's easy way to send documents back and forth.

golfer

Why on God's green earth is Windows running on the Artemis spaceship?

PretzelPirate

I don't understand the title. It doesn't seem like they are trying to figure out why two copies of outlook are installed, they're trying to figure out why neither is giving them access to their email.

Chihuahua0633

Did they consider scrapping the humans, and just installing co-pilot? heh .. heh.. /s

EvanAnderson

This talk about off-the-shelf hardware in space makes me wonder, given the clear line of sight, if it would be possible to detect their Wi-Fi access points' beacons from Earth. I'm not a "radio guy" and don't know if this would be impossible, simply on the basis of physics, due to the presumably low radiated power from the APs and the limitations of the size of typical antennas on the ground. (Obviously it's possible with the right equipment. We can communicate with the Voyager probes, but that's not with a "can-tenna" and an off-the-shelf Wi-Fi card...) Edit: Anybody know how difficult it would be to keep an antenna pointed at them? I have no intuition for how fast their transit would be. I assume, since an orbit is around 90 minutes, pretty damned fast. Edit 2: Some search-engining and back-of-the-envelope not-very-good-at-trig math says the longest possible transit would be about 5 minutes, moving though about 40 degrees of arc / minute. I'm probably completely talking out my ass, though. It feels like it would be do-able to keep a directional antenna trained on a target moving at that speed.

cocodill

Maybe for emails and calendars, wouldn't want them to arrive and miss the appointment.