A curious final two sentences from today’s AP story about the upcoming space shuttle flight:
“NASA wants Discovery back from its 12-day mission by New Year’s Eve because shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. The space agency has figured out a solution for the New Year’s Day problem, but managers are reluctant to try it since it has not been thoroughly tested.”
Now, truth be told, I can barely set an alarm clock, so I don’t want to be casting aspersions lightly here on a group that put men on the moon while I was in junior high.
But does anyone out there understand why this could be such a vexing problem?
A bit of googling came up with several press mentions of the problem over the past month, but little in the way of satisfying explanation. This blog entry came closest but still doesn’t fully explain why this was such a vexing problem for so long — and why NASA isn’t completely satisfied they have licked even now.
Anyone have any info or theories?
