Computer, Heal Thyself

Quoted verbatim from the ABC :

Scientists build self-sufficient space computer

In what is believed to be a world first, Australian researchers say they have built a computer that can repair itself in space.
The Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems in Canberra says the computer recently detected a fault caused by stray space radiation, analysed the problem and restored itself to full capacity, all without human intervention.

The centre's principal research scientist, Anwar Dawood, says it is a major step forward.

"The computer, it keeps detecting any error during operation and whenever it detects these errors it reconfigures itself dynamically," he said.

That's the HPCE (High Performance Computing Experiment) payload on FedSat. Glad to see that that bit works - as does the comms with it from the main bus, and the mass memory that stores the results.*

For details on how FedSat is going, have a look at the University of South Australia website. There you'll be able to see the data streaming down from the next pass, live as it happens. Best time to look is at about 1030 Hrs AEST, or 0030 UTC (what used to be called GMT).

UPDATE : The CRCSS has an article with more details. And a catchy title. Great Minds Think Alike it seems, the date of the press release is the same as my original post.

* Which yours truly programmed - much of the data comms from the bus to the experiments, the mass memory that stored the data from them, and the Housekeeping which did all the diagnostics and status telemetry formation. Not the HPCE itself - that was the Uni of SA's baby.