News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Mars Helicopter Lands Safely After Serious In-Flight Anomaly. Parent comment

Re:Mars Helicopter Lands Safely After Serious In-Flight Anomaly by perryizgr8 on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:31AM (#27313020)
According to Wikipedia: The helicopter uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with a Linux operating system.

Considering Qualcomm never releases their kernel sources, I am really worried that NASA might have been forced to use a modified Android system.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mars Helicopter Lands Safely After Serious In-Flight Anomaly by ludocode on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:41AM (#27313380)
I mean they weren't "forced" to use anything. They chose the chip. If they had different requirements they could have chosen a different chip.

Most likely they just used the specific kernel version with closed binary blobs from Qualcomm for a typical embedded Linux, not the full Android system.

[ Parent | on HN ]