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SpaceX Launch Aborted As Engine Ignition Begins

Photo: SpaceX

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — This morning’s scheduled launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed with less than a second remaining on the countdown clock due to unusually high pressure in one of the engines.

In the pre-dawn darkness at Cape Canaveral in Florida, everything was looking good for a 4:55 a.m. EDT liftoff with all eyes focused on SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40. About 15 minutes before launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced via Twitter the software used for liftoff had “initiated master countdown script ‘Auto Sequence: Yoda.’”

Excitement was building as the countdown made its classic downward progression from 10 seconds and veteran NASA announcer George Diller made it all the way to “T-0 seconds.” With a flash of light emanating from the bottom of the rocket Diller continued with “liftoahhh….” before his voice trailed off as it was clear the rocket was going nowhere.

The ignition sequence for the nine Merlin rocket engines had started, but the pressure in engine five was trending high. Once the limit was hit, launch software took over and aborted the liftoff. In a post abort press conference, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the problem looked like an actual issue with the engine and was not one of the sensor or software issues that had led to delays in the schedule earlier this year during simulations.

“We can not blame the software guys for this one” Shotwell noted.

The abort actually happened at T-0.5 seconds after all engines had “started nominally” and only engine five was trending high. The problematic engine is located in the center of the engine layout pictured above in the hangar before the launch attempt.

One of launch procedures SpaceX uses is to hold the rocket on the launch pad for a few seconds after ignition to make sure everything is working properly. Shotwell said today’s abort is a perfect example of why the procedure is used. She said it is analogous to an airline pilot lining up on the runway and holding the brakes as the power levers are pushed forward, “we were revving the engines, we were looking at the gauges, we decided not to fly.”

Aborts are nothing new to the rocket launching world. The decision not to launch is considered critical to the safety and capabilities of any launch vehicle. Shotwell emphasized the upstart space company did not suffer a setback other than a few days on the schedule. She says the cause of the problem is not known other than it was likely due to a lack of sufficient fuel in the combustion chamber.

“This is not a failure, we aborted, with purpose”  Shotwell told reporters. “It would be a failure if we had lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”

Because of orbital mechanics and the path of the International Space Station, the next opportunity for a liftoff will be on Tuesday at 3:44 a.m. EDT. The SpaceX team must wait until ISS is in a proper orbital path to minimize the amount of propellant needed to chase down and get in phase with the station. The team wants to preserve as much fuel as possible for the complex maneuvering that will be needed for the demonstrations required by NASA.

This isn’t the first time engine five on a Falcon 9 has caused a problem. On the first launch of the Falcon 9 in June 2010, engine five experienced a higher pressure as well leading to an initial abort.

Shotwell said initial inspection of the engine this morning showed the necessary valves appeared to be working properly and technicians must now make a more detailed inspection of the engine before determining the root cause of the high pressure.

SpaceX makes its own rocket engines at its Hawthorne, California factory. The company is investigating the possibility of fixing the engine on the rocket, or if needed, swapping out engine five from the Falcon 9 rocket in the adjacent hangar that is slated for the next flight later this year.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/-pgOQmhttic/

Stop the Tarbosaurus Auction!

The mounted Tarbosaurus skeleton slated to be auctioned tomorrow. Image via Heritage Auctions.

Tomorrow, a tyrannosaur will go up for auction in New York City. It shouldn’t. The Tarbosaurus – lot 49315 – was illegally collected and smuggled out of Mongolia.

Fossil theft is a major problem. It can happen anywhere, but dinosaur poaching is especially persistent and pernicious in China and Mongolia. Prime specimens are regularly ripped from the rock to be sold to private individuals elsewhere around the world, all against the heritage laws meant to regulate the responsible collection and curation of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. (In 2009, the United States government returned to China a cache of fossils that had been stolen from that country.) As explained to me by paleontologist and Mongolian Academy of Sciences representative Bolortsetseg Minjin, Mongolia only grants permission for fossil collection to reputable scientific establishments. “Anything against that is illegal,” she said. And excavated fossils either remain in Mongolia, or, with the permission of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, may be studied and displayed elsewhere under temporary loans.

There is no doubt the Tarbosaurus in question came from Mongolia. All the major Tarbosaurus specimens we know of have been found there. And, according to the specimen’s official description, “The dino was discovered within the past decade and has been in storage in England, still in its field jackets, for the last 2-1/2 years.”  Mongolia had fossil collection regulations a decade ago, just as they do today, and the fact that this undocumented specimen went from the field to a private collection outside Mongolia is a sure sign that the specimen was illegally collected and smuggled elsewhere.

The tyrannosaur – as well as a set of several other Mongolian dinosaur specimens – was scheduled for auction several weeks ago. During the past forty eight hours, Mongolian officials and paleontologists have been rallying to stop the auction. Elbegdorj Tsakhia, president of Mongolia, issued a statement yesterday questioning the details of how the Tarbosaurus was collected. If the dinosaur really was discovered in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, the statement noted, “President Elbegdorj Tsakhia said that it was illegal to auction the T-Rex and the fossil must be returned to Mongolia.” And American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Mark Norell, who is an expert on Mongolia’s dinosaurs and has frequently excavated fossils there, wrote a letter to Heritage Auctions affirming that the Mongolian dinosaurs slated for auction were almost certainly excavated illegally:

In the current catalogue Lot 49317 (a skull of Saichania) and Lot 49315 (a mounted Tarbosaurus skeleton) clearly were excavated in Mongolia as this is the only locality in the world where these dinosaurs are known. The copy listed in the catalogue, while not mentioning Mongolia specifically (the locality is listed as Central Asia) repeatedly makes reference to the Gobi Desert and to the fact that other specimens of dinosaurs were collected in Mongolia. As someone who is intimately familiar with these faunas, these specimens were undoubtedly looted from Mongolia. There is no legal mechanism (nor has there been for over 50 years) to remove vertebrate fossil material from Mongolia. These specimens are the patrimony of the Mongolian people and should be in a museum in Mongolia. As a professional paleontologist, am appalled that these illegally collected specimens (with no associated documents regarding provenance) are being sold at auction. [You can see the entire letter at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs.]

Other paleontologists, volunteers, and concerned parties have been adding their signatures to an online petition to stop the auction, created by paleontologist Neil Kelley. These dinosaurs do not belong in someone’s mansion or at a corporate headquarters. They should be returned to their country of origin. “If we can succeed, the best thing for those specimens is to go back to the country. That’s who they belong to,” Minjin said.

But Heritage Auctions may not budge. When I asked Minjin if the auction house showed any sign of cooperating with the Mongolian government, she said that their response “wasn’t really encouraging.” Now that several statements from Heritage Auctions have been published, I can see what she means.

The president of Heritage Auctions, Greg Rohan, wrote a snippy letter in response to the online petition trying to save the dinosaur for science. “You should all be aware that this auction has been publicicized [sic] broadly for 4 weeks,” Rohan wrote “and the Mongolian Governments request issued today less than 48 hours before the auction is unreasonable and inappropriate.” As if the timing of the protest has anything to do with whether the dinosaurs were obtained illegally or not. And, strangely, Rohan claims that the Tarbosaurus was discovered at a different time than what the auction’s official listing states. While the dinosaur’s description is clear that the tyrannosaur was excavated “within the past decade”, Rohan claimed that “Mongolia won its independence in 1921 and this specimen is obviously quite a bit older than that.” That’s quite a discrepancy, and I have no reason to take Rohan’s word for it. Based on what the official documents state – and the fact that no one even knew that tyrannosaurs existed in the Gobi until Tarbosaurus was described in 1955 – the dinosaur in question was undoubtedly collected during a time when Mongolia’s heritage laws were already in place.

Frustratingly, despite the fact that the Mongolian dinosaurs were illegally acquired and transported, other countries do not necessarily have laws forbidding the import or sale of fossils that have been improperly obtained. The excavation of transport of the Tarbosaurus was illegal, but, now that the dinosaur is here, the dinosaur’s sale might be legal. And Heritage Auctions has not been swayed by the appeals of the Mongolian government and the scientific community. In a statement to Dan Vergano’s Science Fair blog at USA Today, lawyer Carl Soller – who represents Heritage Auctions – said that there appeared to be no legal boundaries to the dinosaur’s auction tomorrow. “Our client has no reason to believe that any laws enforced by the United States have been violated,” Soller said, “and we are unaware that Mongolian law would have prevented export from Mongolia.” The auction is still on.

Whether or not the dinosaur was looted seems irrelevant to Heritage Auctions. They want to keep their centerpiece for tomorrow’s auction – a tyrannosaur they expect to go for about a million dollars. And the company seems unmoved by the implication that such sales only fuel the impression that dinosaurs can rake in massive amounts of cash – a perception that gives more impetus to poachers and thieves who trash field sites for specimens which wind up as status symbols for celebrities.

The Tarbosaurus, Saichania, and other Mongolian dinosaur specimens should be pulled from auction. Rohan’s statement that it is “unreasonable and inappropriate” to protest the auction is a loathsome and limp response. The timing of the objection is irrelevant. These fossils were illegally collected, and auctioning them off only fuels additional criminal activity. To put the dinosaurs on the block tomorrow would be a completely reprehensible action by Heritage Auctions, and I don’t believe that it would be all that difficult to pull the controversial specimens from the schedule.

Fossil poaching is a major threat to paleontology, and robs scientifically-significant specimens from everyone. Speak out against the auction. Sign the petition calling for a stop to the dinosaur auctions, and email Heritage Auctions via Bid@HA.com. These dinosaurs are part of Mongolia’s natural history, and that of our planet. They should be treated as such, and not as home decor for the affluent.

UPDATE (5/19/2012):

I just received the following press release, courtesy of Painter Law Firm PLLC, which states that the auction of the Tarbosaurus specimen will be halted thanks to a temporary restraining order. I have asked for more details on the fate of the other Mongolian dinosaur fossils due to go up for auction tomorrow, and will update this post as I find out more.

Judge Issues Restraining Order Stopping Sale of Possibly-Smuggled Mongolian Dinosaur

The Honorable Carlos Cortez, a Dallas, Texas district court judge, granted a “Temporary Restraining Order” (TRO), after an application by Houston attorney Robert Painter, legal counsel for His Excellency Elbegdorj Tsakhia, President of Mongolia.  

The TRO prevents Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, Inc. from selling a rare national treasure that paleontology and dinosaur experts believe may have been illegally removed from Mongolia.

The emergency TRO was issued Saturday morning to stop a New York City auction tomorrow of the dinosaur remains to a private buyer in New York City. At issue is an extremely rare near-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of the North American T-Rex.

This is not the first time that looters have desecrated excavation sites.  However, this sale is particularly unique.  It is of grave concern to officials in Mongolia that Heritage Auctions, Inc. has declined requests to disclose the owner and provenance, or to answer questions about whether the dinosaur was illegally smuggled out of Mongolia.  Further, it is rare for a near-complete and mounted dinosaur body, at 24-foot long and 8-feet tall, to be sold as a whole unit.

Mongolia is particularly vulnerable to looters taking advantage of the country.  Because of the country’s expansive size, it is very difficult to secure all excavation sites.

When President Elbegdorj learned of this imminent auction, he knew that he had to take action to preserve Mongolia’s history, culture and treasures.

Attorney Painter said, “The temporary restraining order preserves the status quo, while the true ownership of the Tyrannosaurus bataar is legally proven and decided in court. President Elbegdorj was wise to use this legal procedure to protect the interests of the Mongolian people.”

The auction house was served with the TRO on Saturday afternoon. Robert Painter will be in New York City for the auction to ensure that Heritage Auctions, Inc. complies with the TRO terms.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/BWtNICrQVeA/

A Google-a-Day Puzzle for May 20

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

The world’s youngest ocean has tides that were first recorded in 600 AD by men of what profession?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search [frown lines muscles] to learn that a frown contracts muscles between your eyebrows called the corrugator and the procerus. Search [corrugator procerus] to find that the corrugator muscles run obliquely, while the procerus muscle runs vertically and is shaped like a small pyramid just above your nose, fanning up into your forehead.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/eiGA4lVZoB8/

ITC Awards Microsoft an Import Ban on Motorola Phones, Tablets

The Droid Razr Maxx and other Motorola devices face a U.S. import ban for violating a Microsoft patent. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

The U.S. International Trade Commission awarded Microsoft what could be a significant patent victory on Friday by deciding that all of Motorola Mobility’s Android phones and tablets should face an American import ban.

The proposed ban, which was first reported by the website Foss Patents, is the result of a December ITC ruling that Motorola’s Android devices violate a Microsoft-owned patent — patent 6370566 — that pertains to “generating meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device.”

Essentially, Microsoft owns a patent on enabling a mobile device to give users “the ability to schedule a meeting request from the mobile device itself” by assigning the created meeting request, or “object,” by way of “a global identification number which uniquely identifies the object to other devices which encounter the object.”

The Obama administration has 60 days to review the ITC’s decision. If the government doesn’t overturn the ban, it will go into effect after the 60-day period is over. Motorola can get around the import ban by removing the feature from its devices or by reaching a patent licensing deal with Microsoft, as many other Android handset makers, such as Samsung, LG and HTC have done.

But, as HTC is discovering right now, software changes can still delay the shipment of new products as federal officials inspect devices to make sure they’re in the clear.

The ITC, which is made up of a six-member board of commissioners, also imposed a 33-cent levy on each device Motorola imports into the U.S. during the 60-day review period.

Motorola officials were unavailable for comment by press time. For its part, Microsoft said it attempted to strike a deal with Motorola before heading to the ITC with its complaint and is still open to a settlement of some sort.

“Microsoft sued Motorola in the ITC only after Motorola chose to refuse Microsoft’s efforts to renew a patent license for well over a year,” David Howard, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel and a corporate vice president, told Wired in an e-mail. “We’re pleased the full Commission agreed that Motorola has infringed Microsoft’s intellectual property, and we hope that now Motorola will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers selling phones in the US by taking a license to our patents.”

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/eFztUhnNXrE/

A Google-a-Day Puzzle for May 19

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

If you see a dermatologist about your frown lines, what pyramid-shaped muscle will he examine?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search [Greeks electric shock fish] to find that they used the torpedo fish. Search [torpedo fish volts] to find that this fish produces between 100 and 220 volts.

Homepage photo: Charles Williams/Flickr

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/MuJSXm9uuns/

Which of These Insane Stunt Crews Will Be the Jackass of the Future?

Next Jackasses

  • Next Jackasses
  • The Dudesons - Flaming Dudeson
  • The Misfits Stunt Crew - Rat Tongue
  • The Tokyo Shock Boys
  • Dirty Sanchez - Stingers Stingy Nettles
  • Nitro Circus

A boat jump from the upcoming 3-D movie about extreme stunt crew Nitro Circus.

The trio of films from the Jackass crew has grossed more than $334 million globally (emphasis on grossed). But they haven’t cornered the global market on smart-stupid stunts. There are plenty of insane clown posses eager for fame. Who’s got the goods? We asked Jackass star Steve-O for his take. (See stunts from these daredevils in the video gallery above.)

  • The Dudesons

    Four childhood BFFs from Seinäjoki, Finland
    Signature stunt: The Human Dartboard
    Stateside success: The 2010 MTV series Dudesons in America, produced by Jackass’ Dickhouse Productions
    Steve-O says: “There’s one prank where they set a sleeping guy’s blanket on fire. It was downright immoral, but the receiver loved it.”

  • The Misfits Stunt Crew

    A pair of mohawked crazies from Melbourne
    Signature stunt: Hanging a framed photo from a Misfit’s scrotum—using a hammer and nail
    Stateside success: None yet, though they were in the semis of Australia’s Got Talent
    Steve-O says: “What they do seems like just wanton self-mutilation. I don’t see much personality or substance.”

  • The Tokyo Shock Boys

    A foursome who met in 1990 as roadies on a Paul McCartney tour
    Signature stunt: Wearing a diaper packed with lit firecrackers
    Stateside success: A 1997 off-Broadway show
    Steve-O says: “I like that they do gnarly stuff, but it’s not overly dark. Thumbs up.”

  • Dirty Sanchez

    A quartet of hedonistic Brits named after a gross-out sexual maneuver
    Signature stunt: Rolling around near-naked in stinging nettles
    Stateside success: Their movie screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
    Steve-O says: “The Dirty Sanchez guys bring too much testosterone. They’re like Slayer; I’m looking for Spinal Tap.”

  • Nitro Circus

    A seven-person American crew led by X Games motorsports champ Travis Pastrana
    Signature stunt: Jumping motorbikes into the Grand Canyon and parachuting to safety
    Stateside success: A 2009 MTV reality series produced by Dickhouse; a 3-D theatrical release due out this summer
    Steve-O says: “Travis was the first guy ever to do a double backflip on a motorcycle. That’s a legit stunt—not like the trivial shit that we do.”

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/HQ4qG3j4Jsc/

Full Coverage, Including Livestream: Historic SpaceX Launch to the ISS

Wired Science /


Watch the SpaceX Launch Live

At 1:55 am PT on Saturday, May 19, SpaceX will attempt to make history by launching their Dragon capsule to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Watch it live above, and check out the rest of our coverage here on Open Space.

Wired Stories

Rocket Shop

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/jQY3KR_P31M/

Kickstarter of the Week: A Portable Scanner for Smartphones

Our Kickstarter of the Week: A flat-pack, fold-it-yourself scanner for your smartphone

Using your smartphone to take a photo of a document is one of those things that seems like it should be easy, but just isn’t. First you have to futz with the angle and the distance. Then there’s the flash: on, it’s too bright and washed out; off, it’s dark and blurry.

The Scanbox, designed by Phil Bosua, Ben Hillier, and Luke Allen, is an elegant solution to a simple but persistently frustrating problem.

On his Kickstarter page, Bosua calls the Scanbox a scanner for your phone, but it’s really more of a tripod. Made of laminated card stock (in your choice of 6 different colors) with magnets to hold it together, it’s designed to fold flat for transport, or to stash out of the way in a file cabinet. Constructed, it’s a trapezoidal box that stands 12 inches tall with a slot for your phone on top.

Upgrade to the Scanbox+ and you’ll also get rows of LEDs, powered by a 9-volt battery, to ensure uniform lighting. Just place your phone and snap a photo, or use a dedicated scanning app. Either way, no need for flash and no more blurry shots taken from your shaky caffeinated hand.

Bosua believes the Scanbox will be ideal for digitizing receipts and photos, as well as imaging 3-D objects. The project has already hit its $12,500 goal, but pledge in the next 50 days and one can be yours for $15.

A few examples of what Scanbox can do from the promo video on Kickstarter.

Images courtesy of Scanbox

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/IpAzraeYKm4/

Microsoft to Launch Amazon EC2 Rival. Again

Microsoft is launching a new infrastructure cloud, whatever that is. Photo: theaucitron/Flickr

The rumor du jour is that Microsoft is just two weeks away from launching a competitor to Amazon’s massively popular EC2 service. This seems like big news, until you consider that Microsoft already offers a competitor to Amazon EC2.

According to Derrick Harris of GigaOm, Microsoft is building an “infrastructure-as-a-service” cloud that provides access to raw virtual servers, and it plans to launch this new service on June 7 at an event in San Francisco. The story provides few details, but it does say that the new service will offer virtual servers running Linux as well as Windows.

But Azure already offers raw virtual servers, much like Amazon does on its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). And Azure has offered these virtual servers for nearly a year and a half. It’s just that right now they only run Windows.

The news, then, appears to be that Microsoft’s Azure cloud will finally offer Linux — though Microsoft may paint this as an entirely new service.

In any event, the move is telling — especially when you consider the introduction of Linux. In recent years, in an effort to attract the new breed of developer who grew up on Linux and other open source tools, Microsoft has slowly warmed to such tools, shedding its well-earned reputation as the enemy of open source, and Azure is at the forefront of this transformation.

That new breed of developer is flocking to Amazon. And Microsoft wants them on Azure, a service that Microsoft has apparently pumped enormous amounts of money into over the past several years.

The news out of GigaOm is confusing, though, because Microsoft has always billed Azure as a “platform cloud.” Unlike an “infrastructure cloud” such as Amazon EC2, a platform cloud lets developers build and host applications without worrying about virtual servers and other raw computing resources. It juggles your infrastructure needs behind the scenes — at least in theory. But long ago, Microsoft started offering raw resources as well, turning Azure into something that operated as both platform cloud and infrastructure cloud.

This distinction is subtle. And the terminology is annoying. But that’s the way it is. Microsoft been dolling up its platform cloud in infrastructure clothing and now the world is starting to catch on.

“The original point of Azure was that you were not supposed as a developer to log in to each individual machine and fiddle around with it. The platform stuff that had build on top was supposed to take care of all that — all the management of the application. But since Azure launched, Microsoft has moved ‘down the stack’ also, so that you have access to the virtual machines. You can configure these machines as you want,” says Michael Friis, who runs a cloud startup called AppHarbor that — in a way — straddles the line between Azure and Amazon EC2.

“In that respect, they moved from doing their own platform, down to what Amazon is doing.”

Microsoft has long told us that it added raw virtual server because customers were asking for them. But at the same time, the company always downplayed this part of Azure, preferring to paint it as a platform cloud — i.e. something different from Amazon.

The trouble is that selling a platform cloud is an uphill battle. Developers have flocked to Amazon — EC2 now runs as much as one percent of the entire internet — and this has happened in part because they could do just about whatever they wanted with those virtual servers. A platform cloud is easier to use — at least in theory — but it’s also more restrictive, and this can scare off some developers. Google has seen the same thing with its platform cloud, Google App Engine.

So Azure is changing. It’s offering virtual servers — and Linux too. Rumors have long indicated that Linux machines were on the way. And this makes sense. Developers also use Amazon because it runs Linux. That’s what they’re familiar with. “When it comes right down to it, many developers don’t want to run this stuff on Windows,” says Friis.

Clearly, Microsoft realizes this. And it’s trying to catch up.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/T0atP1I7WBg/

Meet the Man Who Invented the Instructions for the Internet

Steve Crocker, the man who invented the RFCs — the documentation for the internet. Image: ICANN

Steve Crocker was there when the internet was born. The date was Oct. 29, 1969, and the place was the University of California, Los Angeles. Crocker was among a small group of UCLA researchers who sent the first message between the first two nodes of the ARPAnet, the U.S. Department of Defense–funded network that eventually morphed into the modern internet.

Crocker’s biggest contribution to the project was the creation of the Request for Comments, or RFC. Shared among the various research institutions building the ARPAnet, these were documents that sought to describe how this massive network would work, and they were essential to its evolution — so essential, they’re still used today.

Like the RFCs, Crocker is still a vital part of the modern internet. He’s the chairman of the board of ICANN, the organization which operates the internet’s domain naming system, following in the footsteps of his old high school and UCLA buddy Vint Cerf. And like Cerf, Crocker is part of the inaugural class inducted into the Internet Society‘s (ISOC) Hall of Fame.

This week, he spoke with Wired about the first internet transmission, the creation of the RFCs, and their place in history. ‘RFC’ is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary. And so is Steve Crocker.

Wired: Some say the internet was born on Oct. 29, 1969, when the first message was sent between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). But others say it actually arrived a few weeks earlier, when UCLA set up its ARPAnet machines. You were there. Which is it?

Steve Crocker: October. The very first attempt to get some communication between our machine, a Sigma 7, and [Douglas] Engelbart‘s machine, an SDS-940, at SRI.

Famously, it crashed.

We tried to log in [to the SRI machine]. We had a very simple terminal protocol so that you could act like you were a terminal at our end and log in to their machine. But the software had a small bug in it. We sent the ‘l’ and the ‘o,’ but the ‘g’ caused a crash.

Their system had the sophistication that if you started typing a command and you got to the point where there was no other possibility, it would finish the command for you. So when you typed ‘l-o-g,’ it would respond with the full word: ‘l-o-g-i-n.’ But the software that we had ginned up wasn’t expecting more than one character to ever come back. The ‘l’ was typed, and we got an ‘l’ back. The ‘o’ was typed, and we got an ‘o’ back. But the ‘g’ was typed, and it wasn’t expecting the ‘g-i-n.’ A simple problem. Easily fixed.

Wired: And the internet was born?

Crocker: Some say that this was a single network and therefore not ‘the internet.’ The ARPAnet was all one kind of router, and it didn’t interconnect with other networks. Some people say that the internet was created when multiple networks were connected to each other — that the IP [internet protocol] and TCP [transmission control protocol] work on top of that were instrumental in creating the internet.

The people who worked at that layer, particularly Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn [the inventors of IP and TCP], tend to make a careful distinction between the APRAnet and the later expansion into multiple networks, and they mark the birth of the internet from that later point.

But, conversely, the basic design of protocol layers and documentation and much of the upper structure was done as part of the ARPAnet and continued without much modification as the internet came into being. So, from the user point of view, Telnet, FTP, and e-mail and so forth were all born early on, on the ARPAnet, and from that point of view, the expansion to the internet was close to seamless. You can mark the birth of internet back to the ARPAnet.

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Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/MRrqxhiLc0o/

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