Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2021)

at the time, it was found that many of the issues were caused were actually the cause of a given malfunction. It’s just a plau- by a bit ? ip. sible explanation.

In August 2020 scientists reported that that ionizing radia- On important satellites, three duplicate computers are some- tion from environmental radioactive materials and cosmic times installed. If the output of one of the three computers rays may substantially limit the coherence times of qubits if doesn’t match the output of the others, it is ignored, since the they aren’t shielded adequately, which may be critical for re- likelihood of two of the computers being struck by cosmic alizing fault-tolerant superconducting quantum computers in rays and suffering the same bit ? ip is astronomical. the future. Ships are not considered as important as these satellites.

These days, cosmic rays might be a concern, but there are Yet, they are being crammed with more and more computer workarounds. Companies in aerospace, defense, aviation, and chips. As ships move increasingly toward autonomous opera- consumer electronics as well as chip manufacturers, the au- tion, there will be no one onboard to override bit ? ip errors. tomotive industry, the communications industry, the IT infra- Remember the HAL computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But structure, and more are aware of the effects of cosmic rays for the lone surviving astronaut, the movie would have had a and have worked with researchers to implement safety and much different ending.

mitigation measures.

Cosmic rays seem like one of those things that have been

The Author largely taken care of behind the scenes. It’s also a “wrong place at the wrong time” kind of thing, in which the chances

Bryant of cosmic rays ? ipping the bits in our electronics is sparse and

Dennis L. Bryant is with Bryant’s random. And so far, few major catastrophes can be attributed

Maritime Consulting, a regular to cosmic rays, or at least as far as we know. Even in cases in contributor to Maritime Reporter & which it’s suspected, there’s never a guarantee cosmic rays

Engineering News.

THE LEADER

SLIDING WATERTIGHT DOORS

SINCE 1939

AND CUSTOM CLOSURES

ENGINEERING + EXPERIENCE ™ = A WINNING TRADITION 91 Willenbrock Rd., Unit B4, Oxford, CT 06478 • [email protected] • www.wkdoors.com • (203) 267-5712 • Fax (203) 267-5716 www.marinelink.com 13

MR #1 (1-17).indd 13 1/7/2021 4:09:06 PM