Intuitive Machines - IM-1 - Moon Mission Lander

[Eric Mc]

COTS?

[SpudLink]

Eric Mc said:

COTS?

Commercial Off The Shelf?

[Eric Mc]

Could be - makes sense.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Sorry yes.

It's been used so often in various threads recently that I'd wrongly assumed it had moved into general science and engineering talk. Apologies.

[simon_harris]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

simon_harris said:

the moon isn't flat...

But neither is the earth or the back of the car that your lidar is looking at for distance keeping.

If robot mil-truck can navigate around a rocky desert using lidar, laser scanning, and vision based systems, I'm surprised you can't do the same on the moon. Hence the curiosity.

I did wonder whether dust kick-up on landing hampered it.

Sorry it was a bad flat earth joke

[Beati Dogu]

COTS is Commercial Orbital Transportation Services.

It’s what SpaceX operates under with their crew and cargo lifts to the ISS.

Probably means Commercially available Off-The-Shelf in this context.

That’s the problem with using acronyms.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Saturday 2nd March 13:37

[RichB]

Beati Dogu said:

COTS is Commercial Orbital Transportation Services. It’s what SpaceX operates under with their crew and cargo lifts to the ISS.
Probably means Commercially available Off-The-Shelf in this context. That’s the problem with using acronyms.

COTS has been around in the software world for 10-15 years e.g. using a COTS product rather developing something of your own. That's the problem with stealing an acronym that's already in use.

[hidetheelephants]

It's been a generic abbreviation for a very long time; I was taught about Commercial Off The Shelf in the 90s in the context of project engineering.

[RichB]

hidetheelephants said:

It's been a generic abbreviation for a very long time; I was taught about Commercial Off The Shelf in the 90s in the context of project engineering.

Indeed, so long before companies were offering Commercial Orbital Transportation Services.

[Eric Mc]

FSB can be a helpful organisation for small businesses or a bunch of murderous Russian thugs. It's all about context

[DeejRC]

Chaps, it wasn’t meant as a contentious or “I know something you don’t” point. I apologise, I presumed everybody would know what cots meant in this context. It is fairly general engineering nomenclature. I actually expected more queries on the EEE and PMP ones (electrical components & mechanical stuff) tbh.

Beati - SpX use that acronym in Ops talk. And Ops talk a different language to everybody else. Despite only doing what ground seg have allowed them to (because they developed the buttons that Ops are allowed to press).

I also deny all knowledge of having a clue what I’m talking about. I’m a complete muppet.

[Dog Star]

DeejRC said:

SpX

You can stop that right now.

[Eric Mc]

English is a wonderful language. I wish people would use it sometimes😊

[DeejRC]

I did say I was a complete muppet.

[Eric Mc]

You’re not really.

People just forget and use yet terminology they use daily in their work. I’m an accountant and I have to be careful when talking to my clients not to overuse jargon.