Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000
hackaday.com
hackaday.com
For starters, we need a "cost function" so we can see which solutions are better than others. That's the easy part: render the model on 3D hardware, lighting it with a distant point light source. The "cost" (the value we're trying to minimize) is 1 - Σ(face_brightness); modern hardware can easily handle precise geometric shadowing using a stencil buffer or similar well-known technique. Handle the thermal constraints by setting the "cost" to 1 when the space station disintegrates.
Now we just need to find some ways of coming up with proposed solutions and pruning all but the best solutions. This problem has path dependencies, so we can't just apply a greedy algorithm. That is, solar panel actuators take time to move, so the best solution for time [T_1, T_3] isn't necessarily the concatenations of the best individual solutions for intervals [T_1, T_2] and [T2, T_3].
What you're left with is actually a graph search problem, where our graph nodes are actuator inputs at specific (quantized) times; I feel like something like the veneralbe A* algorihm would be a good place to start looking for paths through this graph.
Seriously? Any decent hacker attempting this is probably doing it for props. The money is great and provides a good monetary incentive but when it comes down to it I'd wager people would do this for free. Hell a personal tour of NASA and maybe their name in the code might but just as good.
In a respectable aerospace organization, a typical effort into such an optimization project would be in the order of 3 mid-to-senior staff, for a duration of 6 months. Consider a loaded rate of $200k/year (remember, overhead makes it much more expensive), and you'll be looking at about $300k for a single tentative. Let's suppose they probably tried no more than 3 to 5 approaches already, that's $1.5M of taxpayer's money they already put on that. And they still can't figure out a way to keep a good configuration of shadows on the longerons when they push it for a little more power.
If I came up with an optimal solution to this problem, I'd be miffed to be let go with $10k (or $30k as they seem to have updated) and a nicely worded letter. I would hope my carreer to be guaranteed✝ for a few years, instead of being thrown back on my own into the void.
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✝ No, the letter is not a guarantee of employment elsewhere. If anything, it might very well scare off "normal" employers from hiring a prospect.
You would have known in advance that that's the prize. If you would be miffed to get the prize, you shouldn't enter this particular contest.
- sliverstorm
More on the prizes here: http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=MatchDetails&rd=...
I'm pretty sure Wikipedia would have a lot less content if they paid their contributors 1 cent by article.
I think the Nasa should either increase the bounty or make it 0 $.
This seems to be the unfortunate result every time a bounty or a prize is offered for a public competition with some meaningful task.
* If the task is obviously unuseful (for example other TopCoder competitions, sports competitions), prizes seem to make it more desirable.
* If the task is useful and there is no prize, people jump on the chance of doing something cool.
* If the task is useful and there is a prize, it is seen as work, and judged based on the typical (Western world) hourly rates.
Plenty of open-source bounty boards have had a similar backlash, even though hundreds of thousands of coders work on fixing open-source bugs just because they like it.
It would be great to come up with a solution that stops people being upset at being offered more than nothing, for work they would gladly do for free anyway. But at the moment I don't have any solutions to propose.
For this particular hackathon, NASA would do better to say up front if this is a space publicity competition (and the results are not useful to them), or if they will use the winner's code on the ISS (in which case bragging rights are worth way more than $10k).
Sure, 10K is small given that it's the ISS, but let's be honest, the money is the secondary prize. This is for bragging rights.
> Your goal (...) is to define the angular position and velocity for each of the joints that connect the solar panels to the station for every point in a 92-minute orbit. Limitations on any solution include making sure the masts for each panel aren't in a shadow more than they need to be, making sure the cycle can be repeated each orbit
Sounds like (if the finalist is deemed good enough and their solution will be used) a lookup-table of numbers will be uploaded, not your actual code running on any actual chips in actual space.
So much for hiding an obfuscated buffer-overflow code execution exploit and taking over a space-station ... pew pew pew!
slightly unrelated but fun fact: the ISS is the most expensive thing ever built[1](sorry for the silly source, couldn't find the original list).
[1](http://www.filmitown.com/forums/general-chit-chat/37819-top-...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_measures_during_the_con...
A wall and some pointy-shaped buildings would like a word with you.
So I never start.
What exactly was your point?
http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=MatchRules&rd=15...
Was legal outsourced to an eastern european firm, or was this written by an advanced AI?
Also, the bullets look to have an encoding problem.
And for those asking, I read through the terms and conditions until I bounced into this and jumped to a hasty conclusion...
Eligibility This Competition is open to all members of the TopCoder website, who have agreed to the terms thereof, and who are at least 18 years of age. Competitors must be:
(i) a U.S. citizen, (ii) a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., (iii) a temporary resident, asylee, refugee of the U.S., or have a lawfully issued work authorization card permitting unrestricted employment in the U.S., or
For the last line indeed says:
(iv) a non-U.S. resident authorized in the country in which the member resides while participating in this Competition to perform services as an independent contractor.
It's entirely possible that I'm looking at the wrong place, that's why I'm asking.
Quebeck is apparently excluded because of legal reasons. More details: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/08/why-many-contes...
>By winning a prize in this event you agree to transfer ownership of your submission to TopCoder.
So do TopCoder resell the submission to NASA?
- Sample Return Robot ($1.5 Million)
- Night Rover ($1.5 Million)
- UAS Airspace Operations Challenge (AOC) ($Half a Million)
Do you only get that when registering?
This Competition is open to all members of the TopCoder website, who have agreed to the terms thereof, and who are at least 18 years of age. Competitors must be:
(i) a U.S. citizen, (ii) a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., (iii) a temporary resident, asylee, refugee of the U.S., or have a lawfully issued work authorization card permitting unrestricted employment in the U.S., or (iv) a non-U.S. resident authorized in the country in which the member resides while participating in this Competition to perform services as an independent contractor.
Oh well.
"A Competitor is not eligible for this Competition if he/she is a resident of the Quebec province of Canada, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan or Syria."