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Comment by kevinconroy | Hacker News Reader

If this is legit, then this is incredibly cool. Having your code run in space is as close as many of us will come to being in space ourselves.

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.

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I think you would just be providing a table of data for the positioning of the solar cells during an orbit.

Seems like it:

> 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!

>Sure, 10K is small given that it's the ISS

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-...)

It seems a bit absurd that the Panama canal isn't on that list given that it cost around $15 billion in present day dollars. And that's with 25,000+ people dying in the process. I can only imagine what the cost would have been if they had take the precautions necessary to prevent most of those deaths.

they actually did take a great deal of precautions in the later American phase, like draining swamps and chemical agents to control mosquito populations. Mosquito born illness was a major factor that sunk the earlier french attempt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_measures_during_the_con...

> the ISS is the most expensive thing ever built

A wall and some pointy-shaped buildings would like a word with you.

TopCoder is certainly legit.

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