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Japan Controls Rocket Launch With Just 8 People and 2 Laptops

Posted by Soulskill on from the can't-even-make-a-baseball-team-out-of-that dept.

SpaceGhost writes "Sky News reports that the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) has launched an orbital telescope on a new generation rocket from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Kagoshima, in southwestern Japan. The Epsilon rocket uses an onboard AI for autonomous launch checks by the rocket itself (launch video). A product of renewed focus on reducing costs, the new vehicle required two laptops and a launch team of eight, compared to the 150 people needed to launch the previous platform, the M-5. Because of the reduced launch team and ease of construction, production and launch costs of the Epsilon are roughly half that of the M-5. The payload, a SPRINT-A telescope, is designed for planetary observation."

15 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. They are using only 5 people and a PS4... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...to control Fukushima.

    Japanese efficiency wins again.

    1. Re:They are using only 5 people and a PS4... by durrr · · Score: 5, Funny

      Japan have a company called Cyberdyne.
      Japanese rocket launches are AI controlled.

      I see where this is going.

    2. Re:They are using only 5 people and a PS4... by nojayuk · · Score: 2

      The British military use a satellite communications system called Skynet. Nothing could possibly go worng...

  2. Almost 94.7%! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Meanwhile in America... 45%? Please... Don't make me laugh!

    From 150 people to 8! That's almost 94.7% gone. See that, America? That's how you do it...

  3. So.... by ZipXap · · Score: 5, Funny

    It now takes less people to launch a Japanese rocket than to maintain a Windows server in the data center....

    1. Re:So.... by RabidReindeer · · Score: 5, Funny

      It now takes less people to launch a Japanese rocket than to maintain a Windows server in the data center....

      That's because the rocket is less likely to careen off-course and explode.

    2. Re:So.... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2

      High five! There's your problem, you could do it with 2 sober or 3 just buzzed.

      --
      This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  4. Small solid rocket by EdgePenguin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The epsilon rocket is a) tiny and b) entirely solid fueled. This kind of high level of automation might not translate well to more complex and larger rockets. Bear in mind also that this is just the launch crew. Manufacturing the rocket is likely still labour intensive.

    1. Re:Small solid rocket by MtViewGuy · · Score: 3, Informative

      True, but note that the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket doesn't need a gigantic ground crew at the launch site like you needed with the Space Shuttle. In fact, the crew needed to assemble, test and launch the United Launch Alliance Delta IV or Atlas V rockets are much smaller than they used to be, thanks to much more efficient rocket assembly buildings.

    2. Re:Small solid rocket by Urkki · · Score: 2

      The epsilon rocket is a) tiny ..

      If it launched a payload to orbit, it can't be tiny... No rocket able to do that is tiny.

    3. Re:Small solid rocket by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Informative

      Now considering NASA was doing all of Apollo by hand on a computer that was less advanced than a TI-83 (and that was ground side) then it makes sense.

      Actually, NASA had initially several (five?) IBM 7094-II computers and later five IBM System/360 Model 75Js for the Apollo project. I also believe that both sets of machines had some nifty RT extensions both in HW and in the OS. The former ones had about 0.35 MFLOPS, and I think 32 Kwords of 36-bit memory; the latter ones had something like 1 MiB of 32-bit memory and something over 1 MFLOPS each. Your TI-83, on the other hand, has 32 KB of memory - a quarter the core memory of a 7094-II - and I can't imagine its 6 MHz Z-80 doing a double-precision floating point operation in under 20 cycles, which you'd need to match the 7094-II's performance. Don't even think about comparing your TI-83 to the Model 75 (and even *that* was outdated when NASA started receiving model 91 (that packed whopping 16 MFLOPS) tops when the first missions were going to Moon - obviously, they didn't upgrade mid-project).

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  5. It's a solid rocket booster stack by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Epsilon rocket is three stages of solid rocket booster, like an ICBM. So there's no fueling on the pad, no plumbing, no cryogenics, and no turbopumps. The launch team has a lot less to do than with liquid-fueled rockets.

    1. Re:It's a solid rocket booster stack by LourensV · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Epsilon rocket is three stages of solid rocket booster, like an ICBM. So there's no fueling on the pad, no plumbing, no cryogenics, and no turbopumps. The launch team has a lot less to do than with liquid-fueled rockets.

      They're also proudly proclaiming how quickly they can prepare the rocket for launch. I don't think that these features are coincidental, and I don't think that cost savings are the only driver behind developing this thing. North Korea's leadership is a bit unstable at times, it may have nuclear weapons, and Japan has had North Korean rockets fly over its territory before. It's a serious potential threat to them.

      Since they lost in WWII, Japan has been very pacifist, but in recent years it has begun to expand its military activities a bit, taking part in a UN peace keeping mission for instance. Outright developing an ICBM would probably go a bit too far at this point, but making a civilian rocket that can be launched at short notice with a small crew and has the range to hit North Korea could just be an acceptable compromise between mitigating the NK threat and not rocking the domestic political boat too much with overly aggressive military moves.

  6. Space X? by quax · · Score: 2

    Anybody knows how the new commercial space launchers do in comparison?

  7. Re:Only two laptops for eight people? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, that sounds like a normal programming project to me:
    2 laptops, 2 programmers
    1 Supervisor
    1 Project Manager
    1 Finance Manager
    1 Product Manager
    1 Personnel Manager
    1 Quality Manager

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!