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ESA-JAXA Team Wins 'America's Cup of Rocket Science'

Posted by timothy on from the shooting-high dept.

An anonymous reader writes: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory just announced the winners of the 8th edition of the Global Trajectory Optimization Competition, aka the America's Cup of Rocket Science. For the first time, a joint team from ESA and JAXA won the prestigious award. They had to design a nearly impossible mission to perform space-based Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry using the formation flight of three spacecraft around the Earth. Their incredibly complex trajectory can be seen here on the YouTube channel of the winning team. The full final ranking can be also downloaded here.

20 comments

  1. Does that mean they got to cheat with weight? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> America's Cup of...

    Does that mean they got to cheat with weight?
    http://www.reuters.com/article...

    1. Re: Does that mean they got to cheat with weight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're Repu Lucas's so of course they cheat. That is the way of their kind.

    2. Re: Does that mean they got to cheat with weight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And we will make fun of your horrific spelling. It is the way of our kind.

  2. JAXA is for cows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    You are all cows. Cows say moo. MOOOOO! MOOOO! Moo cows MOOOO! Moo say the cows. YOU WAGYU COWS!!

  3. More Reupublican... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    corporate welfare. This does nothing to help the people. Nothing.

    1. Re:More Reupublican... by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 1

      corporate welfare. This does nothing to help the people. Nothing.

      Granted that this may not be the most efficient use of resources. But really, pretty much any advance in human knowledge either helps or hurts "the people" sooner or later. The chalk-stained mathematician who, after 300 years of failures, finally comes up with a proof of Gummidgy's Last Kerjigger may seem to have had no practical impact on society at large, but fast forward a hundred years and that abstract mathematical theory may show up in, like, the manufacturing process for the nanobot plague that's eating the solar system, or maybe in the hyperdrive that humanity uses to escape it.

    2. Re:More Reupublican... by bledri · · Score: 1

      corporate welfare. This does nothing to help the people. Nothing.

      It's part of the ongoing effort by humanity to understand the nature of the universe in which we live. I don't understand people that find no value it that.

      As for helping people, I am all for it. The amount of money we spend on science and exploration is a drop in the bucket, it's not an either-or scenario.

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    3. Re:More Reupublican... by bledri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      corporate welfare. This does nothing to help the people. Nothing.

      Does ever discussion have to immediately degrade to a bunch of ideologues screaming at each other? This site is supposedly "News for Nerds" and yet almost ever topic comes down to political mud slinging.

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      Some privacy policy Slashdot.
    4. Re:More Reupublican... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What people? If it helps OUR people, the people that counts, it's good. You're not fine with this? We don't care. What can you do about it, heh?

    5. Re: More Reupublican... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this not helping at least more than, say, a carling competition?

    6. Re:More Reupublican... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you expect nerds to be immune to slinging mud? If they followed the obsessive, socially awkward, above average intelligence stereotype, it could be even worse. People who've made a habit of correcting others and miss social cues that they are going too far. In the end, nerds are like other people, in that they have ideologies, cognitive biases, and an urge to express opinions.

  4. A better nickname is in order by jfengel · · Score: 0

    Glad they're running the contest, and congrats to ESA/JAXA... but this really shouldn't be likened to "America's Cup". The America's Cup is a sailing race, between actual sailboats. It's about not just design, but implementation: the vagaries of wind, the ability of sailors to collaborate, the properties of materials, tactics, reacting in real-time, etc.

    When I think "America's Cup of rocket science", I'd want, ya know, actual rockets racing against each other. If "rocket science" is going to be to rockets what "computer science" is to computers, there are "games" and "prizes" and "competitions" and even "Olympiads" (which also sounds more like people actually running, but it's at least in wider use). "America's Cup" is very specifically about a racing event, and I think that this really gives the wrong impression. Some day we'll have an "America's cup" for rockets... but today isn't that day.

    1. Re: A better nickname is in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, before that day arrives, this is as good as it gets. If DLR, ESA, NASA, JAXA compete in this 'simulated' race, I guess it must be a pretty awesome setup .... also, I think the name refers to the fact that the winner organizes the following edition.

    2. Re:A better nickname is in order by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up.

      America's Cup is about actual hardware. This is about teams doing the maths and perhaps running their calculations in a simulator.

  5. Solution by Venerable+Vegetable · · Score: 1

    I'm not convinced that this solution works until I see it in Kerbal Space Program.

    Also, I'm a bit dissapointed that the solution is presented as an animation which is constantly sped up and down and rotated and with music playing. I would have liked something a bit more scientific, for example a narrator explaining the most important events and HOW they actually reached this solution and why it is so special (better than the others).

    1. Re: Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is mentioned that there is going to be a workshop in February where all teams will explain how they designed the trajectory. Also, in the Google group of GTOC it is mentioned that JPL will soon release a description of all solutions.

    2. Re: Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Kerbal space program? It's like demanding to see in Dota the simulation on how Bin Laden was captured.

    3. Re: Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you read the annotations? The video is there explained a bit ...but I agree they could have posted a better explanation

  6. let me guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they invented a trampoline by repacking an exisitng one?

  7. The prototype design of a "noach" device by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    For which increasing the baseline is a requirement to get the range you need edit matter at multiple AU distances.

    --
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