I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

On June 4, the Aerospace Development Commission once again released some images from the two surface rovers, focusing on the brief images of the explorers wiping dust off the solar panel arrays near Yutu 2 and the lander.

Scott Maxwell, the ground remote pilot of NACA's Curiosity Mars rover, also saw it on the oil pipe. The explorer used the front spider legs to unfold the charged brush and gently brushed the solar panels placed on Yutu 2 and the ground array. , adsorbing the charged lunar dust on it, and then turning it around to change the direction of the current and release it.

The whole process was fast and gentle. When NACA's planetary probe team watched, they thought of more than just the praise in the comments and the symbol of camaraderie for the two rovers.

Scott drags the progress bar to restart playback at a node.

The spider legs with brushes in the picture first circled the seemingly irregular plane of Yutu 2's solar panel several times, and then began to brush away the lunar dust in a zigzag pattern.

The video paused and Scott looked at the others:

"Did you see it? The way this robotic arm moves is abnormal."

A fat Hispanic engineer, Boris touched his chin, thought for a moment, played the video again from where it was before, and then spoke:

"These," he pointed to the robotic arm moving above the solar panels on the screen:

"The height of this process has not changed, so this is detecting something... I understand, this is to determine the shape and position of the solar panel through a camera or other sensor, and then adjust the wiping route."

Scott nodded:

"There is no need to do this if people are controlling it."

Boris: "I know what you want to say. You think this is an automatic decision by the program."

Scott: “Yes, the automated process requires the brush to float a tiny distance above the solar panel rather than wiping it across like a window cleaner, so the height needs to be determined;

Then there are such smooth and continuous movements that it is almost impossible for humans to control it. It may be possible on the ground, but not on the moon. "

Yes, not the moon, the latency is too high.

The team members exchanged glances with each other, and then one person tentatively said:

"So the Chinese have built in a lot of programs for the Explorer?"

Scott: "No, artificial intelligence to be precise."

Artificial Intelligence, AI, was still a very fashionable word in 2016. At this time, people’s impression of artificial intelligence was still about playing chess, and they thought real AI was a robot or computer program in science fiction movies.

Scott continued: "Not only this, but their explorers use a leaping method. The coordination of the eight legs is very complicated. It must have a built-in adaptation and adjustment system in the detector, and I think it can be done At this point, it can already be called artificial intelligence.

We can make robots, and they can be bigger and better, but this kind of adaptive attitude control system cannot. "

Boris: "The Chinese installed AlphaGo (Alpha Dog) on ​​the detector, which greatly enhanced the detector's range of activities. Oh my God, I think it will take at least 5 to 10 years before these technologies can be applied. Terrain judgment is not like playing chess. .”

Scott: "Gentlemen, we'd better let NACA also carry out research. If Curiosity can also have such artificial intelligence, it can avoid obstacles on its own. We can just lie down and wait for a steady stream of data."

…

“Mr. Clare, just think how wonderful it would be if we could have an artificial intelligence on an alien planet, and if there was a Mars rover we could allow him to prospect endlessly on his own, with nuclear power giving it endless time;

If there are 10 vehicles, we can use them to mine mineral deposits. If there are 50 vehicles, we can produce parts on our own and build bases for human habitation on Mars and the moon, without any cost to us..."

"Stop! (stop)"

Director Claire promptly stopped the bragging of the head of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in front of him, and then pointed to Buzz Feder, the Google Artificial Intelligence Research Team next to him.

"These tricks of yours are of no use to me. NACA's main mission now is to land on the moon. I don't have time to be spit on by the Senate for your funds."

Bazfeld: "But Mr. Director, the Curiosity control team has shown you some trivial features of artificial intelligence, but you obviously don't know the true potential of artificial intelligence."

Claire: "The average literacy level in the Senate is not even that of a university. Gentlemen, they are the ones who call the shots."

Bazfeld: "What if I say that China may have taken the lead in this regard?"

Claire applauded with satisfaction: "Please remove the word 'possible'. Now I think this project is worth at least US$500 million. You can join the Perseverance project team."

…

"Hey, Amy, why are you crazy? You suddenly want to engage in artificial intelligence learning."

Facing the boss's doubts, Lin Ju guessed some reasons but remained calm:

"I don't know, maybe you want Alpha Dog to play chess?"

Boss: "Chess? Professional players can't even play chess whirlwind, so they still need AlphaGo. Look at what they said will be used on the Perseverance Mars rover to be launched in 2020, and it will also be equipped with an ultra-long robotic arm? Maybe it’s because Explorer changed it.”

Explorer? The AI ​​capabilities of the X32035 chip on it are far ahead of its time. The castrated version of SC09 is also powerful enough and cannot be easily leaked.

Lin Ju: "The Explorer has many sensors... If it's about to fly, let's watch the rocket."

On June 6, the No. 4 module of the Shira Space Station was launched from the Qiongzhou Space Launch Site.

The launch of the space station went smoothly, but I don’t know why these clerics calculated what they thought was the most auspicious time and went to pray for the rocket at 3 o’clock in the morning, forcing the staff at the launch site to hold hot dollars and dance with the big dogs. Great God.

When the Xinyuan-2 rocket, which had been reused for the eighth time, was recovered at the recovery tower at the Xinyuan Launch Site, Director Huang of the Launch Administration Bureau informed Lin Ju of a little news:

Stations 1 and 2 of the Qiongzhou launch site will be closed for 7 days due to tree cutting...

After No. 1 and No. 2 are closed, there are work stations No. 3 and No. 4. They are not only reading books, but also have to build a simple firewall around them.

The reason is that the tail flame of Xinyuan No. 2A is too big.

When Xinyuan No. 2 burned down the forest and cut down a piece of it, Xinyuan No. 2 A came again. When he thought about the larger Xinyuan No. 3, Director Huang felt that he needed to take precautions and simply cleaned up the area around the four work stations.

This is also worth it. In the past few years, the Space Administration has not launched a rocket in Qiongzhou once. The Launch Administration has undertaken so many rocket launches from Xinyuan Company, and each time it paid money and gave out a lot of red envelopes.

As for why the new remote launch site is not used?

In order to save some money, Lin Ju had no greening at all except for a few landscape trees. He could only make do by plastering it with cement.