{"id":100,"date":"2013-01-18T06:46:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T06:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=100"},"modified":"2021-10-01T00:37:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T04:37:00","slug":"nasa-sponsors-30k-contest-for-iss-solar-power-optimization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"NASA sponsors $30k contest for ISS solar power optimization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA is sponsoring a $30k competition to develop the best algorithm for orienting the ISS solar arrays so as to maximize power output during its orbit,\u00a0 particularly during portions of the orbit with difficult orientations with respect to the sun,\u00a0 but without damaging the longeron structures of the arrays:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcoder.com\/iss\/\" target=\"_d\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA International Space Station Longeron Marathon Challenge | Just another TopCoder, Inc. <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/19315-nasa-contest-space-station-power.html\" target=\"_d\" rel=\"noopener\">$30,000 NASA Contest to Boost Space Station&#8217;s Power &#8211; Space.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here is a video outlining the contest:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qiFDrwnUgUc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And here is the official announcement<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcoder.com\/pressroom\/topcoder-announces-30000-iss-longeron-shadowing-optimization-challenge\/\" target=\"_d\" rel=\"noopener\">TopCoder Announces $30,000 ISS Longeron Shadowing Optimization Challenge <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>GLASTONBURY, Conn.,\u00a0Jan. 17, 2013\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ \u2014 TopCoder\u00ae, Inc., the world\u2019s largest competitive Community of digital creators, today announced the Longeron Shadowing Optimization Challenge, a\u00a0$30,000, open to the public competition to make the energy-gathering solar arrays of the International Space Station (ISS) more efficient by eliminating the shadows it casts upon itself at different points during orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Registration for the three week long competition is now open with competition ending\u00a0Wednesday, February 6<sup>th\u00a0<\/sup>at\u00a018:00 GMT. Contestants must be TopCoder members in good standing. Community membership and challenge registration are free. Top prizes include\u00a0$10,000\u00a0for the best solution with second and third placed solutions earning\u00a0$5,000\u00a0and\u00a0$3,000\u00a0respectively. Bonus prizes of mission stickers which have actually orbited the Earth on Space Shuttle Endeavour will be awarded to the top 5 finishers. Complete challenge rules and more information are available at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcoder.com\/iss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.topcoder.com\/iss<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge is sponsored by NASA through the TopCoder Community-built and powered NASA Tournament Lab\u00a0 (NTL), an online virtual facility that harnesses the capabilities of the TopCoder Community to create innovative, efficient solutions for specific, real-world challenges being faced by the space agency\u2019s researchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are the types of complex low risk\/high reward problems that get our Community of creators excited,\u201d said\u00a0Rob Hughes\u00a0, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. \u201cThe solutions brought forth for this problem can move the needle for NASA and provide a roadmap for other agencies to tackle stubborn challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>ISS Longeron Shadowing Optimization Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The TopCoder Community has been tasked by the Vehicle Integrated Performance, Environments and Resources (VIPER) office of NASA, at Johnson Space Center,\u00a0Houston, Texas\u00a0to come up with a method of optimizing the ISS solar array positions for the period of time that the ISS is in solar beta angles greater than +\/- 70 degrees. The optimization will allow for increased power generation on the ISS while minimizing the shadowing on the ISS longerons. These beta angles represent the most difficult geometry to generate power on the solar arrays. This power is essential to continue to perform the science activities on this world class orbiting laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>The energy used to power the ISS is generated by 8 solar arrays. Each solar array consists of two blankets with 41 strings evenly spaced along the length of the blanket. The orientation of the solar arrays is controlled in two axes using the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) and the Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) to face the solar cells directly at the sun. Portions of the solar array mast (called longerons) are very sensitive to temperature changes. These longerons, if partially shadowed, expand when they are hot, and contract when they are cold. When one or three (out of four) of these longerons are shadowed, it can cause the solar array mast to buckle and create a hazard to the space station. The goal of this challenge is to control the ISS during a single orbit which is 92 minutes so that no longerons fail; the minimum limits on power produced by each solar array are maintained; the total amount of energy produced by the station is as large as possible; and the total rotation of BGA axes is not too big.<\/p>\n<p>Competitors can completely solve the task online on the NTL platform testing servers, but as the challenge has no data, it is also possible to solve the problem offline on a home computer and then plug in the result into code submitted for evaluation on the NTL servers.\u00a0 A tester\/visualizer will be provided to perform all 3D power and shadow calculations and can produce images and animations of solutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TopCoder: Community+ Process + Platform<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Groundbreaking results are being achieved by the TopCoder Community in a fraction of the time and cost traditionally associated with difficult or unusual scientific and business challenges. In many cases community-generated solutions reach a theoretical maximum. While TopCoder members are not always fully versed in domain-specific knowledge, abstracting a problem into general algorithmic and mathematical terms allows the full power of non-domain experts in the Community to address extremely complex problems. TopCoder\u2019s global members bring their existing expertise or newly found skills to problems, yielding a far more diverse range of technical approaches than would be available to organizations internally.\u00a0 Accessing such diversity is a powerful attribute of the community based approach to problem solving.<\/p>\n<p>The TopCoder Open Innovation process allows U.S. government agencies to conduct challenges in an open and transparent environment with predictable cost, measurable outcomes-based results and the potential to move quickly into unanticipated directions and new areas of software technology.<\/p>\n<p>The TopCoder platform supports the entire end-to-end digital creation lifecycle \u2013 from idea conception to implementation and support through a true collaborative open innovation model.\u00a0 Almost any type of content, application, algorithm or digital asset can be built entirely through the platform \u2013 whether a standalone mobile app through to enhancements or additions to large, existing enterprise systems to the development of entirely new cloud based offerings for customers to testing and support through small enhancements and bug fixes. All areas of digital creation are covered through one easy to use cloud based Innovation as a Platform (IaaP) offering accessing TopCoder\u2019s renowned community of over 445,000 members \u2013 from business analysis to creative asset creation, analytics and sophisticated processes for API, software design and development as well as digital content.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About NASA Tournament Lab<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NASA and\u00a0Harvard University\u00a0have established the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), which with the enabling capabilities of the TopCoder community allow for competitions to create the most innovative, most efficient, and most optimized solutions for specific, real-world challenges being faced by NASA researchers. The NTL provides an online virtual facility for NASA researchers with a computational or complex data processing challenge to \u201corder\u201d a solution, just like they would order laboratory tests or supplies. Learn more at the official\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/community.topcoder.com\/ntl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NTL Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About TopCoder, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TopCoder is the world\u2019s largest competitive community of digital creators with more than 440,000 members representing algorithmists, software developers and creative artists from over 200 countries. The TopCoder Community creates digital assets including analytics, software and creative designs and solutions for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. Combined with our extremely talented community this groundbreaking methodology results in superior outcomes for our clients. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events and utilizing TopCoder\u2019s software services and platforms, visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcoder.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.topcoder.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA is sponsoring a $30k competition to develop the best algorithm for orienting the ISS solar arrays so as to maximize power output during its orbit,\u00a0 particularly during portions of the orbit with difficult orientations with respect to the sun,\u00a0 but without damaging the longeron structures of the arrays: NASA International Space Station Longeron Marathon &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=100\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NASA sponsors $30k contest for ISS solar power optimization<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contests-and-games"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-1C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5164,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5164","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":0},"title":"NASA, Harvard &#038; TopCoder sponsor contest to develop deep space networking protocols","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA, Harvard Business School,\u00a0and the\u00a0TopCoder\u00a0open software organization have opened the\u00a0NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), which is sponsoring a contest to develop Data Tolerant Networking\u00a0 (DTN) techniques, such as\u00a0\"a method by which cryptographic keys can be exchanged in a network suffering from connectivity disruptions\". 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