Chapter 171 - 167: Cutting Down Trees_1

On June 4th, the Aerospace Development Committee once again released some images of the two lunar rovers, highlighting the brief footage of the Explorer wiping the dust off the solar panel arrays near the Yutu-2 rover and its lander.

Scott Maxwell, a ground remote operator for NACA’s Curiosity Mars rover, also saw it on YouTube. The Explorer used its spider-like legs equipped with electric brushes to gently sweep over the solar panels of Yutu-2 and the ground-mounted arrays, attracting the electrostatic Moon dust and then turning away to change the direction of the electric current to release it.

The entire process was quick and gentle. When the NACA planetary explorer team watched it, they thought not only of the praise in the comments but also of the symbolism of fraternity between the two rovers.

Scott dragged the progress bar and replayed the video at a specific point.

In the footage, the brush-equipped spider leg first moved around the solar panel of Yutu-2 in what seemed like a random pattern before starting to zigzag and brush off the Moon dust.

The video paused, and Scott looked at the others:

"Did you see that? The movement pattern of this robotic arm is not normal."

A chubby Latin-American engineer, Boris, stroked his chin, thought for a moment, replayed the video from the part just mentioned, and then spoke:

"These," he pointed at the screen where the robotic arm moved above the solar panels:

"The height of this process didn’t change, so it’s scanning something... I got it, it’s using the camera or some other sensors to determine the shape and position of the solar panels in order to adjust the wiping route."

Scott nodded:

"If it were human-operated, there would be no need to do that."

Boris: "I know what you’re trying to say, that you think it’s automatically determined by a program."

Scott: "Yes, the automatic program needs to hold the brush at a tiny distance above the solar panel rather than wiping it like a window cleaner, so it needs to establish the height;

then there’s this smooth and continuous motion, which is almost impossible to be human-controlled. It might be possible on the ground, but not on the Moon."

Yes, the Moon wouldn’t work, the delay would be too high.

The team members exchanged glances and then one ventured to say:

"So, did the Chinese people embed a lot of programs into the Explorer?"

Scott: "No, more accurately, it’s artificial intelligence."

Artificial Intelligence, AI, this word was still very fashionable in 2016. Back then, people’s impression of artificial intelligence was still limited to playing international chess, and they thought real AI was like the robots or computer programs in science fiction movies.

Scott continued: "Not just that, but also the Explorer’s jumping mode of travel. Coordinating eight legs is complex and must require the probe to have an adaptive and adjusting system built-in, and I believe that I can call it artificial intelligence."

Robots we can make, and even bigger and better ones, but such an adaptive attitude control system, no."

Boris: "The Chinese put AlphaGo inside their probe, greatly enhancing its mobility. My god, I thought it would take at least 5 to 10 years to apply these technologies; terrain judgment is not like playing chess."

Scott: "Gentlemen, we’d better get NACA to start researching too. If Curiosity could also have such artificial intelligence, it would be able to avoid obstacles on its own, and we could just lie down and wait for a steady stream of data."

...

"Mr. Claire, just think how amazing it would be to have artificial intelligence on an alien planet. If we had a Mars rover that could go on endless mining expeditions by itself, powered by nuclear energy that provides endless time;

If there were ten, we could have them mine resources; if there were fifty, they could produce parts by themselves and establish bases on Mars and the Moon for humans to inhabit, without us having to pay any cost..."

"Stop!"

Director Claire timely stopped the boastfulness of the head of MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) artificial intelligence lab, then gestured towards Buzz Fed from Google’s AI research team sitting next to him.

"Your tricks won’t work on me. Right now, NACA’s main task is landing on the Moon. I don’t have time to endure Senate spit for your funding."

Buzz Fed: "But Mr. Director, Curiosity’s control team has already shown you some trivial features of artificial intelligence, yet you clearly don’t know the true potential of artificial intelligence."

Claire: "The average level of education in the Senate isn’t even college-grade, gentlemen, they are the decision-makers."

Buzz Fed: "What if I say that China might already be leading in this area?"

Claire clapped his hands with satisfaction: "Please remove ’might.’ Now I think this project is worth at least 500 million US dollars. You can join the Perseverance rover project team now."

...

"Hey, what kind of madness are the Americans up to now, suddenly wanting to get into artificial intelligence learning?"

Faced with Big Shot’s confusion, Lin Ju guessed some of the reasons but didn’t change his expression:

"I don’t know, maybe they want to have AlphaGo play chess?"

Big Shot: "Chess? Professional players can’t even beat Chess Cyclone, let alone needing AlphaGo. Look, they said they want to use it on the Perseverance rover that is to be launched in 2020 and even equip it with an extra-long robotic arm? It might be because of the Explorer’s modifications."

The Explorer? The AI capability of the X32035 chip aboard it was way ahead of its time, and even the castrated SC09 version was quite powerful; that information couldn’t be leaked carelessly.

Lin Ju: "The Explorer has a lot of sensors... it’s going to fly, it’s going to fly; let’s watch the rocket instead."

On June 6th, at the Qiongzhou Space Launch Site, the launch of Cabin No. 4 to the Hila Space Station.

The launch of the space station went smoothly, except for the fact that the clergy somehow calculated what they thought was the most auspicious time, forcing the launch site staff to join the Saudi Arabians in blessing the rocket at 3 a.m., having to accommodate them with the warm US dollars in hand.

When the New Yuan-2 rocket, which had been reused eight times, was recovered at the Xinyuan Launch Site, Director Huang from the launch management bureau sent a small piece of news to Lin Ju:

The No. 1 and No. 2 positions at Qiongzhou Launch Site would be closed for seven days, the reason being tree cutting...

After the No. 1 and No. 2 positions were closed, it would be No. 3 and No. 4’s turn. It wasn’t just about reading books; they also had to build a simple firebreak around.

The reason was that the tail flames of the New Yuan-2A were too large.

At first, when the New Yuan-2 burned through the forest, they had cleared a patch, and now with the arrival of the New Yuan-2A and the prospect of the even larger New Yuan No. 3, Director Huang felt the need for precautionary measures, deciding to clear the surrounding area of all four positions.

It was worth it though, as for the past few years, the Space Agency hadn’t launched a single rocket from Qiongzhou; the launch management bureau had taken on so many of Xinyuan Company’s rocket launches, and each time they were well paid, even the red envelopes were generous.

As for why the Xinyuan Launch Site was not used?

Originally, in order to save some money, aside from a few scarce scenic trees, Lin Ju barely landscaped anything; a smearing of concrete was enough to make do.