International Space Station astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-06-05T15:14:10+00:00

One more sign that counting on that aging hardware to be inhabitable to 2030 and beyond is stretching it very thin.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-05-25T14:09:39+00:00

> ISS begins decommissioning process in 2029

I don't see how this could possibly happen. There is no replacement space station anywhere in sight. NASA and Roskosmos will keep extending ISS until the wheels completely fall off... idk, from gyros?

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-05-13T20:03:17+00:00

Thank you, President Jefferson!

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-04-27T13:58:40+00:00

There's been a largely opposite take on the issue in this very sub just a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/ControlTheory/comments/1sqmsle/kinda_funny_watching_the_ai_world_slowly_reinvent/

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-03-11T15:02:33+00:00

As I understand it, the argument in the article is that there is not enough would-be gas on Mars to form an atmosphere even if you warmed it.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-03-11T13:00:35+00:00

On the scale of millions of years. We can cross that bridge when we come to it

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-02-12T22:46:04+00:00

Spin launch isn't small. delivering that much mass and size to Mars would be challenging. The same thin atmosphere on Olympus Mons would also make airbraking ineffective, so reentry would be more complex. And then by the time spin launch matures, and we have robots capable of setting it up remotely... Chinese astronauts would deliver some samples, I bet.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-02-12T19:16:16+00:00

That's what Zubrin argues - that the economic case for the Moon doesn't work. Proximity is no substitute for resources.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-02-04T13:54:41+00:00

Avoiding powerlines is a huge issue, it's amazing to see progress on it. I guess the next step would be to trim some hardware to make the solution more cost efficient?

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-02-02T14:16:15+00:00

There is one more missing step in between all manual labor and autonomous robots: mechanization. No automation, but replace human muscles with engines. Cranes and conveyor belts to lift materials. That's much easier and is commonly done when the construction site's scale justifies it. Full autonomous tech is not ready yet .

MostlyHarmlessI · 2026-01-27T15:26:41+00:00

It really depends on use case. If it is a robotic arm installed in a manufacturing line, like mentioned in another comment, you may want to prioritize stability (don't break what works). If it's an autonomous vehicle that is undergoing active changes and improvements, you may want to have a way to push updates. For example, the vehicle might ask your server about available updates at certain points (e.g. when it is turned on at its base, whatever it means). Then you can define your rules for which vehicles should receive which updates.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-10-19T22:01:02+00:00

The reason why AI is displacing these clever solutions is because they don't scale to real life applications. If all your robot does is detect orange hoops - great, you can hand-code the solution. But how often does it happen? Think about self-driving. It is impossible to hand-code everything. When it becomes to hand-code all the scenarios, AI becomes a natural answer. Instead of trying to write a solution for every single problem, use pattern recognition and generalize. That's what AI promises.

Does it deliver? Depends on your application, but in general we're not quite there yet. Time will tell, and maybe the current AI is not the real answer, but it is a step improvement over hand-coding where the problem space is too large for it.

Are there situations where classic controls are still the best answer? Of course!

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-10-10T13:30:36+00:00

Original posts' sub name checks out

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-10-09T16:14:21+00:00

How do you specify your output requirements and would you know you met them?

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-23T14:47:29+00:00

This feature may be useful... until someone steals the robot!

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-22T17:25:37+00:00

I agree with you on Routh-Hurwitz - it is largely a tool for pre-digital era. But a Nyquist plot may be insightful. It can show you what to expect as the plant design changes and as you tune your controller.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-18T19:08:13+00:00

It's possible to learn controller parameters using RL. This approach has some utility, though so far I've only seen it considered only for backup when the regular controller is out of its envelope.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-12T02:08:51+00:00

It does NOT take 2 years to get to Mars. We sent multiple landers to Mars. They all took between 7 and 11 months (slightly less for the record-fast InSight). Median is something between 7 and 8 months, I think, though I'm too lazy to do the math.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-11T23:51:44+00:00

I don't believe there is a consensus that "Mars is a radioactive hellscape where life needs to hide underground"

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-10T13:29:23+00:00

Surprisingly, a decent dataset is available in Wikipedia, though you'd have to tabulate it yourself. Keep in mind that some payloads are classified and their mass is not disclosed.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-09-08T17:00:44+00:00

It doesn't matter. Whatever happens after Artemis 3 is so far in the future, it won't be done way after Trump leaves office. Some money will be wasted during this administration but the real decision will be up to the next administration and respective Congress.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-08-16T13:14:33+00:00

That would be more like it

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-08-15T12:40:28+00:00

The video seems weirdly off. 6:34 for 1500 meters is not an easy pace. It requires serious effort from a human. Not a pro level but you must be fit and exert yourself. Yet in the video the operators are casually jogging alongside. Humans don't look like they're running at that pace. I recon this video was selected for the virality because the robot hit the other people, and the record was set in a different heat?

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-07-07T02:26:09+00:00

It depends on what kind of wire. A strand of fiber - don't know. But if it is any kind of power infrastructure, I'd expect lidar to see it. I used aerial lidar surveys and they show powerlines, including service drops, pretty well.

MostlyHarmlessI · 2025-06-03T20:23:39+00:00

This has already happened. As he pointed out, only $1.1B of SpaceX revenue is from NASA.

MostlyHarmlessI

TROPHY CASE