Summary

With our AIxBusiness Youth Program officially coming to an end, updates of our AP CSA post series, an exciting article about the Artemis moon mission and the upcoming E-Book volume, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Check out all the news below and our Instagram page for more!

Technical Article

With all the hubbub about the latest historic Moon mission, Artemis II, I couldn’t think of a better time than now, to take a look at the crucial role computers play in such missions, especially for the spacecraft.

To think that once upon a time, computers had to be the size of an entire room to carry out simple calculations, and now computers are literally piloting human-made spaceships to the moon, is mind blowing. Now when I say “piloting”, trust me, they literally do drive the spacecrafts almost entirely without need for manual control; Because most spacecrafts, including the recent moon-bound Orion spacecraft, run mostly on autopilot.

If I had to list every single aspect of interstellar travel missions where a computer has helped, I would need to write a ten to the power of infinity page long article and maybe, just maybe, even that wouldn’t do it justice.

So to prevent this from being an impossible read for my audience, instead of discussing everything, we will take a look at one of the most interesting aspects of spacecraft : keeping the vehicle in its precise orbit throughout the journey; something that has been pivotal to the success of Artemis II. To tackle this challenge, the Orion spacecraft had the aid of multiple computer technologies, some of which are explored below.

VMCs

Like all spacecrafts, Orion also had a highly sophisticated team of computers controlling various technical aspects of the flight on board, this network is known as the Vehicle Management Network. Throughout the journey, 8 CPUs were working in parallel for the VMC.

If a radiation “bit-flip” (when a high energy cosmic particle strikes a computer's memory cell or transistor) occurs, causing one computer to miscalculate, its partner immediately detects this and the affected module goes silent, preventing transfer of inaccurate data. Then, the silenced module can “restart” to rejoin the other modules again without any lingering effects of the bit flip.

GN&C​
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The spacecraft runs on autopilot, driven by a tremendously advanced software called GN&C. It runs complex algorithms to utilize data from GPS and other inputs to ensure the spacecraft remains in its precise orbit. In case of any changes required in velocity, the calculations are made and the ESS (European Space Agency) module’s thrusters would be guided to adjust firing accordingly.

Map

Near the Moon GPS signs no longer work as it is beyond the range of the GPS satellites orbiting Earth, so the computer uses cameras to take pictures of the earth and moon against “star fields” It compares the taken images to the onboard flight map to determine its precise distance.

Against the “stars” refers to use of the fixed cosmic backdrop, since the placement of distant stars and constellations never change, they are used as indicators in locating the spacecraft, as no other “landmarks” are available in the large vacant vacuum of space.

Backup map

If the cameras or GPS fail, navigators which operate on “pure internal”, internal motion sensors, use that data to track spacecraft’s movement.

Backup Software ​
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If for any reason the primary systems face a bug or massive crash, a separate, fully independent Backup Flight software system on different hardware composed by a different team is ready to take over to ensure bringing the crew home safely.

While the world has been in absolute awe of everything this mission managed to achieve, it must be noted, such missions are not only an example of human intelligence and proof of how far we’ve evolved, but also an example of just how dramatic the advance of computers has been, allowing us to achieve such success.