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On EBay: Shuttle Flight Deck Simulator
An anonymous reader writes: "Just to pass time before taking the real trip.
shuttle flight deck simulator" Not a real nasa simulator, but a very impressive operating replica. The construction details are quite interesting too.
...but I'd prefer the real thing! ;-)
where's all that Karma?
$14,999 and no bids! I can't ever think why!
Now terrorists can buy it so that they can train to hijack the shuttle.
But beside that fact this is a real nice thing, it is a shame that a school dropped a program like this though.
Most of the pictures on the page have a little note under them saying what's being sold doesn't include everything shown. What is included?
... that the construction site is actually still up.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
If he recieved a grant (I'm assuming some type of educational type), wouldn't this be property of the goverment/school system/public entity?
If you want a cheaper way to play shuttle-pilot, X-Plane offers a space shuttle landing scenario. The demo version limits you to about 6 minutes of flight time, but that's enough to land the shuttle from final approach. Of course the payed version doesn't have a time limit, and you can start from space and land from there.
"This one-of-a-kind simulator is almost exactly like the simulators the NASA astronauts train on"
So it's a simulated simulator?
Not a real nasa simulator, but a very impressive operating replica. The construction details are quite interesting too.
I'd hardly call that 'operating'. Did you actually LOOK at the construction details? Most of the knobs/switches and doo-dads aren't even connected to *anything*. I would at LEAST like some of the switches to turn on a light or make something buzz or whirr or SOMETHING. Especially for the list price of $15k.
GIR: I'm going to sing the Doom song now. Doom doom doom doom doom doom de-doom doom doom doom doom doom doom...
13933 hits at 5:48 PM EDT ;-)
Already had read through the stuff, so far from the first hit
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
Basically, when he says "To my knowledge, there is not another like it in the world.", he may be right (to his knowledge, but then that just means that he is not very knowledgeable). There are other Space Camps around the US and the world (they are franchisees from the original in Huntsville) and at least some of them also have simulators.
1: Write free software.
2: ?
3: Buy a shuttle simulator.
4: Profit!
Want to train for the 150-mile high club?
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
but my first thought was "great set for a photo shoot or a film".
Maybe they'd only work with an object of this magnatude if you throw a pack of "wonder diet pills" in with it.
He tried selling this thing a total of 4 times, each of which he recieved NO BIDS AT ALL! It took him 3 times to sell his Actual NASA Mission Control Console Computer. Here are his attempts to sell that: First: Wanted $199, no bids Second: Wanted $175, no bids Third: Sold that thing for $50 Chances are by the time he sells this, it will be around $1000...
see the counter at the bottom of the e-bay auction site?
watch it spin!
Great for the upcoming Playboy spread: Babes of Nasa!
oh, wait.....
I always find it kind of pitiful when someone invests this much time and money building something which is really just a toy cockpit. I'd love to fly on the space shuttle, but its not going to happen and I'm not going to waste my time building expensive sets so that I can play "make-believe." Flying a single-engine Cessna, ultralight, or even a paramotor is a lot better than sitting in a pretend space shuttle cockpit.
Ride, Sally, Ride.
People like to treat their eBay Feedback like some sort of video game, with a numeric integer representing their score in the game. People who do this simply are missing the point.
Looking at these images it doesn't look like the switchs, buttons and toggles actually control anything. So it is more like a mockup with TV's and lots of switchs that don't do anything (other then maybe lightup). Hardly worth 15,000 dollars for something that just looks intersting but serves no actual function.
I also love Slashdot linked sites that have hit counters. Let's you see how bad a Slashdotting the site can take. Obviously, eBay is unaffected by a paltry Slashdotting.
Unfortunately for this guy, his Special Shuttle Web Page couldn't handle 17,000 hits and it's completely slashdotted.
The parts are already packed. But he'll charge you $350 for packing anyhow.
And he wants to charge shipping on it as well.
I suppose with an opening bid of 15k, a couple hundred extra gets to be chump change for the buyer. Assuming anyone ever bids on it.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
There was a Space Shuttle simulator for DOS that came out back in 1992... As I remember, it replicated the functionality of most switches in the cockpit well. Perhaps it might be possible to combine the two?
As an aside, I remember switching the "jettison external fuel tank" switch on only a few seconds after takeoff... Not recommended if you want to survive!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Gotta love the caption on the photos, too:
(Note: not all items in this photo are included in this auction)
So I don't even know how much of that thing $15K buys! Maybe it just buys the frame and all the knobs are to be sold on another auction?
Sheesh...
GMD
watch this
He's selling a bunch of sheets of wood, with some switches bolted on. And some pretty artistic stuff. I can't imagine why anyone would want this. But then ppl will buy anything, apparently.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
The guy who made that mech in his back yard - find the link yourself... should buy this and build it into a mech as the cockpit.
then all he would have to do is work on getting the controls to actually move the thing around.
I also had switch guards fabricated by a local metalworking shop. On the shuttle, their purpose is to keep the weightless, floating astronauts from accidentally bumping an important switch. In my simulator, they weren't really necessary, but I was going for total realism...
This is overkill, especially if it was taxpayer's money. Perhaps it was a fixed-priced contract and the extra's were on him, I don't know. Otherwise, just use erector-set L-joints or something.
Also, I have seen turn-knobs roughly similar to the grey ones he talks about at Radio Shack. He went and made *custom* turn-knobs.
If such "extra's" were out of his pocket, fine. However, as a tax-payer I would have a fit if I found out all the custom stuff that was made when close-enough ones were available off-the-shelf.
He must be an ex-military contractor.
Table-ized A.I.
What is this guy up to? When you look at the pictures and the price, it seems like a really cool simulator/mockup. But, digging a little deeper and looking at the list of items that are *actually* being auctioned off, there are a lot of things missing.
Not included are a few panels, headphones, TV sets, *the actual framework* that all this mounts on. One wonders why. Basically all your getting for $15,000 is some very nice looking skins. They're non functional and a lot of assembly/construction will be required.
But, what is he going to do with things like the framework? It sounds to me like he is dissatisfied with version 1.0 and is dumping the skins so that he can start version 2.0. Sorry pal, for $15,000 I expect the entire rig, as well as some support for putting it back together after shipping.
I am fairly dissapointed, the "slashdot effect" has not produced 20K hits in 52 minutes.
This is just the thing for a fledgling Chinese space program, doncha think? Actually, I'm surprised the man can't find a museum or some sort of park where he could rent this thing out. Not for actual missions, but still...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
And we will get to watch the video of the moon collapsing for the next year
If we allow the resulting change in the tides to affect us, the terrorists will have won
fledgling Chinese space program
Haven't the Chinese had rockets for several centuries? What's the friggin' holdup over there?
A place like the Kansas Cosmosphere might be a btter place for this thing. A truly wonderful place, despite /.'s fear of Kansas.
You always seem to get it wrong.
Maybe Lance Bass from N'Sync can afford this, since he doesnt seem to be able to pay his bill to the Russians on time... He can sit in the chair and make rocket noises...
If you'd actually read the site you'd know why this thing is worth $15K. This guy spent 3 years building it - it's not just some shell that looks pretty and that's about it.
So I should pay $15K because he spent 3 years building it, huh? And if he managed to build it in 1 year of super-intense work, would it only be worth $5K?
And, oh yeah, if I'm quoting from the site, then it stands to reason that I read it, don't cha think?
GMD
watch this
I think there was some water damage on a few of those panels... are we sure that these weren't retrieved from a Florida beach and cleaned up a little?
... it runs Linux! :P
If you have the source, you have the whole world...
As I write this, the counter is showing 24,719 hits--and no bids.
That has got to be one of the highest hit counts I've EVER seen on eBay. How frustrating to it must be to have that many hits and no bids.
I have to think the guy was unwise to set the starting bid so high, though. I wonder why he didn't set a lower bid and put in a $15,000 reserve? Then he would at least have been able to get a reading on its market value. (Although eBay does charge a reserve fee if the item doesn't sell...)
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I couldn't find any links on the page.
What a bunch of losers some of you are!
I went to this school in the mid-90's, and participated in this program. Let me tell you, this was the coolest thing I'd ever done - and nothing I've done since comes close.
We trained for five or six weeks, learning all the shuttle's systems and how they worked. We also trained in the simulator for several days, practicing the procedures over and over. We even landed the shuttle with some kind of computer sim.
It makes me mad to see some of your criticism. It's easy to criticize someone else's efforts, but I don't imagine any of you ever began to accomplish something as impressive as this.
If there were more dedicated teachers like this one, there would be a lot less of you jerks sitting in front of your computers all day in your momma's basement.
Am I ignorant, or is that MET clock the worlds most complicated microwave timer in existance. The software was written in C++ too, I wonder if its object oriented ;-).
Anyway, if you look carefully, you will notice a piss poor job of wirewrapping. The 3% of switches and light that are actually hooked to anything look like one of my freshman year college projects.
I would say the real world value of this monstrosity is about $100, but who the hell knows. If this thing sells for this price then we know that the seller is not the idiot.
...try the simulator here:
i t. html
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orb
I even see the latest release has "Instrument panel support. Spacecraft can now be designed with custom panels."
I've got an older version and its fantastic. And its free.
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
n/t
The simulator shown is incredibly authentic, but I think there are actually TWO such non-Nasa sims. I saw one about 15 years ago at a mall that was having a "air and space hobby" show.
The sim shown is what we call "Pre-MEDS". MEDS was an update to the cockpit (Multifunction Electronic Display System) to update the shuttle to semi-modern "glass cockpit", that is, use computer monitors instead of actual gauges.
Also, there were two original simulators used to develop procedures and do leading-edge-of-wing math modeling in the early 80's and I understood that those two simulators (real NASA sims!) were sold to private individuals or companies (as scrap, as far as Nasa was concerned). I may be wrong about that.
PS: I've worked at Nasa's shuttle astronaut training center since 1979.
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
There is no zero-G system on this. For $15k, I want one.
This sig no verb.
I helped to install network cabling in the very school this simulator used to reside in a few years back... Although I never saw it running, it appeared to be a well crafted simulator. I've seen the one at space camp as well, and it was surprisingly close. I'm fairly certain most of the buttons and switches were wired to something, with several computers running the simulator. The room it was in had just about enough room to get in and out of the cockpit, the rest covered in equipment. My first reaction was disbelief that a school actually had something this cool. I can't believe the school ditched this... perhaps the local Children's Museum would be interested in it as a sort of local, mini-space camp. Either way, I think it was awesome that someone went to all this trouble to build something like this for his school. Regardless of how he's selling it off on e-bay, this guy is authentic about his description of the way he built it and the way it was used in the past.
Well continue on and we'll see just how good your reading comprehension is.
The auction page quite clearly states that he recieved a grant to build it for a public school that he teaches at. He did not just throw it together in his garage so he could play "make- believe."
Oh yeah? Then read the opening on ebay:
Seems to me that the creator of this thing, a public school teacher, set out to influence the lives of his students in a positive way.
Seems like he got a government grant to build a fantasy toy for himself (see quote from ebay) that the students also used and he's now trying to sell it for $15K. I'd be a lot more impressed if he was donating it to another school, but he seems more interested in 'influencing his bank balance in a positive way.'
Keep Arabs away from this!
ObFhqwhgads: I made up my own stanza for the song today. (Apologies to Sugarhill Gang.)What do y'all think?
The ideal would be for somebody to get this thing who wants to put enough computer support behind it that you can fly simulated missions. There are some open source flight sims you could use as a base for future work.
I don't understand what quoting the ebay page proves. I'm fully aware that most people will never get a chance to fly a space shuttle. But I'm also aware of the fact that just one experience like this for the right kind of kid could start him onto the path to becoming the next Neil Armstrong. Your original post had the pessimistic tone of, "boy, what a loser this guy is building a shuttle sim for no good reason then selling it off on ebay." My point was merely that there certainly was a good reason, one that you seemingly didn't even bother looking into before jumping into bitch mode.
Seems like he got a government grant to build a fantasy toy for himself (see quote from ebay) that the students also used and he's now trying to sell it for $15K.
How do you reason that he built it all for himself and got the government to pay for it? A project like this is a labour of love no matter how much money is involved. If I ever had the opportunity to do something this cool (and then share it with others) I'd jump at it in a second.
Granted, I'd never pay $15k for the thing (would much rather enjoy building one myself, actually) and it would be awful nice of him to donate it to another school, but it is well within his right to sell it to someone else who could do something useful with it. It would be a waste of my time to complain about his ethical standards.
FWIW, working in the underpaid, underappreciated public school system and undertaking the huge task of constructing something of this magnitude, $15k is barely a door prize. I'd wager that over the last 9 years, he's spent a fair chunk of his own money and time maintaining and upgrading the sim but there's no proof of that either way.
(* Who said it was a government grant? *)
From the ebay page:
"In 1991, I received a grant to build a space shuttle simulator at a public school where I was a science teacher."
I don't understand what quoting the ebay page proves.
The intent for the project: A cool toy for people who want to pretend that they are astronauts.
How do you reason that he built it all for himself and got the government to pay for it?
Read his ad: "if you're like me..." As to funding: "In 1991, I received a grant to build a space shuttle simulator at a public school where I was a science teacher. After three years of construction (mostly by me), our simulator became operational." If his primary interest was in seeing it put to good use to inspire students, it would be in another school right now instead of being sold on ebay, wouldn't it?
A project like this is a labour of love no matter how much money is involved. If I ever had the opportunity to do something this cool (and then share it with others) I'd jump at it in a second.
That's very commendable and I'm sure that, if you try, you can find something that you can do in a similar vein.
Granted, I'd never pay $15k for the thing (would much rather enjoy building one myself, actually) and it would be awful nice of him to donate it to another school, but it is well within his right to sell it to someone else who could do something useful with it. It would be a waste of my time to complain about his ethical standards.
The entire process of getting a government grant to build the flight deck for a school and then privately auctioning it off on ebay is questionable, legally and ethically, at best. But perhaps the real lapse was the school's in giving him school property worth $15K (his estimate of its worth).
Don't get me wrong. If this guy had built the thing for his students and then donated it to another school when his school could no longer house it, I'd be recommending him for Teacher of the Year. But that's not what happened. He built it with public funds and the help of his students and is now trying to get $15K (or more) from whatever self-indulgent, rich person is willing to buy it.
yet another bad joke, I guess. If only I could erase these. Or for that matter, not post them ....
Both charges are entirely at the discretion of the seller. Ebay is merely a marketplace, it doesn't set the terms of sale, at all.
And my point was, that when you're selling something for 15k, it just seems cheesy, to squeeze an extra couple hundred out of someone for shipping and packing.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke