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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.
Now terrorists can buy it so that they can train to hijack the shuttle.
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?
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?
"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...
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.
Want to train for the 150-mile high club?
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
ya but I dont care about landing or taking off.... just flying it. although the time limit might help some.
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...
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 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.
A place like the Kansas Cosmosphere might be a btter place for this thing. A truly wonderful place, despite /.'s fear of Kansas.
Uh, www.orbitersim.com is no longer. Perhaps you wanna go back to the original site which a quick google search found.
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...
Way to follow a link or two there, tough guy.
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." This simulator was used for 6 years in the school where the students ran 3-hour long missions and learned a thing or two about the space shuttle and space in general.
If I were a student at this school when I was a kid I would have been grateful in the extreme to be able to play around with a simulator of this quality. Who knows how many kids got to experience this sim along with a knowledgeable teacher and decided that they might be interested in persuing a space-related career?
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. Odds are very good that he succeeded. With the kind of attitude that you display, you will never be that lucky.
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.