Slashdot Mirror
SpaceX Reveals the Controls of Its Dragon Spacecraft For the First Time (arstechnica.com)
On Monday, SpaceX let reporters take a look inside its Crew Dragon capsule for the first time, as well as hear from the four astronauts: Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins. Ars Technica writes about several pieces of hardware observed at the event in Hawthorne, California: During the event at SpaceX, engineers guided reporters through various displays. Outside, under a resplendent blue sky with the rolling hills of Palos Verdes in the distance, media was invited to crawl into a low-fidelity mockup of the crew Dragon spacecraft. This was a roomy vehicle, especially in comparison to NASA's current ride to the space station, a cramped Soyuz with a capacity of three. The Dragon will comfortably carry a normal complement of four for NASA, but seven seats can fit inside. On the second floor of its main factory, where astronauts have trained in recent years, SpaceX also showed off two simulators publicly for the first time. This marked the first time SpaceX has revealed details about the controls and the interior of its crewed spacecraft. The cockpit simulator demonstrated the controls that Dragon astronauts will have at their command. In comparison to the space shuttle and its more than 1,000 buttons, switches, and controls, the Dragon capsule has a modest array of three flat screens and two rows of buttons below.
These touch screens selectively display the necessary controls during flight and are the primary interface astronauts have with the vehicle. Below are two rows of manual buttons, 38 in total, that provide back-up control of the spacecraft. Many of the buttons are situated beneath clear panels, intended to never be used, because they are often the third option after the touch screens and ground control of the Dragon. One control stood out -- a large black and red handle in the middle of the console with "EJECT" printed in clear white letters above it. This initiates the launch escape system, which rapidly pulls the spacecraft away from the rocket in the case of an emergency during the ascent into space. It must be pulled, then twisted. Normally the flight computers would initiate such a maneuver, but the prominence of the escape system handle underlines its importance. Notably, after the vehicle reaches orbit, this control becomes "deadened," such that accidentally pulling it in space would do nothing. CNBC has included several pictures of the Crew Dragon capsule mock-up in their report. CNN also has a first look video with text and quotes from the astronauts.
These touch screens selectively display the necessary controls during flight and are the primary interface astronauts have with the vehicle. Below are two rows of manual buttons, 38 in total, that provide back-up control of the spacecraft. Many of the buttons are situated beneath clear panels, intended to never be used, because they are often the third option after the touch screens and ground control of the Dragon. One control stood out -- a large black and red handle in the middle of the console with "EJECT" printed in clear white letters above it. This initiates the launch escape system, which rapidly pulls the spacecraft away from the rocket in the case of an emergency during the ascent into space. It must be pulled, then twisted. Normally the flight computers would initiate such a maneuver, but the prominence of the escape system handle underlines its importance. Notably, after the vehicle reaches orbit, this control becomes "deadened," such that accidentally pulling it in space would do nothing. CNBC has included several pictures of the Crew Dragon capsule mock-up in their report. CNN also has a first look video with text and quotes from the astronauts.
I think you mean thank you mr musk for providing the government with much cheaper launch vehicles so they can save money versus ula that they can now spend on the poor and disadvantaged.
I have trouble operating touchscreens in a moving car. I wonder what it'll be to operate them atop a rocket pulling multiple g's.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
Three touch screens and lack of buttons... there are some physical knobs hard to tell from the images... overall looks painful.
High G's...Vibrations...space suite gloves and touch screens??
the Dragon capsule has a modest array of three flat screens and two rows of buttons
People won't like being forced to use buttons. Either allow them to use their keyboard/mouse/gamepad of choice or the average consumer just isn't going to buy this thing.
It's an emergency pressure suit. It will only pressurize if the capsule depressurizes and then the crew will hardly do anything until they're on the ground again. In other words: Other than a spacesuit which is meant to work in it when it is pressurized these suits are meant to be worn unpressurized, except for keeping the astronauts alive in emergencies.
They have already taken it into the vacuum tank multiple times and the Kevlar /leather based suit holds up great.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Spacesuits are not hard to design. They only need to hold 1 atmosphere of pressure. Heck, the descent module of Apollo 13 was basically a foil skin, and held up for days and days of habitable pressure.
If you did a little research, you'd run across a type of thin, skin-tight space suit. (Think spiderman with a face mask) You don't even need a full atmosphere of pressure to live, and outside of breathing, the human body can withstand living in a tiny fraction of pressure.
We have decades of experience in much tougher environments - pressurized diving suits.
And stop and think for a second - you think that maybe, just maybe, the folks designing this may have tested it once or twice?
They showed off both the controls and the interior in 2014. Neither were final at the time to be sure (the controls have changed dramatically and the wall panels were missing), but this is definitely not the first time they've shown the controls or the interior. The controls they're showing now don't appear to be final either, as the control panels aren't fully populated: one of them just has a pull ring instead of any actual controls.
They appear to have given up any illusions of manual piloting, as the most prominent part of the original control interface that is missing is the manual joystick.
All of this has been developed with feedback from the crews, coordinated by a NASA astronaut with three Shuttle missions under his belt. Somehow I think that these people know better than you what's laughable and what will work, anonymous coward.