SpaceX Reveals the Controls of Its Dragon Spacecraft For the First Time (arstechnica.com) 119
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.
this control becomes "deadened," (Score:2)
this control becomes "deadened," such that accidentally pulling it in space would do nothing.
Cool, the whole thing looks neat. Too bad I'll never get to ride in it, as a pilot OR a passenger. (Well, maybe ashes, but I doubt I'd pass the fitness exam even then.)
... "
That being said: After a successful launch and orbit insertion -- Musk: "Here, hold my beer and watch this! You just need to pull and turn it the other way and
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>Not being fit allows you to stay in space longer with less negative consequences.
I'm not sure that follows. It makes sense that the more (now mostly unused) muscle mass you have, the faster you'll lose it. But as you lose it you become less fit, and the rate of loss will presumably slow down,eventually reaching the levels of the originally unfit person you now resemble. So essentially being fit would buy you more time up front, and thus more total time, before your body degrades to the point that ret
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this control becomes "deadened,"
What illiterate journalist pulled that word out? The proper term is "defeated" or "disabled." "Deadened" is correctly used when, e.g., lowering sound pressure by 80 dB. Or, I suppose, getting rid of a pesky relative, " ... took a gun and deadened him"
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this control becomes "deadened," such that accidentally pulling it in space would do nothing.
Hopefully this eject disable includes a manually operated hardware interlock, so if the onboard AI turns against the crew, it won't be able to set the crew members adrift in space.
Touchscreens? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Star Trek has inertial dampeners that eliminate the G forces. And they have climate controlled spaceships where you dont need to wear space suits.
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Never, ever base your console design on Star Trek. Those things explode and kill their operators every week.
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Never, ever base your console design on Star Trek. Those things explode and kill their operators every week.
If only someone in the 25th century could invent a fuse along with faster than light travel.
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There is a panel of buttons and a dirty great abort handle beneath the touchscreens to perform required operations during launch, once you are out of atmos there is no G loading or aerodynamic buffeting to cause problems getting the touch screen right. The thing basically flies itself to orbital insertion anyway, the crew are for the most part passengers.
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From TFA
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.
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The giphy isn't even of the same setup - it has three vertical panels, the ars technica shows them as horizontal.
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Or how many times i've touched a button off-center and had the neighboring button fire.
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and had it not register the touch. Now imagine doing it in space suit gloves
I have never not had a touch register while wearing gloves that were designed to interact with a touch screen.
Or how many times i've touched a button off-center and had the neighboring button fire.
That is a problem on a mobile phone. Hardly an issue on a large panel.
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Or touched the screen and have it inadvertently register on the button next to what I was trying to do...
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Presumably these will be crappy resistive touchscreens too, so that they work with gloves. They tend to be more fiddly and prone to calibration problems than capacitative screens.
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SpaceX has designed their flight suits with little pads on the fingers to allow the operation of capacitive touchscreens.
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Wow, that sounds like a terrible decision. What happens if the pad gets damaged or you need to operate it with something other than the finger of the suit?
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Why would "you need to operate it with something other than...". Are strapped in cosmonauts getting their suits shredded off, or their fingers cut in that scenario?
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Wow, that sounds like a terrible decision. What happens if the pad gets damaged or you need to operate it with something other than the finger of the suit?
There is a 6th touch compatible surface on the crotch of the suits for male astronauts and auto-injected erectile drugs for emergencies such as the scenario you are eluding to where all their fingers spontaneously fall off their hands during launch.
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A good rule of thumb is to never use them in anything important.
Someone should have told the designer of the movie ticket dispensing machine. It's not unusual for the touch screens to be unresponsive and/or have massive dead spots over the virtual buttons. If you're really lucky, one machine out of a half dozen will behave perfectly.
Re: Touchscreens? (Score:2)
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Until the single touchscreen dies or the LED backlight goes out and the entire car can't be driven.
Re: Touchscreens? (Score:5, Informative)
Until the single touchscreen dies or the LED backlight goes out and the entire [Tesla] car can't be driven.
Sigh...
If you blooming geniuses would stop thinking that knowing Javascript means you know shit about anything else, you'd take the time to learn that Teslas drive just fine with both displays hung or rebooting. I've rebooted the main panel more than once while the car's in motion.
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BUT, it has been forever since we have re-booted either screens or computers.
They have this fairly stable. At least for an old 2013 model.
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However, with the antiquated cars buttons, you get a rack of buttons (radio, hvac, etc) and then you supposedly 'know' which one is which by the feel.
Yeah. Right.
How do you know where the 3rd radio button is without glancing.
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Grab the giant knob without looking and turn it. Some people have peripheral vision, we aren't all one eyed Musk fanbois who can see nothing but what they want to see.
Radio controls would be on the steering wheel anyway.
Alternatively 3 would be in the middle of a row of five and the middle has a bump so you know it's the middle. Press that one.
Re: Touchscreens? (Score:2)
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How many turn knobs in your car?
I'm a 50c Chinese troll remember. I'm saving up for my first rickshaw. Then I can have 2 jobs and just troll you in my downtime.
Just Google car dashboards and take your pick.
Why it must be a unique one if you think you have more than a couple. In my radio, not a single button is different. Iow, no raised plastic like a keyboard. Same on my heater.
Not sure why you feel the need to tell us you have a poorly designed car? Maybe with your expensive American troll posts you will be able to afford a better one soon.
And the last thing a driver should do is be feeling around. Glance quickly and get it done. Everybody does that in spite of your lying.
Glance quick and get it done, yes with a botton that feels different and has tactile feedback. Not glance slowly. focus on finding the right icon, glance at the road maybe
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Cars have a few turn knobs, but most are pushbuttons, just like a touch screen. You will not know EXACTLY WHICH button to push unless you glance and make sure that you are there.
WIth Tesla, we have the most important controls on the steering wheel which controls the fan, loudness, radio station/track, phone calls, etc.
With the side screen, I use it mostly to see the back cam.
Ppl who who claim that they are not taking their eyes off the road are liars. After all, they are looking
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There you go again.
There you go again.
Cars have a few turn knobs, but most are pushbuttons, just like a touch screen. You will not know EXACTLY WHICH button to push unless you glance and make sure that you are there.
Buttons give tactile feedback. Screens do not. Buttons can be different shapes and sizes.
WIth Tesla, we have the most important controls on the steering wheel which controls the fan, loudness, radio station/track, phone calls, etc. With the side screen, I use it mostly to see the back cam.
With every other car you can have the same.
Ask yourself this though, and then go check. Are all those things on the steering wheel buttons or little tiny touchscreens? I wonder why...
Ppl who who claim that they are not taking their eyes off the road are liars. After all, they are looking in the side and rear mirrors, or better be. And I have no doubt that all those making that claim, are making phone calls or even texting.
Lets quote again what I said and you failed to understand
Better to have a knob you can turn and press without taking your eyes off the road as much.
People can glance once to find the right knob, (even that is often unnecessary with good design) and then use it without looking further. Try doing that on a touch
Re:Touchscreens? (Score:5, Informative)
The crew has no control over the Falcon launch vehicle - the only control they need to be able to operate during launch, while pulling multiple Gs, is the abort sequence, which is that nice big lever in the center. The touchscreens (and all the other buttons) will only be used while in orbit.
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You are aware that rocket launches are fully automated? All the astronauts will do is pull the abort lever.
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They'll use the WASD keys. And the space bar for a hyperspace jump.
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That's preposterous: WASD is for the *copilot*. Player 1 uses hjkl, prefixed by g if he doesn't want to pick up what's on the space.
hawk
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Touch screens on space boats? (Score:5, Insightful)
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??
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G-force and vibration are only an issue during launch, and Falcon is entirely autonomous. The only control active during that period is the abort sequence, which can be triggered by that big lever in the middle.
Re:Touch screens on space boats? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well done on the analysis, you should tell SpaceX and NASA right now, they clearly know nothing about spaceflight.
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Well done on the analysis, you should tell SpaceX and NASA right now,
Remarks were questions rather than conclusions or "analysis". If you have a substantive explanation you care to contribute it would be appreciated.
they clearly know nothing about spaceflight.
My guess people who build working rockets and space dinghys probably know at least something about spaceflight. Some may have even played KSP at least once during their lives.
Lack of Options (Score:5, Funny)
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.
That "Space Suit" ... (Score:2)
I donno about that "space suit" though. What will THAT thing look like and act if you put even half an atmosphere of pressure into it?
The Pillsbury Doughboy?
Re:That "Space Suit" ... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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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 muc
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So... how do you explain the Lunar Laser Ranging Reflector?
Countless independent researchers from many nations use it on a regular basis.
Or Japan's lunar orbiter photos of USA landing sites, complete with rover tracks?
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Re: That "Space Suit" ... (Score:2)
So nothing exists until I have personally experienced it?
With that world view, the uneducated, inexperienced, untraveled person cannot believe in anything but himself, or that which he assumes exists despite his rules.
Do you wash your hands? I bet you've never seen a germ.
Even better- have you personally met one of "them" from the government who is masterminding this conspiracy? If not, then they don't exist- and you are the one inventing it.
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So nothing exists until I have personally experienced it?
Correct.
With that world view, the uneducated, inexperienced, untraveled person cannot believe in anything but himself, or that which he assumes exists despite his rules.
Do you wash your hands? I bet you've never seen a germ.
Actually I have seen a "germ" before. Plenty actually. So pay up on that bet
Even better- have you personally met one of "them" from the government who is masterminding this conspiracy? If not, then they don't exist- and you are the one inventing it.
I have, and I'm talking to one of them now apparently. So just keep your moon people from the round planet fiction to yourself.
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So nothing exists until I have personally experienced it?
Nonsense - why should I trust you to say it exists?
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Thinking more about your comment about the Lunar Laser Ranging Reflector...
You say that if I have not personally used it, it's therefore a myth. If I have used it, I'm part of a conspiracy indenting it. All evidence leads to the same conclusion, regardless of evidence.
I'm wondering what you'd say if you spend the weekend with a skilled hobbist, building and testing a laser and sensor aimed at the moon. You would then have all the critera for experiencing something yourself, subject to all the scrutiny you
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Not the first time (Score:3)
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.
Apollo CM (Score:1)
Simplify (Score:2)
As for me... (Score:1)
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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.
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It seems that you would rather spend money on social wealth re-distribution programs rather than spending on the ultimate STEM endeavor: space exploration and colonization. Ok, I'll play along with a few more socialist ideas:
Imagine if:
The social ills that create a perpetual class of poor and disadvantaged were recognized and mitigated, especially racism and mental illness.
Human reproduction for the unsuccessful were not subsidized by welfare. If society or the state deems you unable to raise and educate
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Robots and nuclear powered spacecraft are both very expensive...
Re: Imagine (Score:2)
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Re: LOL at their fake 'spacesuit'... (Score:3)
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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.