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SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

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Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#51

Post by EvanAnderson »

ncallaway wrote: post #50
avmich wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a great leap from hundreds of manual switches and raw aluminum of the shuttle era. Wonder if reliability of virtualized controls surpasses the one of dedicated hardware though. I suspect one of the reasons Apollo computers were all built with just one type of logical chip is the ability to replace faulty parts - one just need a single type of replacement. If for some reason touchscreen malfunctions, what options ar…

> If for some reason touchscreen malfunctions, what options are left for the crew? First, the spacecraft is I believe fully automated. While there is the ability to pilot the craft manually using onboard controls, my understanding is that is already considered a backup or unusual scenario. As far as the touchscreens themselves, my understanding is there are four touchscreens total, and each can represent / control ev…

I wonder if the touchscreens are made of diverse hardware types and run by different programs running on different types of CPUs. If it's all common hardware and a common code-base then one in-common hardware or software failure could still take them all down.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#52

Post by EvanAnderson »

j-pb wrote: post #42
luizfzs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The space suit looks like it's made for a Halloween party. It looks kind of not flexible and fragile. The touch screen panel is surely very cool.

I bet one day these damn panels are gonna kill a crew. Non haptic controls in critical systems like cars, planes, and rockets are an insane fad.

I'm thinking the same thing.

SpaceX isn't to the point in this endeavor where they should be worrying about making things look "sexy". If there isn't an objective improvement in doing something in a non-flight-tested way then I'd be highly suspicious.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#53

Post by bryanlarsen »

j-pb wrote: post #42
luizfzs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The space suit looks like it's made for a Halloween party. It looks kind of not flexible and fragile. The touch screen panel is surely very cool.

I bet one day these damn panels are gonna kill a crew. Non haptic controls in critical systems like cars, planes, and rockets are an insane fad.

They have real buttons for all the important things, including a large "abort" lever.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#54

Post by galacticaactual »

dmos62 wrote: post #28
mrtksn wrote: post #16

The cold war is back, the fashion is back and out of all the things that are back I am glad that the USA is back in space flights. Wish you the best luck and hope that this will lead to some serious competition. Soyuz is great but we need to do more as species.

> do more as species Space exploration and exploitation is awesome, but shouldn't the first items on the "do more as species" todo list be about taking care of earth?

Why is this question never raised whenever the latest web company raises X million dollars that could’ve funded green tech?

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#55

Post by avmich »

ncallaway wrote: post #50
avmich wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a great leap from hundreds of manual switches and raw aluminum of the shuttle era. Wonder if reliability of virtualized controls surpasses the one of dedicated hardware though. I suspect one of the reasons Apollo computers were all built with just one type of logical chip is the ability to replace faulty parts - one just need a single type of replacement. If for some reason touchscreen malfunctions, what options ar…

> If for some reason touchscreen malfunctions, what options are left for the crew? First, the spacecraft is I believe fully automated. While there is the ability to pilot the craft manually using onboard controls, my understanding is that is already considered a backup or unusual scenario. As far as the touchscreens themselves, my understanding is there are four touchscreens total, and each can represent / control ev…

> Finally, the dragon capsule does have manual (non-touchscreen) joystick controls for the critical flight controls.

Joysticks are better, though some convenient indication is also required (the "screen" part, not the "touch" part). I'm sure the designers saw questions like that; I'm just curious about details.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#56

Post by jackyinger »

rcurry wrote: post #49
j-pb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet one day these damn panels are gonna kill a crew. Non haptic controls in critical systems like cars, planes, and rockets are an insane fad.

This. Maybe I'm just ignorant about the reliability of the screens that they're using, but those sure scream single point of failure to me.

I agree and would add that we’ve gotten very used to touchscreens on our very multi-purposed phones and tablets.

Navigation is a fairly fixed function. I doubt these astronauts are going to installing new apps on their way to orbit...

Interestingly offshore sailboat racers (IMOCA 60 class for instance) prefer keyboards and thumb ball mice. They’re not pulling g’s, but they experience some pretty extreme motion from waves.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#58

Post by jayd16 »

galacticaactual wrote: post #54
dmos62 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do more as species Space exploration and exploitation is awesome, but shouldn't the first items on the "do more as species" todo list be about taking care of earth?

Why is this question never raised whenever the latest web company raises X million dollars that could’ve funded green tech?

It never factors in to the conversation. No one brings up a species wide imperatives so its not countered with a question of priority.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#59

Post by [deleted] »

luizfzs wrote: post #31
smeeth wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? Reading some of the comments here I thought I was going crazy - the suits look like they were made for a 2003 made-for-tv movie. Boeing suits look WAY better imo

I had to search. Yeah, Boeing's look like a real space suit.

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#60

Post by sxates »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #51
ncallaway wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If for some reason touchscreen malfunctions, what options are left for the crew? First, the spacecraft is I believe fully automated. While there is the ability to pilot the craft manually using onboard controls, my understanding is that is already considered a backup or unusual scenario. As far as the touchscreens themselves, my understanding is there are four touchscreens total, and each can represent / control ev…

I wonder if the touchscreens are made of diverse hardware types and run by different programs running on different types of CPUs. If it's all common hardware and a common code-base then one in-common hardware or software failure could still take them all down.

I know the space shuttle employed multiple redundant computers of differing hardware as failsafes. I can't imagine SpaceX didn't do the same thing.
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