It's technically a berthing, not a docking as it mates under the power of the Candarm, not under its own steam.
MATES UNDER THE POWER OF THE CANADARM
Sounds like an awesome tagline for a t-shirt featuring Dragon and ISS!
Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
31–40 of 82 posts
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will stay at the ISS for a month to allow cargo transfer [1]. Then it returns to earth under its own power and is re-used after refurbishment [2]. [1] http://www.nasa.gov/content/expedition-41-trio-waits-for-dra... [2] http://www.spaceflight101.com/dragon-spacecraft-information....
Although the Dragon is reusable, SpaceX's contract with NASA stipulates that new capsules be used for each resupply mission. Not sure if the contract allows SpaceX to refurbish the capsules for other commercial missions, but the other CRS Dragons are being used for showpieces at the moment.
Interesting - I didn't know that. Do you know if this is due to NASA being general cautions with a new, relatively unproved vehicle? Or is it a condition of human-rating the Dragon?
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
To both parent and GP: Please don't comment on HN like you would on Reddit. If you don't have questions or information to add to the thread, you should probably use that as a cue to refrain from posting. Joke posts might not seem bad, but in aggregate they lower the signal to noise ratio we have come to appreciate about HN. Additionally, once these kinds of jocular posts start, it becomes infectious. I'm not trying t…
Please don't tell others how to post. It's patronizing. There's a voting system you can use to express your concern.
The reason why hacker news is good is because it remains serious.
It's important to remember that Hacker News is not a democracy. There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad. Rather, Hacker News is a dictatorship, controlled by Paul Graham and the Y Combinator. Within this space, the Y Combinator has absolute control over all content.
In a democratic system like Reddit, there might be objections to changing the titles or shadowbanning trolls (reddit does shadowban, but mods can't shadowban people for disturbing the quality of a subreddit). On Hacker News, these features are welcomed because they raise the quality of discourse.
Your only choice when it comes to hacker news is to stay and be a productive member, or leave. You are free to leave. Nobody is forcing you to stay here. The source code for Hacker News is even publicly available; if you want to make Joker News you're free to do so.
In this way, Hacker News circumvents tyranny of the majority in favor of quality of content. (I suspect that it also has to do with the Y Combinator's libertarian politics -- Hacker News is an excellent example of what the world could be like it if were organized into voluntary units with absolute internal control, but free choice and movement between those units.)
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't tell others how to post. It's patronizing. There's a voting system you can use to express your concern.
The reason why hacker news is good is because it remains serious. It's important to remember that Hacker News is not a democracy. There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad. Rather, Hacker News is a dictatorship, controlled by Paul Graham and the Y Combinator. Within this space, the Y Combinator has absolute control over all content. In a democratic system like Reddit,…
> There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad.
I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging.
> In a democratic system like Reddit, there might be objections to changing the titles or shadowbanning trolls (reddit does shadowban, but mods can't shadowban people for disturbing the quality of a subreddit). On Hacker News, these features are welcomed because they raise the quality of discourse.
I've seen both people posting "you're hellbanned and it doesn't look warranted" and productive, moderator-accepted complaints about changing titles.
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cynical part of me thinks because manned spaceflight, at least in the context of being stuck in a LEO tin can, is of questionable utility and we try to find things for people to do? We can automate quite a bit of this, in fact, the ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle just docks itself. Wikipedia: At a distance of 249 m, the ATV computers use videometer and telegoniometer data for final approach and docking manoeuvre…
In the Shuttle, the landing gear control was intentionally left outside computer control so that the vehicle could not be flown unmanned. Flight control software could autoland the shuttle from orbit, but it took a human being to let the wheels down. So I don't think your cynicism is excessive.
Meanwhile Russians could successfully auto-land a shuttle in high wind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29#Flight_i...
Buran was an amazing piece of technology. It's sad it didn't get its chance.
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason why hacker news is good is because it remains serious. It's important to remember that Hacker News is not a democracy. There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad. Rather, Hacker News is a dictatorship, controlled by Paul Graham and the Y Combinator. Within this space, the Y Combinator has absolute control over all content. In a democratic system like Reddit,…
> There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad. I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging. > In a democratic system like Reddit, there might be objections to changing the titles or shadowbanning trolls (reddit does shadowban, but mods can't shadowban people for disturbing the quality of a subreddit). On Hacker News, these features…
>I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging.
The voting system exists so that the community can raise productive comments, and lower unproductive comments. It's impossible for Paul Graham himself to come to every thread and say which comments are good and bad. We have to help how we can.
>I've seen both people posting "you're hellbanned and it doesn't look warranted" and productive, moderator-accepted complaints about changing titles.
The Y Combinator is reasonable, and human. It has a set of rules it attempts to operate by, but human agents occasionally violate their own rules. Ultimately, all decision-making authority rests with them, not the community.
But the fact they exist is difference enough to demonstrate my point.
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#37Is it common to use metric system when launching rockets to space or is it a peculiarity of SpaceX? I heard the speaker on SpaceX channel always referring to kilometers and kilometers per second when talking about height and speed.
It's common for pretty much all of engineering really. It's ludicrous to make calculations a bit more complicated by using weird non-SI units. The fact that NASA managed to crash a probe into Mars because they hadn't yet learned the lesson says it all really. Just use SI units and stop worrying about it.
No, the important lesson is to always label your units, and another one might be to always be careful passing dimensionful numbers between codes and teams. You can run into the same problem by accidentally even forgetting to convert between, e.g., newtons and millinewtons.
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#38Does anyone know what happens to the pod after a shuttle-craft docks and delivers cargo? Do they push it back to earth? Into space, leave it in orbit?
It stays on the ISS while it is emptied and loaded for the return trip. Dragon is the only vehicle with a substantial down mass capability (3000kg) so it can return with things that need fixing and completed experiments etc. Shuttle is retired and Progress, ATV, HTV and Cygnus are one way trips so only good for taking out the garbage. Soyuz is full of people.
They set Dragon free with the arm, Dragon departs, does a de-orbit burn, jettisons the trunk (with the solar arrays), re-enters the atmosphere and parachutes down into the ocean and is recovered.
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#39Whenever I see ISS dockings I wonder why the arm isn't computer controlled. There's no specific information on this page but I'm assuming it was a manual docking. Can anyone explain why the process is still manual?
Here's more info on the arm: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements...
Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Shuttle, the landing gear control was intentionally left outside computer control so that the vehicle could not be flown unmanned. Flight control software could autoland the shuttle from orbit, but it took a human being to let the wheels down. So I don't think your cynicism is excessive.
Meanwhile Russians could successfully auto-land a shuttle in high wind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29#Flight_i... Buran was an amazing piece of technology. It's sad it didn't get its chance.
The US Air Force has one up there now - X-37B. It's completely autonomous.