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from the where's-a-kerbal-when-you-need-one? dept.
SpaceX Crew Dragon simulator challenges you to dock with the ISS, and it's not easy:
It's a good thing I'm not on board the historic SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to the International Space Station scheduled for May 27. It turns out I suck at piloting a spacecraft.
SpaceX released a docking simulator online Tuesday that lets anyone try to safely connect the crew capsule with the ISS. Spoiler alert: I missed.
"This simulator will familiarize you with the controls of the actual interface used by NASA astronauts to manually pilot the SpaceX Dragon 2 vehicles to the International Space Station," SpaceX said, warning that the process "requires patience and precision." I had neither.
My attempt at the delicate dance of control and corrections didn't go well. "Do not use large movements near the ISS," SpaceX advised. I'm pretty sure I accidentally crashed into one of the ISS solar arrays.
Fortunately, the upcoming SpaceX Demo-2 mission will be crewed by NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who are trained experts at this whole complicated docking thing.
The astronauts probably won't have to call on their training. "Crew Dragon missions will autonomously dock and undock with the space station, but crew can take manual control of the spacecraft if necessary," SpaceX tweeted.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine also took to Twitter on Tuesday to remind everyone that he aced the simulator on his first try last year. Show-off.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:12PM (1 child)
Pitch Yaw and Roll are relatively stable in the simulator... lock them in on zeroes then translate your Y and Z to zeroes as best you can (they will drift, particularly as you get close), then head in and slow down to "blue speed" as you get close.
Without reading the instructions I had to reset once, but succeeded on the 2nd attempt (after I figured out what the controls were doing...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @10:14PM
Yeah this was super easy. It would be even easier with a joystick instead of four buttons for translation.
There is a similar docking simulator at Kennedy Space Center which was a bit harder (but still not too bad) because you had limited fuel and once you ran out you couldn't make any more adjustments to your course...
The moon lander one was way harder because gravity.