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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: 3, Insightful) by Revek on Wednesday May 13 2020, @08:28PM
I trained on kerbal space program. Eventually someone wrote mechjeb. Now ships dock themselves about 80% of the time. I docked to the ISS though today in three minutes. Easy as can be. Zero out roll, yaw and pitch and boost in fast until you get to 10m. Then creep forward and dock.
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