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Thread: Space X launch right on time today

  1. #11
    Airmutt's Avatar
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    Push a button, get a banana. Crew have become almost tertiary. Space exploration has demonstrated this far more than aviation. Personally I think Cargo Dragon autonomously docking with the ISS was a bigger deal. Sorry I just can’t get that excited over a guy manually firing a reaction jet. BUT.... I am very glad that we are no longer dependent on the Russians. We should have never walked away.
    Dave Shaw
    EAA 67180 Lifetime
    Learn to Build, Build to Fly, Fly for Fun

  2. #12
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Airmutt View Post
    Push a button, get a banana. Crew have become almost tertiary. Space exploration has demonstrated this far more than aviation. Personally I think Cargo Dragon autonomously docking with the ISS was a bigger deal. Sorry I just can’t get that excited over a guy manually firing a reaction jet.
    Must have my Space Curmudgeon hat (helmet?) on today.

    Having the ability to manually fire a thruster has saved NASA crews in the past (Gemini VIII, Apollo 13). The question is HOW the crew can fire the thrusters...whether the manual input goes into the same computer that's bollixed things up already. If the manual control requires 98% of the same circuitry and software that the automated circuit uses, then it's not really providing a "manual backup."

    Still, it is just "fly by wire," which has become common enough in aircraft.

    (Obligatory space story: We had a thruster control system fail on the Air Force Early-Warning satellite I used to operate as a young officer. A software engineer named Lieutenant Knight quickly developed a fly-by-wire-like system that used ground computers to switch modes to operate the thrusters. This software patch was officially dubbed, "Fly By Knight.")

    Quote Originally Posted by Airmutt View Post
    BUT.... I am very glad that we are no longer dependent on the Russians. We should have never walked away.
    Well...what would have been the downside if we'd stopped sending crews into space? The fact is, other than national pride, there isn't much use for humankind in space. It's good that human space travel is now being provided by a private vendor, but the US Government is still into it deep, financially.

    It's the right way to go, and I support human use of space. But dollars-and-cents-wise, it doesn't make sense. It's not something we HAVE to had, and with the economy tanking, it may well be an early casualty.

    Ron Wanttaja
    Last edited by rwanttaja; 06-03-2020 at 09:45 AM.

  3. #13

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    Don t know if anyone knows about it, but on Space X and NASA site there is a simulator that lets you try to dock with ISS. I crashed a few times.

  4. #14
    BusyLittleShop's Avatar
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    Screens got bigger but the work load is reduced... its all to multiply your pleasure and divide your grief...

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  5. #15

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    I was blown away by the all glass panels and the room inside the Dragon!
    See my latest video here at The Flight Level
    https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFlightLevel

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