american astronauts back in space today

[HiFlyer 9,358]

Seeing this:

I was reminded of this:

 

[JonP01 104]

21 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Google Hohmann Transfer Orbit.

Two things strike me:

1. How the heck that was conceived in 1925.

2. I shouldn't have stopped my maths training after high school.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

It's just orbital mechanics, and astronomers were calculating the orbits of short period comets long before 1925.

[Bob Scott 7,718]

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

It's just orbital mechanics, and astronomers were calculating the orbits of short period comets long before 1925.

Maybe, but to conceptualize and define the optimum way to maneuver a spacecraft through an orbital transfer before mankind had built anything capable of even reaching the stratosphere certainly strikes me as visionary!

 

[Ted Striker 338]

Anyone here try the Space-x online docking simulator? It is pretty cool and gives you a good idea of what they had to go through to dock their craft. It took me an hour to do it the first time due to learning and getting a feeling for the controls. The second time took 20 minutes.

Ted

[NZ255 309]

19 minutes ago, Ted Striker said:

Anyone here try the Space-x online docking simulator? It is pretty cool and gives you a good idea of what they had to go through to dock their craft. It took me an hour to do it the first time due to learning and getting a feeling for the controls. The second time took 20 minutes.

Ted

Yeah I gave it a go. Pretty cool.

BTW in normal circumstances the Dragon capsule docks fully autonomously. The controls are there if the crew needs to take over.  

[Ted Striker 338]

2 minutes ago, NZ255 said:

BTW in normal circumstances the Dragon capsule docks fully autonomously. The controls are there if the crew needs to take over. 

The takeoff appeared mostly automatic also. I expected the astronauts to be pecking away on their screens as I do on the GTN750 but they just sat back for the ride. Perhaps at the G forces they were exposed it had to be automatic.

Ted

[JonP01 104]

I was a bit surprised when comparing the shuttle to Dragon, they said (in a polite way) that the Dragon ride up wasn't as refined as the Shuttle despite the G force being less in the Dragon. I guess they must have deployed the sports suspension for this flight rather than the comfort option 😉 I figure these things accelerate about the same as a typical shopping trolley hatchback for the first couple of hundred metres. After that though....

[martin-w 3,234]

14 hours ago, Ted Striker said:

Anyone here try the Space-x online docking simulator? It is pretty cool and gives you a good idea of what they had to go through to dock their craft. It took me an hour to do it the first time due to learning and getting a feeling for the controls. The second time took 20 minutes.

Ted

 

Actually, they didnt dock manually. They just briefly switched off the automatics and tested the manual controls. Then switched back to auto dock.

[HighBypass 2,339]

I tried out the SpaceX docking demo. Took me about 5-10 mins, first time. Blowing my own trumpet, 😎  but I'm used to rotational and translational controls thanks to playing ORBITER - the free spaceflight sim, and have docked several vehicles to the ISS, some sci-fi, not all with docking ports on the nose... 😓

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

On 6/2/2020 at 11:19 PM, martin-w said:

 

Actually, they didnt dock manually. They just briefly switched off the automatics and tested the manual controls. Then switched back to auto dock.

Tesla AutoPark 😀

[HiFlyer 9,358]