Okay, I just watched the latest feat of Elon Musk's SpaceX launching and returning four civilians into a 300 mile high orbit for days, putting the suborbital attempts of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin to shame by looking like 1960's NASA reruns. But the thing that really catches my eye is the 'STYLE' in which SpaceX does it, that capsule inside looks like it could have been a Star Trek escape pod with that glass cockpit.
It fits with Enterprise shuttlepods and the silver Starship is very like the simplest Enterprise drawing in THE MAKING OF STAR TREK. One had a shuttle orbiter like payload bay—the other a flat plate like the felled aerogel designs of Stardust. Call that a debris hunter.
It's interesting that Boeing went fairly traditional with their gauges on the Starliner, while SpaceX went with a display that wouldn't be out of place on a Tesla. Orion's interior is a bit of a mix of both, mostly reminds me of the glass cockpit era Shuttle. As these new touch screens work well with gloves and are easier to produce, i suspect that will be the path forward. they're mass produced now and work well in hard envionments (check out the display panel on Harley Davidson's new Pan America motorcycle, and no, I'm not kidding).
A comparison The flight-proven, almost 2001-esque, or Apple Store beauty of the Dragon interior.. A mix of old and not so old, an astronaut's control panel for a ship that means business. -Orion Boeing Starliner's control panel is remarkably free of distraction.. wait wrong image. oh hai Starliner.
I actually Orion’s better. Each switch gets its own damn wire. What if somebody elbows the screen on Dragon? Now me, each airliner should have the pilot have gauges and the co-pilot all glass…half and half. I could almost see that steampunk look on nuclear pulse Orion…
I'm wondering what has the big red bump guards around it on Starliner? Docking release? Someone must have bumped into it in simulations.
Over at watchusfly.com there is a bit called “ground control to major console” that has the Mesa “dashboard” FUTURISM “Boeing spaceship cockpit looks strikingly different from SpaceX’s” There what I assume is an abort pull handle is more brightly marked. Don’t want THAT bumped. The abort sequence may be automated… but they might want you to claw hand that ring during ascent so if something goes wrong—-you can pull the solenoid at once. I think they want your hands resting with a little push and fingers curled on ascent for stability. Not always lazily as in a car dash. You don’t need to be a true astronaut for Dragon. For this and Orion, yes. For a future Dream Chaser…test pilots only. Brick Price might know the layout…he does cockpits…and bricktanks.co.uk has a LEGO capsule toy. Nice article out there called “How has the spacecraft cockpit changed in 60 years” Last but not least… there is a page called “2001: EVA Pod Interior—The Age Of Plastic” From theRPF
well the crew for what should have been the first Starliner crew ferry mession have been switched over to Dragon today. Boeing isn't exactly vaulting from success to success these days. It's just too big to fail.