Fly SpaceX's Crew Dragon ISS Docking Simulator

[Yazata]

This is the real interface from the Crew Dragon simulators.

It's kind of like a video game. It works on your computer screen, nothing to install. It presents you with an image of the Space Station in the distance with a bunch of data overlaid over the image. Most important are a cross-hairs and a green target. But (as I discovered to my horror) not only do you have to reach the docking port with all the rates (pitch, yaw, roll and approach velocity) within acceptable limits (near zero), you also have to be approaching the docking port straight on and not from an angle. There are two sets of controls like video-game controllers. On a computer, you click your curser over them (and then curse). The ones on your right hand control the orientation of the vehicle (pitch, yaw and roll) while the left hand ones control the vehicle's movements left-right, up-down and backwards-forwards. One thing to remember is that when you command a motion, it's like a thruster firing. The motion will continue until you command an opposite motion to cancel it out. So you will find yourself overshooting a lot.

Here's SPaceX's twitter announcement

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1260269423090208768

Chris Bergin's twitter reply immediately beneath shows what it looks like on your computer screen. (I'm full of Schadenfreude at Chris's failed docking, since his errors look very similar to mine, except I was able to abort and back off.)

Here's the real thing. Try it yourself!

https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

I just tried it and halted my approach when it looked like I was going to crash into the space station.

I was concentrating too much on centering the aiming bullseye on the green target while getting used to how much thruster input it took to make changes in pitch, yaw and roll, using the right hand set of controls. And I completely forgot about translations left-right and up-down, until I realized to my horror that while I was approaching the docking port at a safe and sane rate (a fraction of a meter a second) I was approaching from about a 30 degree angle. Nope, wasn't going to work and I had to abort at about 10 meters from the station and back my capsule away and then figure out how to use the left set of translation controllers. (I'd just been using the + and - forward and back movements.)

Jim Bridenstine was bragging about how he nailed it on the first try at the simulators in Hawthorne. But he had the Demo-2 astronauts sitting with him and Elon peering over his shoulder. So I'm sure that he got plenty of tips about all the things that he should be paying attention to. (JB's also a former Navy jet pilot, so that probably helps too.)

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/statu...3489260548

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[C C]

I might tell hubby about it on some weekend when he's got playground time.