from Hacker News

Crew Dragon [video]

by jyunderwood on 9/10/15, 9:38 PM with 35 comments

• by mholt on 9/10/15, 9:57 PM

  SpaceX dramatization of the inside during a space flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1EB5BQpm7w

  This spacecraft looks really nice. Amazing that a luxury ride like this will be the most inexpensive option for American astronauts (at least, as far as we can tell right now).

• by quux on 9/10/15, 10:11 PM

  I hope nobody hits the "Deorbit Now" or "Cabin Depress" button with a stray foot :)

  Also, I feel like the video is missing a Jony Ive Voiceover.

• by stevenkovar on 9/10/15, 10:25 PM

  The NASA division I interned at was tasked with creating better living spaces for astronauts. The division was decommissioned soon after my internship ended because astronauts more or less said, "We don't need more space. We get to be astronauts."

  While I'm sure it's not the case, this seems like something SpaceX designed before talking to astronauts (and I doubt that's actually the case). However, it's a crew transport and not payload transport, so their space (volume, that is) considerations could be much less particular.

• by JoblessWonder on 9/10/15, 10:11 PM

  > http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/inter...

  It seems like those are emergency signals... but I wonder what "DEORBIT NEXT" means?

  And also... It seems like an interesting choice to not have physical buttons, especially if they are going to be in some sort of spacesuit.

• by lighthawk on 9/10/15, 9:54 PM

  In ManualFlight mode, according to the upper left part of the screen in: http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/inter... it looks like it is showing the view from an external camera.

• by joezydeco on 9/11/15, 12:20 AM

  "Crew Dragon’s displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft’s capabilities – anything from Dragon’s position in space, to possible destinations, to the environment on board."

  Um, that's a use case?

  "Mars? Screw that. Let's hit the ISS for lunch first."

• by leonroy on 9/11/15, 9:42 AM

  Aren't touch screens a bad idea when you want to be 100% sure you're hitting the right button or switch and don't want to make a mistake?

  Especially during take off or re-entry I'd imagine a touch screen would be super hard to use in a violently shaking vehicle.

• by rebootthesystem on 9/11/15, 12:50 AM

  I don't understand the criticism. I think it is safe to say the design process at a company like SpaceX is likely to follow best engineering practices.

  Yes, that probably means astronauts --as well as other domain experts and stake holders-- are in the design loop.

  Is this the final design? Probably not. Any engineer looking at this knows exactly what this is: An evolutionary step towards a solution.

  Ease-up folks, you are being given a front seat to a pretty amazing moment in our history: Humans travelling and landing on another planet.

  I, for one, can't wait.

  I know it's a TV show, but holy crap, we are on our way...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmQsrXLofMY

  ...enjoy the ride.

• by dogma1138 on 9/10/15, 11:01 PM

  Kinda makes you wonder if it's not overly wasteful, the Soyuz capsule has almost no room to move in when all 3 passengers are seated, you need to crawl past the emergency parachutes (which are located inside the capsule).

  Every system has a direct mechanical/elctro-mechanical connection override in case of an emergency and every thing is redundant to the point of mechanically operating the heat deflector and opening the chutes.

  Touch screens and capacitive buttons are nice but that capsule has more room than an SUV while every other spacecraft we had had less leg room than flying coach so would be interesting to see what they've had to give up to get that.

• by trhway on 9/10/15, 10:16 PM

  the interior design looks like it could have as well been named iDragon.

  compare with : http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/ima...

  (and that is the 21th century "TMA" version where "M" stands for modernized and "A" for anthropometric :)

• by OrwellianChild on 9/10/15, 10:09 PM

  I wonder if the spacesuit and helmet designs shown in the interior video are representative of the work SpaceX is doing in-house to "de-bulk" standard suits?

• by Fiahil on 9/10/15, 10:05 PM

  > Crew Dragon was designed to be an enjoyable ride. With four windows, passengers can take in views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats.

  Wait, are we still talking about a spacecraft?

• by benihana on 9/10/15, 10:17 PM

  Who is this video for? Don't get me wrong, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But do people sending astronauts in space get sold by carbon fiber and slick videos?