
Crew Dragon [video] - jyunderwood
http://www.spacex.com/crew-dragon
======
mholt
SpaceX dramatization of the inside during a space flight:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1EB5BQpm7w](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).

~~~
avmich
> this will be the most inexpensive option

Why do you think so? Russians are charging a steep price because of their
monopoly, but it doesn't mean they have similarly high costs. As soon as a
competitor surfaces, they can reduce the price. Do you think SpaceX will be
able to compete on price? Why?

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Why do you think so? Russians are charging a steep price because of their
> monopoly, but it doesn't mean they have similarly high costs. As soon as a
> competitor surfaces, they can reduce the price. Do you think SpaceX will be
> able to compete on price? Why?

They built their platform from scratch. The Russians are using 1960s tech
still.

It also helps SpaceX that Russia is always threatening to embargo exports of
their rocket motors. Better to have a homegrown supplier versus being
dependent on Vlad.

~~~
avmich
> They built their platform from scratch.

Yes, but SpaceX makes rather different ship from scratch. Crew Dragon should
be nicer to ride than Soyuz - more space, better aerodynamics. But better
qualities don't mean less price.

> The Russians are using 1960s tech still.

Yes, but that makes some tech more flight-proven and amortized over time. Like
rockets - Soyuz and Proton are old, but quite inexpensive (albeit with
reliability issues lately). At the same time, lots of internals of Soyuz were
changed.

> It also helps SpaceX that Russia is always threatening to embargo exports of
> their rocket motors.

Fully agree here. But that's not quite economical issue.

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quux
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.

~~~
rcurry
I think they should have had a button labeled "Recline Seat" in between those
two...

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stevenkovar
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.

~~~
goatforce5
Yes. It does seem unnecessarily large inside.

They mention they have nice windows to get a good view of things. Might they
be planning to use this capsule for space tourism? (i.e., send a few people up
to do an orbit or two and give them a chance to get out of their seats and
move about.)

[http://www.zmescience.com/space/spacex-reusable-
rocket-100-t...](http://www.zmescience.com/space/spacex-reusable-
rocket-100-times-cheaper-0432423/)

~~~
Havoc
Its an early view. Once you cover the walls with compartments for storing
random crap and add a bunch of people in there it'll definitely not look
"unnecessarily large".

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JoblessWonder
>
> [http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/inter...](http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/interior_6.jpg)

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.

~~~
plainOldText
I'm actually wondering what would be more reliable: a physical button or a
digital one. I would like to see a comparison.

Of course, one could argue that in both cases it depends on the
implementation. Nonetheless, I think it's fun to think about what kind of
buttons would the average person prefer, when their life is on the line.

~~~
rcurry
I was thinking the same thing - sure, it's cool to have a glossy touch screen
and futuristic touch panels, but I can't count the number of times touch
screens / buttons have gone wonky on me with everything from my cell phone, to
my tablet, to my microwave, to my fridge, whereas the light switches in my
house are about 50 years old and have yet to let me down...

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lighthawk
In ManualFlight mode, according to the upper left part of the screen in:
[http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/inter...](http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/images/dragon/interior_4.jpg)
it looks like it is showing the view from an external camera.

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joezydeco
"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."

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leonroy
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.

~~~
giarc
Do the astronauts even do much during the shaky part of takeoff?

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rebootthesystem
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmQsrXLofMY)

...enjoy the ride.

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dogma1138
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.

~~~
arrrg
Soyuz has more room in the orbit module. What you see in those Soyuz photos is
not all the room there is, at least on orbit, if not during the trip through
the atmosphere.

The ride to and from orbit itself doesn’t take that long (measured in minutes)
and indeed doesn’t really require a lot of space for human passengers. The
space is for the rest of the journey, which normally also should go by quickly
(a couple hours), at least with the modern approach they use to get to the
ISS, but can take longer depending on the exact circumstances (a couple days).
The recent Soyuz trip to the ISS took two days instead of a couple hours
because ISS had just completed an obviously unplanned debris avoidance
maneuver.

~~~
dogma1138
I know but the orbit module doesn't go through re-entry it was also designed
to either bring cargo or serve as temporary living / scientific quarters when
the Soyuz was used for manned orbital flight rather than a ferry to Mir or to
the ISS.

But and it's a big but the space is separated which means a great deal this
means that the Soyuz orbital module can be used to bring cargo to the ISS the
space in the Dragon capsule is really just wasted, there's no way there will
be cargo in there no matter how well tied down during lift off no human flight
program ever had anything in the cabin that wasn't a part of the space craft
or needed for life support / emergency, so it's still a bloody waste of space.

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trhway
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...](http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2010/11/inside_the_soyuz_during_a_simulation/9569395-3-eng-
GB/Inside_the_Soyuz_during_a_simulation.jpg)

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

~~~
avmich
Some Soyuz design decisions were surely off the mark :) . Like, diameter of
the capsule - when they tried to squeeze into a particular rocket (fairing?)
diameter while having good enough aerodynamics while solid surface-to-volume
ratio.

On the other hand, the whole craft weight just above 7 tons - and that's with
almost 9 cubic meters of internal volume, and lots of systems still using
analog electronics. And, by the way, without toxic propellants in the capsule.
Granted, today one can - and should - do better. We'll see.

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OrwellianChild
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?

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Fiahil
> 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?

------
benihana
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?

~~~
dogma1138
Well if we are frank about it Astronauts for the most part are quite useless
as far as science goes, they don't really do anything in space other than PR,
which is quite important.

Other than PR they play technicians to plug all the experiment modules to
laboratories in the ISS and are guinea pigs for various experiments which are
conducted on the astronauts them selves so they'll do an ultrasound of their
eyes, keep a log of their feelings and take blood samples when needed.

~~~
tsotha
From Jerry Pournelle' Blog:

"Although I pay dues, I don’t interact much with the planetary society. My
last experiences with them was Carl Sagan arguing for more robotic exploration
and abandoning manned space exploration. Making the universe safe for robots.
Larry Niven told Sagan 'Carl, I hope you realize that every time you get a
convert , you lose support for space exploration. People don’t hold ticker
tape parades for robots.'”

[http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/why-icann-is-
import...](http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/why-icann-is-important/)

