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Space Shuttle Cockpit Interior

upload.wikimedia.org — More buttons than you can shake a monkey at...

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 27, 2009

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  • mtoto21, on 01/27/2009, -4/+332Captain Oveur: You ever been in a cockpit before?
    Joey: No sir, I've never been up in a plane before.
    Captain Oveur: You ever seen a grown man naked?
  • JlmAWP, on 01/27/2009, -11/+213It still looks like it did 30 years ago. Can we get some updated interior? I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going towards creating a replica cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.
  • spriggig, on 01/27/2009, -5/+196I think I see an 8-track on the dash.
  • IRAcarbombs, on 01/27/2009, -8/+173DONT PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!!!!!!
  • christoast, on 01/27/2009, -2/+136It would just be one gigantic apple wheel
  • carbonfilament, on 01/27/2009, -12/+141***** Amazing.
  • Murrabbit, on 01/27/2009, -9/+137If NASA contracted apple they'd figure out a way to simplify it all to a single mouse button (and a thousand different keyboard combos!)
  • inactive, on 01/27/2009, -6/+120And when it ran out of fuel you'd have to send it back to Apple to refueling
  • cardyology, on 01/27/2009, -3/+113Nearly as many buttons as my World Of Warcraft command-center.
  • uptwolait, on 01/27/2009, -4/+76What are you doing, Dave?
  • seanovan, on 01/27/2009, -1/+70What, no cup holders?
  • Alaerus, on 01/27/2009, -10/+78What, no steering wheel? :P
  • EricAnderton, on 01/27/2009, -0/+65But it's an 8-track that's proven to work in space.

    That's the problem with the shuttle. Everything in it it, as old-school as it is, is proven to hell and back to work well in orbit.

    Here on the ground, you can get away with building a car and driving it around.

    For space, you have to build it, shake it to death, freeze it, burn it, irradiate it, and then redesign and build it again after you figure out why it broke; a few dozen repeats and a million dollars later and you have *one part* that is incredibly likely to not fail and cost a human life.
  • darny, on 01/27/2009, -1/+63"Roger Roger, what's our vector, Victor?"
  • GeorgeStone2, on 01/27/2009, -3/+64"Surely you can't be serious?

    I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

    Fixed.
  • kiiwii, on 01/27/2009, -3/+51Please don't continue this, a few more replies and it'd probably end up as a screenshot on the front page with a title like "Why digg is awesome" or something.
  • Testiculese, on 01/27/2009, -3/+51And it would have a built-in Starbucks.
  • cplusplus, on 01/27/2009, -0/+45I see solitaire on one screen.
  • bluechips23, on 01/27/2009, -4/+46And they will start calling it iShuttle!
  • paksman, on 01/27/2009, -4/+44A simple touch screen setup would reduce the size of that dash to a quarter or less..
  • Supertrout, on 01/27/2009, -1/+40Captain Oveur: Do you like gladiator movies Timmy?
  • fr0mundacheese, on 01/27/2009, -2/+39no cup holders?
  • jasdf, on 01/27/2009, -1/+37No it doesn't. This is the new cockpit.
    This picture is the old cockpit:
    http://futurshox.net/aeroimagestamp-logo.php?dir=p ...
  • clemdia, on 01/27/2009, -2/+37The DIP switch is alive and well in space...
  • wepeel, on 01/27/2009, -3/+38And you would buy a shiny new one every few years
  • riku5464, on 01/27/2009, -4/+35And it would be way over priced.
  • Dr3w, on 01/27/2009, -1/+31You've really made the grade
  • mnpilot, on 01/27/2009, -0/+28You ever been in a Turkish prison?
  • christoast, on 01/27/2009, -1/+28You need a Phd to be a janitor at NASA
  • 007isbond1, on 01/27/2009, -1/+28they could just get an iphone and download apps..
  • jull1234, on 01/27/2009, -0/+25http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/ ...
  • Volatile36, on 01/27/2009, -0/+24Where are the floating ants and potato chips?
  • nomore, on 01/27/2009, -3/+26This picture is better: http://www.datamanos2.com/columbia/columbia_cockpi ...
  • drummerjoe74, on 01/27/2009, -1/+22and the papers want to know who's shirt you wear
  • Abomonog, on 01/27/2009, -0/+20Honestly. The thing doesn't have enough CPU power to run Doom. It has about the same computing power as an Apple 2 computer. (a cheap one at that) NASA actually likes it that way as the old CPU's tend to handle the rigors of space travel much better than the new ones. NASA actually seeks out very old computer components to place in their crafts for this very reason.
  • madrid, on 01/27/2009, -1/+20Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare
  • netneutrality, on 01/27/2009, -0/+19http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle ...
  • acerbiter, on 01/27/2009, -5/+23Is there a source for this image? I'm not 100% sure about this but I'm gonna just throw it out there - I suggest that this might be fake. Usually, when the shuttle is on the day side of the earth, it's almost impossible to see any stars, yet in this image there seem to be even 6mag objects ...
  • DouglasQ, on 01/27/2009, -3/+21"What does this button do? *click*, What does this button do? *click*, What does this button do?"
  • Joodtimes, on 01/27/2009, -0/+17This is Major Tom to ground control
  • Greg8325, on 01/27/2009, -1/+18Nearly.
  • usetabs, on 01/27/2009, -1/+18umm... 1978 maybe?
  • carbonfilament, on 01/27/2009, -0/+16really? cause: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=mv2lnb&s=5
  • Linake, on 01/27/2009, -0/+16I'm stepping through the door, and I'm floating in a most peculiar way.
  • alski707, on 01/27/2009, -0/+15There are so very many reasons why not, to start with everything that go’s aboard the shuttles has to be certified for space flight to some degree, and for the critical computer systems the amount of testing and certification can easily cost millions of dollars, excluding the cost of developing the tech itself (there really isn’t much you can buy off the shelf that’s suitable for space flight)

    The hardware has to be able to withstand extreme environments, such as:

    -Very heavy vibrations during takeoff, landing, and re-entry

    -Many times earth gravity, possibly as much as 10G for a short period of time without failing, even though ~7G is the most the shuttle will normally experience, the equipment must not fail at a crucial time, such as a botched re-entry where abnormal G-force might be experienced

    -Ability to withstand strikes by high energy particles that on earth are stopped by the atmosphere, this is a big part of the reason why you’ll never see a Pentium 4 in the space shuttle, the lithography process on such powerful chips produces features so small and delicate that a high energy particle collision could completely kill the chip. (or at least flip a bit, and crash it / cause an error)

    Touchscreens in particular would be a big pain to design for these environments, getting one to work in just a few G’s would probably be hard enough, the force would be like someone mashing their palm over the entire screen, you could make it less sensitive, but then the pilots would practically have to hit the thing to get it to respond, make it too sensitive and vibrations could activate it at random.

    Then you have to write code for the thing, which absolutely must not crash – EVER! Graphic user interfaces are of course much more difficult to code than simple text-out/key-in interfaces, which means more lines of code, and much more testing.

    And finally you have usability, the astronauts are so highly trained they instinctively know where every control is and its function, hunting through a GUI, even once you’ve got used to it is more difficult, and many controls need quicker and easier access than a GUI can provide.

    There are also many ‘shielded’ switches and controls in the space shuttle (ones that have covers over them to prevent accidental activation) while you could replaces these with confirm/cancel dialogs on a screen, that’s really not the sort of thing you want to deal with when you need to say… shut down an engine, or cut the valve to an O2 compressor in a big hurry.

    Oh and they have a window because… it lands like a glider, would you want to fly in a plane with no windows, esp one where the front (where the camera would be) gets as hot as 1600C during re-entry?

    Finally, try using a touchscreen while wearing space suit gloves :D

    btw, yes, i'm a massive space geek.
  • Braxford, on 01/27/2009, -1/+16if you have no idea, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHEivPHjimw
  • DouglasQ, on 01/27/2009, -5/+20Reavers!!
  • addiktion, on 01/27/2009, -0/+13You would think they would web 2.0 those damn console buttons already.
  • irodman, on 11/20/2009, -4/+17Wallpapered
  • MrSchler, on 01/27/2009, -1/+14
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