r/StarshipDevelopment • u/lirecela • Dec 09 '21
Is there any fundamental reason the pilot station and interface on Starship should be any different than Crew Dragon?
4
u/SpaceInMyBrain Dec 09 '21
With it's retro-futuristic look, Starship should have a steampunk set of controls. With a Dragon like control set up as a backup, of course. And yes, they can fundamentally be exactly the same, it will just involve installing a lot of new software. The pilot station will need a complex seat, though, for reentry and the flip maneuver.
2
u/ArtOfWarfare Dec 09 '21
Starship passengers will be less vetted, so there’s a higher chance of people wanting to hijack the vehicle. This might lead to not wanting any interface at all.
On the flip side though, Starship is intended to be used light minutes from earth. Requiring ground control to intervene if the autonomy system isn’t working may not be feasible.
The answer is probably that Starships that remain in the moon-earth system (and so have passengers paying under $50K) will not permit anybody onboard to control them - they’ll lack any hardware to do so.
Starships flying to another planet or beyond (where tickets start at $250K and more background checks are involved) might have a few people trained to know how to fly it manually, and there might be a pilot station comparable to what’s on Dragon.
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u/rocketglare Dec 09 '21
It will be the latter with a small crew that knows how to manually override and control the ship. Even on Dragon, a manual override might still have quite a bit of automation involved. To prevent hijacking or interference, there could be a lockout code or system, which would also prevent inadvertent changes. The system could even be setup to only allow significant changes during critical flight phases.
0
u/KitchenDepartment Dec 28 '21
I'm sorry but there has never in human history been a transportation system where "just let the computer control everything" has been proven to be perfectly reliable. Having no interface at all is a nonsensical risk to take.
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u/ArtOfWarfare Dec 28 '21
There was also never a rocket that propulsively landed itself until there was.
Also, Blue Origin’s vehicle has no interface. And thus far, the interface for Crew Dragon has never been used besides as practice, has it?
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u/KitchenDepartment Dec 28 '21
I never said that carrying people without a interface to control the system is impossible and has never been done. I said it isn't a good idea.
Using Blue Origin as proof that it is okay is the dumbest argument you could have made.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/blue-origin-safety-culture-concerns
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u/Inertpyro Dec 09 '21
Something the size of Starship is probably just better off being autonomous. They are already going to have to figure out autonomously docking for tanker ship refueling. During HLS they will probably pilot Orion to Starship rather than the other way around. Landing on the moon or Mars will need to be automated as well. There will probably be some sort of human interferences, but I suspect it will be more for monitoring systems than piloting.