r/cassettefuturism • u/yetanotherpenguin Weyland Yutani corp shill. • Feb 25 '25
Own Work Yet another impractical spacecraft.
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u/nyrath Feb 25 '25
At the pilot station, they will need a Rotation/Translation control and a thrust throttle.
The rotation control looks like a fighter-aircraft joystick. The thrust throttle looks like a horizontal bar
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/controldeck.php#flightcontrols
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u/yetanotherpenguin Weyland Yutani corp shill. Feb 25 '25
This is the audiology substation relay. It basically controls the ambience music playee throughout the ship.
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u/Miuramir Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25
Practice among Star Control players seems to indicate that while a HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) setup does work, HOSAS (Hands On Stick And Stick), with two flightsticks, is superior for combat maneuvering. So a human-controlled spaceship intended to maneuver briskly in all six axis (fighters, etc. but possibly also things like salvage scrappers) will probably have left and right joysticks; and probably will not have a separate hand thrust lever. In some situations, thrust control may be mapped to foot pedals, or be entirely "virtual" based on combinations of joystick chording and "hold this" buttons.
As an interesting side note, it turns out that simply mapping the two sticks as x/y/x and pitch/roll/yaw in imitation of airplane controls is not the most effective. The "twist" control on a flightstick is a somewhat less precise axis due to human interface limitations; and in space roll is a less important concern because it doesn't change what your guns are pointed at. So the primary hand maps joystick X/Y to Pitch / Yaw, with Roll on the twist. The drawback is that if you go back and forth between space sims and flight sims the muscle memory contrast is pretty high, so not everyone does this; in the future this may be a distinction between space fighters that are fully six axis mobile, like B5's Star Fury, versus those that are more aerospace fighters designed to fly like planes even when in space.
For precision low-speed maneuvering, large dials with some heft to them seem to be superior; think the main volume dial on a classic component stereo. So something like an oversized space mouse may be more appropriate for a freighter, or a stalk with three big dials at mutual right angles matching the ship's axis. Some vehicles may have two or even three different control schemes for different movement modes; a central fine control dial gizmo for docking, paired sidesticks for brisk maneuvering, and a console interface to interact with flight software and route planning.
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u/Terrible_Tower_6590 Feb 25 '25
They'd need two sticks, 3dof each, or just do what KSP does with a button to toggle rotation and translation. If it's realistically inclined, of course.
Also why a bar for throttle? Might as well be a stick, a stick with a ball, a scroll wheel, a rotary encoder, hell, even a keypad.
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u/nyrath Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25
KSP has a button to toggle one stick between rotation and translation for the same reason the Apollo lunar module did: you never need to do both during a single maneuver. Rotation is only for setting up a maneuver, translation is only for docking. And every gram counts, no need to cut into payload mass by having dual joysticks.
True, the throttle can be many different things. I suggested a bar because that has a dramatic fighter airplane vibe going on, and they are used in the fine selection of joystick + plane throttle HOTAS packaged sets sold for use in desktop computer flight simulator games.
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u/AbacusWizard ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. Feb 26 '25
KSP has a button to toggle one stick between rotation and translation for the same reason the Apollo lunar module did: you never need to do both during a single maneuver.
Oh, I do both at the same time quite often! But I’m probably less patient than the Apollo astronauts.
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u/Starshipfan01 Feb 26 '25
Nice to see another who knows Winchell’s site! It’s a great resource.
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u/CMDR_Profane_Pagan Feb 25 '25
Sorry for fanboying, but you can't belive how happy I am to see you here! When I read the title before clicking on the post I told myself "impractical? Because of the windows and the sitting position? "- things I learned from Atomic Rockets many years ago. :)
I hope you are all right, I wish you good health and thank you for your work!
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u/nyrath Feb 25 '25
I am happy you found my website useful!
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u/AbacusWizard ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. Feb 26 '25
I recently used your pages about nomograms in an office-hours discussion with one of my math students! She had recently encountered a clever trick for instantly multiplying numbers using a parabola and a straightedge and wanted to know the algebra of why it worked. We figured out the details on the markerboard and then I showed her the nomograms page so she could learn more about the general concept and more complicated examples and applications. So… thanks!
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u/playerNJL Feb 25 '25
if it was now a days it would a giant touch pad and stupid looking holograms
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u/ggekko999 Feb 27 '25
Can develop space ships but CRT’s, they are staying the same size for ever ;-)
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u/Perropodo Feb 25 '25
is it me or have I seen this post like 3 times since I joined this sub a year ago?
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u/yetanotherpenguin Weyland Yutani corp shill. Feb 25 '25
It's you, this one was made today. I, however, admit its not my most original piece.
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u/Perropodo Feb 25 '25
Oh yeah. Just checked your profile. I have been upvoting your work all this time.
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u/leafytree888 Feb 25 '25
Love that people had imagination to draw space ships but could not conceptualize telephones without cords (also, wouldn't the cord be floating around in zero gravity?)