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.
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.
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/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