Building a full space craft mock up.

[VincentMcConnell]

My Grandma and I (with some help from a friend and my dad) have been working on putting together a capsule similar to a Mercury style thing. There\'s a lot more work to do, but for now, it\'s starting to shape up. We just installed a chair and seating system.

It will eventually be able to run full scale space flight simulations.

Here\'s some pictures.

This is what we have so far:

In case it looks a little small, here\'s a picture of me actually sitting in it:

The heat shield (capsule base) is 4\' in diameter.

[closette]

Great job. The question is - can 3 Kerbals fit in there? (Right now, probably yes, but after re-scaling...?)

[VincentMcConnell]

Great job. The question is - can 3 Kerbals fit in there? (Right now, probably yes, but after re-scaling...?)

Well probably not. The seat is set 32 inches below the top of the heatshield and my legs had to be extended for me to even have a hope of fitting. I think you could get one Kerbal in there. MAYBE two.

[DomAzaris1996]

OH MY!! I SO WANT TO DO THAT!!!! Amazing Idea Man!!

[RedDwarfIV]

Full spacecraft?

//Offers keys to silo

[Lord Wasteland]

Will you have the primary controls for the capsule, and all the correct sequences and buttons?

[VincentMcConnell]

Will you have the primary controls for the capsule, and all the correct sequences and buttons?

Pretty much. I wrote up my own flight plan and checklists, so I\'m basing the instrument panel off of that.

If I was able to build it inside my house, I would incorporate Orbiter 2010 into it so I could actually visualize

me changing orbits and stuff. But it\'s too big and my house is too small.

[Jeb KerBoom]

Wow! All you need now is a Kerbal.

[VincentMcConnell]

Wow! All you need now is a Kerbal.

I bet science could genetically engineer one.

[mincespy]

I bet science could genetically engineer one.

Not yet, mate. But wait about two hundred years...

[VincentMcConnell]

Hey everyone! Significant progress on the capsule today! We added some horizontal bands from lawn edging so now it actually is starting to take the form of a conical capsule. We also added a hatch and began work on Instrument Panel 'A'.

I made a video update, but it\'s not done uploading yet. When I\'ve edited it and uploaded, I\'ll post here for all to see.

[Rs2k]

Great idea!

I would recommend setting up a monitor for the external window, and another two or three for a glass cockpit. A glass cockpit is going to be much easier to deal with than trying to make gauges work. That would provide a pretty amazing immersion experience. All of this can easily be run from a single computer.

[Rs2k]

You can also get special boards that allow you to build your own joysticks. You can also just take joysticks apart (I did this when I built a flight simulator using an old piper cockpit). It\'s a lot of fun to wire up switches and buttons that control different parts of your 'vehicle.'

You can even make it a full motion rig in the future if you wanted.

[Thobewill10]

Very cool! It\'ll be really interesting to see how this pans out!

[dogon11]

Maybe you could hook this up to a computer running some space game, and since you said it\'d be outside, connect it via extension cord.

[VincentMcConnell]

Maybe you could hook this up to a computer running some space game, and since you said it\'d be outside, connect it via extension cord.

I was thinking about Orbiter 2010, but I think my only other computer is too crappy to run it. I\'ll figure it out, I\'m sure.

[Thobewill10]

This might be outside of your budget, but you might want to take a look at some flight sim setups, and see if you can possibly implement a sort of rolling/yawing/pitching capability to the capsule, for that extra realism...

[VincentMcConnell]

This might be outside of your budget, but you might want to take a look at some flight sim setups, and see if you can possibly implement a sort of rolling/yawing/pitching capability to the capsule, for that extra realism...

Well remember, you don\'t feel movement in space. So any attitude control should feel absolutely motionless.

[Thobewill10]

You don\'t? I\'d assumed there\'d be at least an inertial 'jolt' when the spacecraft first starts rotating.

[VincentMcConnell]

You don\'t? I\'d assumed there\'d be at least an inertial 'jolt' when the spacecraft first starts rotating.

No. Because you don\'t feel gravity, so you have no way of knowing if you are starting to tilt 'backward'. As far as I know, you only know you\'re moving based on visual reference of the 8-ball. On Gemini 8, when Neil and Dave started rolling uncontrollably, Dave Scott didn\'t know the craft was moving until he looked at the 8-ball. He informed Neil that they were in 'a bank' and rolling. Neil didn\'t notice until he looked, either.

You feel movement in a plane or a jet, but when it comes down to being weightless in orbit, there\'s no way of knowing at all. And you won\'t feel a jolt unless you\'re not strapped in because you will also inherit the velocity of the movement. Any G-force from the turn would be so low it would be unnoticable.

[Thobewill10]

That makes sense. Thanks.

[VincentMcConnell]

Here\'s a video for everyone! Lots of new progress has been made.

Homemade Spacecraft simulator Update #1!

[Thobewill10]

Very cool! Are you able to fit through the hatch, though?

[VincentMcConnell]

Very cool! Are you able to fit through the hatch, though?

Yeah. We did some tests. We measured my shoulder span. 17 inches. Then made a rectangle about 17x15.5 inches. Then we held two beams that far apart and found that I was able to get through.

[VincentMcConnell]

Here\'s a few more pictures. The hatch has been almost fully implemented now.