Can you do it? Online simulator of Crew Dragon docking with the ISS

[zakiyatasnim]

This month, SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spacecraft will deliver its first passengers to the International Space Station. How will that happen? Now you can see for yourself what astronauts see as they approach the ISS. SpaceX has released a real-life online simulator that allows anyone to try their hand at manually docking the spacecraft with the ISS using the Crew Dragon controls. Yes, the astronauts will have exactly the same interface when they are in space. Spoiler alert: it's actually very difficult!

After launching the simulator, you will see the Crew Dragon ship, which is very close to docking with the ISS. At the same time, your ship is slightly tilted relative to the space station itself. Ahead of you is a virtual vacation on the International Space Station, for this you first need to align the angle at which the ship is located to the ISS for a successful docking.

Fortunately, there are plenty of controls to lock the spacecraft's position cayman islands number data and approach the station. But remember, doing so in space is not as easy as it is on Earth.

If you press once and nothing happens, wait - everything happens very slowly in space.

The controls on the left are used to move the Crew Dragon through space: they allow you to control its movements forward, backward, up, down, and from side to side (although in space, all of this is relative). The controls on the right control the ship's rotation, pitch, and roll. You can use the display to see if you're moving correctly. Docking is considered successful if all the green values ​​in the center of the display are no higher than 0.2.



But don't expect to reach the ISS in 5 minutes. Docking in space is a slow process, and even the smallest movement takes a long time.

If you have some free time and patience, you can try docking with the ISS and feel like a real astronaut. But will real astronauts face the same challenges when they have to dock with the space station?

In fact, real astronauts who will travel to space on the Crew Dragon will not need to manually dock the ship if all goes well. SpaceX has programmed the vehicle to automatically dock with the International Space Station without the need for any user (pilot) intervention. However, all astronauts are trained to take control of the spacecraft if necessary.