Crew Exploration Vehicle

While browsing for the latest information on Space Human Factors, I came across this article. Some pertinent quotes:

"Although the vehicle and cockpit will be highly automated, one thing we really want to do is make sure this is a 'crew-centered' and designed cockpit--something astronauts want to get in, rather than have to get in and [be] forced to use what non-astronauts have laid out for them," Fox says.

The initial cockpit design concepts are being roughed out based on assumptions that can only become facts once a CEV winning contractor and its overall spacecraft design is selected in August.

"It is a bit of an unusual and difficult time," Mastracchio says. "We are trying to keep it fair and not provide cockpit information to one contractor over the other, while at the same time making sure one contractor's concepts are also kept separate from the other."

If you ever seen a schematic of how astronauts fit into the Shuttle or Soyuz, one gets the impression that the astronauts have been "inserted" into the machines as if they were components. Now, when you get into your car, are you "jumping in" or "inserting yourself"? More room for the astronauts, however, can meen more surface area, which means more material, and thus more weight. Hence, one might attempt to reduce the machinery inside the cockpit.

All of the cockpit issues involve complex design tradeoffs that will not be fully defined until many iterations are done, Mastracchio says. They include seemingly simple basics that play into much more complex internal layout details that must be balanced, such as who sits where, how windows will be placed and how dockings will be flown using what type of window, television and computer display configurations.

Seating and stowage ties directly into the type of lightweight pressure suits that will be worn during launch and reentry. And the cockpit philosophy on manual piloting and auto system tradeoffs are directly connected to choices about the computer screen design and software display formats for conveying information to the crew.

One critical matter will be the extent of automatic rendezvous and docking. In the Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs, those have been piloted operations. CEV automatic rendezvous and docking is baselined, but with at least full manual intervention capability. How that will manifest itself in CEV test flights and routine operations is yet to be determined, however, Fox says.

Every little decision that is made has a clear impact on what choices on has later on! In our student work, some students had trouble coming to grips with the fact that modules have a finite, volumetric size. Finite, as in, you can't make the launch shroud any bigger. And, volumetric, which means that there is more than just "floor", as architecture students are accustomed to.