Orbiter demos & AMSO Appreciation

[FlyingSinger]

This weekend I will be demonstrating Orbiter at two museums, at the Ecotarium in Worcester, MA on Saturday, and at Space Expo 2008 at the New England Air Museum (near Hartford, CT) on Sunday. So I've been updating presentations and practicing demos to get ready. As I did last year, I'll have a second PC with a joystick at Space Expo and I'll give visitors a chance to try final docking of the DG with the ISS from 10 meters out (or something else if they wish). Astronaut Brian Duffy will be there and I hope to show him Orbiter if he has time.

This year I will include AMSO in my demos, probably the Apollo 11 launch and PDI to moon landing. As I was running those again tonight, it really hit me how awesome AMSO is, and how awesome Orbiter is to allow people (with enough talent and energy) to create such a complex add-on. Little things we take for granted like the ability to control the views in real time, cockpit or external views, synchronized (and real historic) sounds - these are really impressive even for people who don't realize that this is all happening inside a realistic physics simulation. People can hardly believe all this - and on top of all that, it's free. Perhaps a few will be interested enough to try it, and maybe one or two kids will discover something interesting and cool about science.

So thanks to Alain, and to the late LazyD, and to others who contributed to AMSO, and of course to Martin for Orbiter itself.

-Bruce

 

[ryan]

Well said, mate , if you could show a real astronaut what orbiter does that will really put orbiter on the map.
Thanks.
Ryan.

 

[n0mad23]

Bruce,

That Orbiter's free and you're volunteering your time to share this with the public seems similar in spirit. It's hard to imagine your demonstrations not going well, but "break a leg," all the same.

I'd put money on that if Duffy sees it, he'll certainly take the time.

Wouldn't you?

Good choice bringing AMSO into it this year. The recognition of the Apollo program will make it that more accessible, and of interest to those that would dismiss it as 'sci-fi' otherwise.


Score two points for altruism, zer0 for greedy selfish mulishness.

 

[ryan]

Well landing on the moon is kind of sci-fi like we landed on the moon for pete conrad sake thats not the sort of thing you just do in your spare time.
Thanks.
Ryan.

 

[MJR]

This weekend I will be demonstrating Orbiter at two museums, at the Ecotarium in Worcester, MA on Saturday, and at Space Expo 2008 at the New England Air Museum (near Hartford, CT) on Sunday. So I've been updating presentations and practicing demos to get ready. As I did last year, I'll have a second PC with a joystick at Space Expo and I'll give visitors a chance to try final docking of the DG with the ISS from 10 meters out (or something else if they wish). Astronaut Brian Duffy will be there and I hope to show him Orbiter if he has time.

This year I will include AMSO in my demos, probably the Apollo 11 launch and PDI to moon landing. As I was running those again tonight, it really hit me how awesome AMSO is, and how awesome Orbiter is to allow people (with enough talent and energy) to create such a complex add-on. Little things we take for granted like the ability to control the views in real time, cockpit or external views, synchronized (and real historic) sounds - these are really impressive even for people who don't realize that this is all happening inside a realistic physics simulation. People can hardly believe all this - and on top of all that, it's free. Perhaps a few will be interested enough to try it, and maybe one or two kids will discover something interesting and cool about science.

So thanks to Alain, and to the late LazyD, and to others who contributed to AMSO, and of course to Martin for Orbiter itself.

-Bruce

I think what you are doing is great. Keep doing things like this.

 

[Donamy]

Where Brian Duffy is a former Shuttle Commander, don't you think he would like to see a shuttle launch ?

 

[ryan]

Not necessarily.

 

[Donamy]

And why not ?

 

[ryan]

Because he might be instrested in the old apollo years or gemini or mercury the stuff that his fore fathers would of done, if you fly a shuttle it doesnt mean your obsesed with it, maybe you are doesnt matter.
Thanks.
Ryan.

 

[Ursus]

I'd think that if you showed a former shuttle pilot a simulation of an Apollo mission, he'd likely say, "Cool... that's what inspired me to go into NASA." If you showed him a shuttle, he might say "Yeah... been there. Done that. That's nothing compared to the real thing."

 

[Donamy]

Ya right !:rofl:

 

[ryan]

What do you mean Ya right? what Ursus said made perfect scence.

 

[FordPrefect]

What do you mean Ya right? what Ursus said made perfect scence.

I don't think Ursus' statement reflects reality. I guess Donamy thinks the same.

 

[FlyingSinger]

It's hard to say what Col. Duffy might be interested in. He's seen and flown a lot of sims in his USAF and NASA career, but Orbiter, AMSO, and the Shuttle Fleet are free and publicly available, so he might be curious.

Several astronauts have seen Orbiter. Andy Thomas got a long demo at the Mars Society Conference in 2006 and he thought it was great (that was Seth Hollingsead, Rich Wall, and one or two other guys). A woman who is an EVA planner at JSC also thought it was great and said she would spread the word at JSC. Several others have seen it too. I've told quite a few NASA people about it and shown it to a few (non-astronauts, training and educational people at KSC last summer at the STS-118 educational conference). Last year Winston Scott (mission specialist, former F-14 pilot) was at Space Expo but he was too busy signing stuff and posing for photos which is after all his "mission" for this type of event. I talked with him for a few minutes and told him about Orbiter and he said he would try to check it out. Nice guy, but too busy (he has a book which is pretty cool).

Duffy is the first shuttle pilot astronaut I will have met and if he has time, I plan to have shuttle fleet docking and final approach scenarios ready. Of course if I were him I wouldn't touch that joy stick - but we'll see!

 

[simonpro]

Well I am sure Duffy would like to see a docking. In my experience they tend to prefer seeing/doing stuff where there is an active role, so IMO he'd probably prefer to see a docking than a shuttle launch.

Anyway, best of luck with it. Sure it will go well, and it's always good to see people being so dedicated to spreading the orbiter word

 

[Donamy]

My point was, he'd be more interested in the Space Shuttle than the Delta glider, IMO

 

[computerex]

My point was, he'd be more interested in the Space Shuttle than the Delta glider, IMO

hmy: Take that back!!

 

[Urwumpe]

I think he would at least like to see the Shuttle on a PC from time to time. Out of professional interest. Of course it will never get close to the real thing. That is also not the idea - but seeing that people can fly the Shuttle at home on their PCs might be interesting for him.

And I am sure, he would have little objections commenting on a poor kid landing the shuttle while he is watching over its shoulder. Nobody will talk about Duffy landing the Shuttle on a PC. But somebody will tell his grandchildren, that once, an astronaut tutored him to land the Shuttle on KSC.

But I agree, that Apollo or even the Russian Space Program would have better chance to wake up the kid inside him. Too bad we have no realistic Soyuz TMA simulation yet.

I am sure there are many Shuttle astronauts, who would like to try how it's like flying the Soyuz.

 

[MJR]

My point was, he'd be more interested in the Space Shuttle than the Delta glider, IMO

Which Delta-Glider? :lol:

 

[FlyingSinger]

Space Expo was cool

Here's a report that I wrote for my blog. I need to find a new hands-on demo exercise that is quick to explain and do, requires few controls, takes place in space, is fairly easy to do, and has clear success criteria. Any ideas? Tex, your Apollo video was a big help and a big hit (as was AMSO):

Space Expo 2008 at the New England Air Museum today was an excellent event. Someone estimated 1800 people, but I'm not sure if that's confirmed. There were a lot of cool exhibits, and retired NASA astronaut Brian Duffy gave a great talk on his last mission, STS-92, then signed autographs for a long line of people. We got to set up our tables next to a bunch of classic airplanes including some of my favorite Grumman Iron (F6F Hellcat and F-14 Tomcat).

Although his autograph table was next to my table, I didn't get to meet Col. Duffy or show him Orbiter as I had hoped. We were both too busy. I had a long line of kids (and a few adults) waiting to try out Orbiter. While my original plan was to have them try final docking with the ISS, that proved to be too much to explain (thrusters, translation, rotation, closing velocity, joystick buttons, etc.). Instead I reverted to "land the space shuttle from short final." Kids seemed to like that and it only required explaining pitch, roll, HUD symbols, and flaring. The simulated Atlantis took quite a beating. There were a lot of KSC swamp landings (no alligators in Orbiter), a lot of comical bounced landings (the shuttle in Orbiter is remarkably elastic), and a few "greasers." I think at least 50 people tried it and perhaps learned something about space flight in the process. A number of Civil Air Patrol cadets helped out with my table and even gave some of the "flight instruction" so I could take a couple of breaks. I used to be a CAP cadet myself, back in the late sixties. I mentioned this to one cadet who gave me a look suggesting she didn't know they even had airplanes that long ago.

Kids and parents were surprised to hear that Orbiter is free and many took my info sheet and said they would download it. I explained that Orbiter was a lot more than shuttle landings, and I pointed to Tex's video "Apollo Remastered" which was running on a big screen, projected from my other PC. This video features the great AMSO Apollo add-on and provides a 10 minute version of Apollo 11 that shows off what is possible with Orbiter. I also ran AMSO scenarios (Apollo 11 launch and moon landing) for a presentation I did in the morning for a pretty good group of people in the museum's large meeting room. My presentation was billed as a Mars landing, but they didn't seem to mind my switching to the moon.