posted 08-04-2015 11:08 AM               

As you can see, it's a basic sturdy 1960s office chair, but with some interesting hand controls carefully bolted and welded on. They seem to be the kind of translation and rotation controls used on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module. (The T-like translation control is very similar to those on Apollo, while the handle of the rotation control seem to have been repurposed from another source.)

posted 08-04-2015 11:09 AM               

There is also a metal box with inputs and outputs attached to the bottom.

It's been tempting to play along when viewing Apollo documentaries and movies, like this scene from "Apollo 13", but so far I've resisted.

"If Steve can't dock this thing, we don't have a mission."

posted 08-04-2015 01:09 PM               

You must have interesting neighbors!

An advanced Russian development of their stand-up lunar lander?

So THAT'S how the CDRs practiced at home.

posted 08-12-2015 10:25 AM               

I might try to find an old monitor, and the right connection and power cords, and see what happens when I turn it on.

The MMU training sounds like a good possibility.

Can anyone by any chance help identify the T-like translation control? What were ones like that built for, and when? It really looks exactly like the one used at 1:19 in the clip above. (Not that "Apollo 13" is a documentary, but I believe they were careful with the hardware.)

posted 08-13-2015 03:20 AM               

Nice piece of hardware. I think this looks like the rendezvous and docking console for the rear of the space shuttle cabin looking into the cargo bay. The CDR would use it to rendevous with satellites, ISS, etc.

One of those joysticks or similar came up for auction at Bonhams space auction between 2010 or 2012.

posted 08-14-2015 05:48 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by p51:
...but that on/off switch underneath sure isn't from the 1960s.

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posted 06-22-2016 10:26 PM               

This "robotics chair" was used at Johnson Space Center during the early days of the space shuttle program to train astronauts on remote maneuvering systems operations. This meant one of two things, depending on what software was being used.

The astronaut could view a screen that showed a virtual Shuttle Remote Manipulator System - the famous 50-foot-long "Canadarm" manufactured in Canada and used to lift satellites out of the cargo bay, or retrieve satellites already in orbit for repair. (The most famous example of this was the re-focusing of the Hubble Space Telescope, which ensured decades of awe-inspiring pictures.)

The translational hand control on the left controlled the hand (or "end effector") so it could grapple or release items, while the rotational hand control on the right controlled the pitch, roll, and yaw of the "wrist joint" near the end. This simulated what astronauts in orbit would experience, using similar rotational and translational hand controllers in the orbiter's aft flight deck flight crew station.

Using different software, this same chair was used to simulate the use of thrusters so the space shuttle could maneuver for docking. This first occurred during the STS-71 mission in 1995, when the shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir. For the remainder of the space shuttle program, many astronauts arrived at, or left, the International Space Station using the docking maneuvers practiced years before in this simulator.

posted 06-23-2016 06:06 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
Or perhaps only a prototype for a mature simulator crew members actually trained on.

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posted 06-24-2016 12:43 PM               

• ROBoT sim on the ISS mockup in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (B9)
  
• the sim in the astronaut office
  
• the sim we used during HERA X