Next-gen US spacecraft may boast Star Trek-like controls

 

The next generation of US spacecraft won't look much like the saucer-and-nacelle USS Enterprise-D on the outside. But inside, fans of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" should find it very familiar.

 

Inside the capsule dubbed the Orion, the pilot will find the controls are based on touchscreens - with many design cues taken from the futuristic 1987 hit TV series, Air&Space magazine said.

 

"On Orion, almost all of those switches will have disappeared, or, as (NASA astronaut and space shuttle veteran Lee) Morin says, will have 'gone onto the glass,'" the magazine said.

 

It added Orion will have a sophisticated system dubbed “eProc” (electronic procedures), that will automatically bring up relevant display pages.

 

Displays from these panels may bring back memories of the Enterprise-D (and its successor the Enterprise-E), where one simply touched parts of the backlit glass panel to get information or key in a command.

 

Physical switches on the Orion will be limited for “a few emergency things,” Morin said.

 

Morin said the design stemmed from a "long optimization process” that balanced "weight, power, and the crew’s ability to reach controls."

 

Shoestring budget visionary

 

Yet, the ST:TNG design that became an inspiration of sorts for modern touchscreen-based consumer electronics was more a product of limited budgets than being visionary.

 

The magazine cited excerpts from the book "Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction" quoting designers Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel as saying the production designer, simply did not have enough money for individually installed, lighted buttons.

 

Instead, he used backlit plastic film, with the control labels printed on them.

 

Star Trek influence

 

A separate article on Latest.com said Orion's touchscreens are the latest sign of Star Trek influence on spacecraft.

 

The original series in the 1960s also had an influence, if you think of the similarities between Starfleet's flip-open communicators and modern clamshell phones.

 

With the latest ST:TNG-influenced touchscreen controls, designers may have freed up a significant amount of space in Orion for its crew.

 

"Also gone are the bulky manuals, with the crew able to pull up anything on the screen and a special design so that any crew member can view the information displayed on any of the three screens in the cockpit," it said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News