Foot Pedals for Spacecraft Manual Control

Abstract

Fifty years ago, NASA decided that the cockpit controls in spacecraft should be like the ones in airplanes. But controls based on the stick and rudder may not be best way to manually control a vehicle in space. A different method is based on submersible vehicles controlled with foot pedals. A new pilot can learn the sub's control scheme in minutes and drive it hands-free. We are building a pair of foot pedals for spacecraft control, and will test them in a spacecraft flight simulator.