Javascript in space
What does it take to steer a spacecraft?
From a young age, I have always been fascinated by space. Most of all, the Apollo program has always been a source of inspiration for me. But unlike most kids, I would not picture myself in a spacesuit. I would picture myself in mission control. I was always more interested in the technology. Fixing an electrical problem in a spacecraft hundreds of thousands of kilometers a way by understanding everything about it and pushing the right buttons.
Although I became a developer and never did anything related to space professionally, the interest remained. So when SpaceX offered an online simulator where you have to dock the dragon spacecraft to the international spacestation, ofcourse I took a look. And not being a gamer or astronaut, ofcourse I crashed that dragon right into the ISS on the first few tries (sorry, NASA). So what does a developer do when a task is too hard? He gets his computer to do it.
Flying a spacecraft is a great task for a computer. The apollo spacecraft had an autopilot as part of its guidance computer. It was a great piece of engineering, developed at MIT. They basically invented ‘software’ as they were going. The real SpaceX dragon capsule also has an autopilot, which has already docked it to the ISS countless times.
