Starship Pilot Training

[Webb Trekker]

Hello... I'm the new kid on the block and a SpaceX fan too boot.
Looking around I thought this might be a good forum to broach this subject.
Lately it has been bothering me that I have heard nothing about who will be flying Starship once it gets past the testing and trial run stage.
Is there such a thing in place that has people building, learning constructing the controls necessary to actually pilot. Who might these people be? Pretty sure NASA will not let any of their people near this craft with out a ton of interference.
Thanks bunches.

 

[ecarfan]

Lately it has been bothering me that I have heard nothing about who will be flying Starship once it gets past the testing and trial run stage.
Is there such a thing in place that has people building, learning constructing the controls necessary to actually pilot. Who might these people be?

Those people would be SpaceX aeronautical engineers. Rockets are “piloted” by software which is written by software programmers.

 

[Nikxice]

Starship and other future crewed spacecraft will still have a Pilot in Command (PIC), but any hands on flying will be minimal to zero. NASA still favors military test pilots, SpaceX will likely open up the background of candidates. Kerbal God Scott Manley would be a fun choice . IMHO the job will probably go to the best decision makers, not necessarily those with the best piloting skills.

 

[RDoc]

I'm pretty doubtful that a human could "pilot" a modern rocket in any meaningful sense.

 

[ecarfan]

I'm pretty doubtful that a human could "pilot" a modern rocket in any meaningful sense.

I agree. What @Nikxice calls the “Pilot in Command” is the person that interfaces with ground control, where the actual decisions are made. But the flight path is of course calculated in advance and implemented via software contained in the onboard computers.

I’m sure we are all familiar with the extraordinary piloting that Neil Armstrong performed to safely land the LEM on the Apollo 11 mission. That was necessary because the landing area had rocks the size of cars (as Aldrin put it, I think), the LEM was fragile, and it was not possible to calculate the landing location in advance with sufficient accuracy. There were a lot of unknowns.

With greater knowledge and modern engineering the next human landing on the Moon will hopefully be easier, though some human control may still be needed, I would guess. Because of the low gravity and lack of an atmosphere, Moon landings can take place at low speed and are more controllable. On Mars the Starship is going to come in hot and fast and I don’t know if any human piloting will be involved.