I wonder if flat buttons are a good idea. On top of a vibrating rocket I'd prefer buttons where I can feel their outline with my finger tips. The labels seem light gray, a less elegant but better visible writing might be better suited here, too.
Obviously they're smarter than that, but damn do I hate those "buttons".
Dragon is entirely computer controlled during the times the rocket'd be vibrating. Other than a "oh shit, fire the crew escape rocket" button you're not going to be pressing anything during ascent or landing.
> But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program — each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.
Now I'm wondering how well typing on a keyboard works in space...
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7244/7300035260_8e872e201c_b.j...
Probably somewhere close on the list is the MAGNET STOP button on a MRI machine, it destroys the superconducting magnet and vents the incredibly expensive helium into the atmosphere.
http://a406.idata.over-blog.com/0/01/25/36/magnetic-field-st...
No cover, no toggle, no delay, you want them big and red and able to be pressed by someone with two broken wrists.
And while liquid helium isn't cheap, filling the dewar once isn't that expensive compared to the MRI itself. You have to contiuously refill liquid helium, which is a significant running cost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram#/media/File:NS_Savannah_...
It got pushed once in 1955 by a supervisor who had to jump over the table to hit it, because the employee in charge of the panel was chatting on the phone with his wife.
It was hit too late though, and half the core melted down.
(That's particularly bad for breeder reactors, because it can cause a nuclear explosion.)
Ironically, the entire chain-of-events was precipitated by a different wrong button being pressed.
He said it wasn't particularly fair as the company he worked for wasn't responsible for the system having the problem, they just did the display part and made the mistake of displaying their company name rather conspicuously. Try explaining that to an angry man standing on top of a nuclear reactor...