This seems to be JAXA's version of a manned spacecraft derived from LIFLEX:
Images were found here (graviton1066.tumblr.com). A reverse Google image search didn't reveal an original Japanese site with pictures as large as those. I would guess that those external tanks are detachable before re-entry.
It would be really cool if the pilot could look out of a large forward canopy window, but I was thinking that such a large window would compromise the structural integrity of the vehicle in a similar way to
this, especially with the pressure differences between the outside and inside being much higher in vacuum than in atmospheric flight. I also didn't want to change the geometry and make it look more like the HL-20 or Dream Chaser's forward windows.
There's also the issue of mass (although the mass of my vehicle – about 9 metric tons – is completely guesstimated).
http://www.fastcompany.com/61049/moon-minivan said:
Even something as fundamental as windows depends on your perspective. Spacecraft windows have been an issue at NASA since the days of Mercury in the early '60s. Engineers would just as soon create Orion's capsule without windows. That's the strongest, most efficient way to design a spacecraft's structure and skin. The astronauts would prefer a pair of bay windows. That's the way to ensure vital visibility during launch, landing, and orbital maneuvering. Although Orion's flight will typically be automated, astronauts crave a sense of "situational awareness," the ability to orient themselves spatially, physically. That is critical when things start to go wrong. As astronaut Edward Lu told Orion's designers, "I'll trade food for larger windows."
Yet one square foot of spacecraft window--three panes of quartz glass--weighs more than a square foot of metal hull. Every inch of window is weight that has to be shaved somewhere else.
Note that the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle would've had an opaque protrusion resembling a canopy instead of an actual bubble canopy like the X-24 it was based on.
So instead, there is a Kliper-like system in which the pilot would look at a
CameraMFD for forward visibility (and backward visibility during docking). However, the limitation of that would be that the framerate and image resolution of CameraMFD aren't optimal in the 3D virtual cockpit mode (it also doesn't work with the D3D9 graphics client, unfortunately). On orbit, astronauts would look through the relatively small portholes to get a view of actual space, as opposed to looking at a screen of space.