from Hacker News

The Globus INK: a mechanical navigation computer for Soviet spaceflight (2023)

by dangle1 on 10/5/24, 1:16 PM with 25 comments

• by kens on 10/5/24, 3:28 PM

  Author here for your mechanical computer questions...

  P.S. there are two more parts to the series, going into more details on the Globus, explaining the circuitry and the "algorithms": https://www.righto.com/2023/03/reverse-engineering-electroni... https://www.righto.com/2023/03/reverse-engineering-globus-in...

• by haunter on 10/5/24, 4:53 PM

  CuriousMarc has a 3 part video about restoring one, worth a watch

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmHaCQ8Ul6E

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP5dfjxdkQ4

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG29HrU6Slw

• by harywilke on 10/5/24, 6:03 PM

  Read a very interesting book on the space race from the soviet side. One of the things that stood out was the lack of solid state transistor technology meant that they were using tube transistors in their space craft. This was one of the reasons they had problems doing spacewalks. They couldn't expose the interior of their capsules to space or the electronics would go pop. The Wrong Stuff How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John strausbaugh https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-strausbaugh/th...

• by neuralRiot on 10/5/24, 8:01 PM

  I always found mechanical calculators fascinating, here’s an article with a video explanation about the MK1 navy fire control computer. https://hackaday.com/2014/10/28/retrotechtacular-fire-contro...

• by 4gotunameagain on 10/6/24, 5:58 AM

  One was sold last year for the bargain price of 40 thousand euros !

  https://meshok.net/en/item/275902733_%D0%93%D0%9B%D0%9E%D0%9...

• by LetsGetTechnicl on 10/5/24, 6:54 PM

  Whether or not its technically inferior to American space technology at the time, you have to admire the ingenuity.

• by richrichie on 10/6/24, 12:37 AM

  Mechanical computers are still used onboard Russian warships. These are meant to function under EMP attacks.

• by thrownawaysz on 10/6/24, 12:33 AM

  Dumb question: How do you jam a device like this? Is it even possible? Example: you want them to land at an incorrect location or doing more orbits than planned

• by philistine on 10/5/24, 4:17 PM

  Imagine going to space using gears moving a pin on a globe.

• by rbanffy on 10/5/24, 5:49 PM

  Now we need one on the Apollo 8 ball.

• by hintymad on 10/5/24, 5:31 PM

  Ha, the similar technology that Eridians used to launch Rocky's blip-A.