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Except that the space pens were developed with private funds and the Soviets bought the same pens from the same manufacturer. There are some interesting philos
by delazeur 10y ago
Except that the space pens were developed with private funds and the Soviets bought the same pens from the same manufacturer. There are some interesting philosophical differences between the programs, but "the Russians jerry-rigged everything while the Americans used careful and conscientious engineering" isn't one of them.
- sliverstorm 10y agoYes, I know it's not accurate, which is why I called it a tale. Neither was I saying russians jerry-rigged everything. What it does seem, is they used more simplifying approaches to control costs & complexity (possibly at the cost of some amount of additional risk)
- nickik 10y agoIts always funny that people talk about how the US reduces risk by complexity but in reality the Space Shuttle was the unsafest vehicle ever, and caused the most deaths. Not to mention how expensive this overly complex design was. Even when the built a space plane (for political reasons) they had the good sense to make it unmanned (in the beginning) and to not put the main engines on the vehicle itself. The also design in a ground abort system.
- sliverstorm 10y agoYes, the problem with complexity is eventually you go too far and the complexity makes it worse.