3 ms·

That's the Globus IMP and dates back to 1964. Wikipedia has details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument htt

by kens 7y ago

That's the Globus IMP and dates back to 1964. Wikipedia has details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%2...

eigenvalue 7y ago
Wow, what an amazing device! I’m surprised this isn’t better known in the West. I’d love to understand better how it actually worked in a detailed way. Mechanical computers are so cool.
- kens 7y ago
  If anyone has a Globus indicator sitting around, I'd be happy to open it up and reverse engineer it :-)
  - bigiain 7y ago
    That would be _so_ cool! BTW, do you have any measurements of that clock you could share? I'm seriously considering mocking one up just for the cool factor... It'd be nice to get it at least approximately the right size. (I'm also considering building a working model Globus indicator too. Maybe I'll just size everything based on the most suitable globe I can find...)
- bigiain 7y ago
  If you're ever anywhere near The Bay Area, go do the tour of the Nike Base in the Marin Headlands. They've got a _super_ cool mechanical targeting computer there... https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
bigiain 7y ago
So in '64, it certainly wasn't showing the "GPS" position... The US GPS constellation wasn't "complete" till '95, and GLONASS till '96. The '96-02 vintage of this digital clock means it's _possible_ the Soyez were listening GPS satellites - but given it's '64 heritage I doubt it...
- beerandt 7y ago
  I assume in the context, he means "GPS" to mean radio based position and velocity fixing, since it's opposed to dead reckoning. You're talking about NAVSTAR GPS, which is what most people refer to as simply "GPS". However other radio based US military nav sats date back to the 50s with the Navy's TRANSIT system, and Timation 1 was launched in '67, which was probably the first sat with a signal helpful for real-time, fast moving calculations, but was almost certainly too big to fit in a space ship at the time. Usable LORAN dates back to ~1940, if you don't limit it to sat based systems. I'm not familiar with what the Soviets were capable of at the time in terms of either their independent nav systems, or ability to take advantage of the US ones, but it's reasonable to think they were putting as much military effort into it as the US was. Hell, a lot of info on the US history has only been ~recently declassified. Point being, the space race happened specifically to develop this type of nuke delivery technology. At the time, this thinking definitely included manned space capsules (think nuclear bombers, but flying in space), as well as ICBMs, both of which would require precise navigation. That said, the IMP merely calculated and displayed updated position based on manually input orbit parameters, which were calculated on the ground and radioed up. Those, in turn, were based on location/velocity observations using both radio and radar range-finding, but all ground-based.

by kens 7y ago

eigenvalue 7y ago

Wow, what an amazing device! I’m surprised this isn’t better known in the West. I’d love to understand better how it actually worked in a detailed way. Mechanical computers are so cool.

kens 7y ago
If anyone has a Globus indicator sitting around, I'd be happy to open it up and reverse engineer it :-)
- bigiain 7y ago
  That would be _so_ cool! BTW, do you have any measurements of that clock you could share? I'm seriously considering mocking one up just for the cool factor... It'd be nice to get it at least approximately the right size. (I'm also considering building a working model Globus indicator too. Maybe I'll just size everything based on the most suitable globe I can find...)
bigiain 7y ago
If you're ever anywhere near The Bay Area, go do the tour of the Nike Base in the Marin Headlands. They've got a _super_ cool mechanical targeting computer there... https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm

bigiain 7y ago

So in '64, it certainly wasn't showing the "GPS" position... The US GPS constellation wasn't "complete" till '95, and GLONASS till '96. The '96-02 vintage of this digital clock means it's _possible_ the Soyez were listening GPS satellites - but given it's '64 heritage I doubt it...

beerandt 7y ago
I assume in the context, he means "GPS" to mean radio based position and velocity fixing, since it's opposed to dead reckoning. You're talking about NAVSTAR GPS, which is what most people refer to as simply "GPS". However other radio based US military nav sats date back to the 50s with the Navy's TRANSIT system, and Timation 1 was launched in '67, which was probably the first sat with a signal helpful for real-time, fast moving calculations, but was almost certainly too big to fit in a space ship at the time. Usable LORAN dates back to ~1940, if you don't limit it to sat based systems. I'm not familiar with what the Soviets were capable of at the time in terms of either their independent nav systems, or ability to take advantage of the US ones, but it's reasonable to think they were putting as much military effort into it as the US was. Hell, a lot of info on the US history has only been ~recently declassified. Point being, the space race happened specifically to develop this type of nuke delivery technology. At the time, this thinking definitely included manned space capsules (think nuclear bombers, but flying in space), as well as ICBMs, both of which would require precise navigation. That said, the IMP merely calculated and displayed updated position based on manually input orbit parameters, which were calculated on the ground and radioed up. Those, in turn, were based on location/velocity observations using both radio and radar range-finding, but all ground-based.