Russia's 1st All Digital Soyuz Spacecrft

[Nightclub Dwight]

I just read this article about that hot spy we recently deported.  It mentioned that today's blast off was Russia's first all digital Soyuz spacecraft.  What, were they using vacuum tubes up until now?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39561053/ns/technology_and_science-space

Ah, the good old days.  You just don't get the tone in these new fricken space ships like you used to.  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

I was surprised to learn not long ago that they still use core memory on the US Space Shuttles. I thought that stuff went out with the Hollerith cards. But, apparently it's impervious to the stray radiation encountered in space, so it's more reliable.

 

[OzziePete]

It wouldn't surprise me if the Russians were using tube technology....

Working at Sydney Airport years ago, Aeroflot started doing flights into and out of Australia. Even tho they weren't supposed to, they would occassionally sneak in an Illuysin jetliner instead of the 767s they said they'd use. Every time one of the older Soviet designs would come in, all the maintenance people would clamber over it as it still had the old valve (tube) technology!

I did get told that in the event of a nuclear war, the valve technology had proven itself the best chance of survival..... but no one really knew for sure why the ex Soviet regime persisted with the old technology for so long. Even tho the USA and Europe had banned technology exchanges in areas such as computer science and IC  & Solid State technology, it would have been very simple for the Soviets to get plans from any maintenance hangar at any airport and see what thet latest technology was all about.



....Just so long as this Russian All Digital Soyuz doesn't use any Microsoft OS I'm happy!

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

In case of nuclear war.  One more reason to run tube amps over solid state.  The world might be glowing, but our tubes will still be going strong!  :guitaristgif:

 

[OzziePete]

In case of nuclear war.  One more reason to run tube amps over solid state.  The world might be glowing, but our tubes will still be going strong!   :guitaristgif:

What might have been the argument in favour of valve technology and point to point wiring, is that it would have been easier to repair post apocalypse..but it might have something to do with frequency interferrence too.  :dontknow:

 

[-CB-]

Silicon is "doped" to be positive or negative... the P/n interfaces, or junctions, are what controls things.  The EM pulse that occurs during a nuclear blast knocks the doping off the silicon, rendering it useless.

Our military has gone to great lengths to develop shielding technologies that would protect aircraft in the event of nuclear strike.

The original import 6L6 Sovtek tube was from the tail servo of a Mig (forget the number) fighter. 

 

[OzziePete]

Silicon is "doped" to be positive or negative... the P/n interfaces, or junctions, are what controls things.  The EM pulse that occurs during a nuclear blast knocks the doping off the silicon, rendering it useless.

Our military has gone to great lengths to develop shielding technologies that would protect aircraft in the event of nuclear strike.

The original import 6L6 Sovtek tube was from the tail servo of a Mig (forget the number) fighter.  

Aaaa that sounds similar to what was told to me on the tarmac way back then .....  :icon_thumright:


BTW, I can recall some music magazines really trumping up the fear about the dwindling valve (tube) supply when a few factories closed down in the late 70s or so. The Mallory EL34 was gone as was Mallory itself and I think a factory in the USA had closed down too, no one could find tubes for the Marshall Major 200W amp (KT88 valves?)...Then the Berlin Wall came down and people realised that there were places in the old USSR and Eastern Bloc countries who had been making tubes all along! I think there was a mad rush to buy up all their old stock before they 'modernised' their factories and stopped valve (tube) making or convince them to continue for the boutique market of guitar amps.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I do know in the 90s, the Ruskies were still using Space Capsule technology they used in the 60s.  Their mortality rate is much higher too.  Their capsules don't land in water on re-entry and chutes don't always open.

And yes, the shuttle's operating system was outdated and kept in use by design as part of the KISS principle, keep it simple stupid.  Most astronauts aren't computer programmers, so they have to be able to fix anything for a trip home.  Southwest does the same thing.  They have one plane so their pilots and mechanics only have to know how to fly and fix one plane. 

 

[Graffiti62]

It wouldn't surprise me if the Russians were using tube technology....

Working at Sydney Airport years ago, Aeroflot started doing flights into and out of Australia. Even tho they weren't supposed to, they would occassionally sneak in an Illuysin jetliner instead of the 767s they said they'd use. Every time one of the older Soviet designs would come in, all the maintenance people would clamber over it as it still had the old valve (tube) technology!

I did get told that in the event of a nuclear war, the valve technology had proven itself the best chance of survival..... but no one really knew for sure why the ex Soviet regime persisted with the old technology for so long. Even tho the USA and Europe had banned technology exchanges in areas such as computer science and IC  & Solid State technology, it would have been very simple for the Soviets to get plans from any maintenance hangar at any airport and see what thet latest technology was all about.



....Just so long as this Russian All Digital Soyuz doesn't use any Microsoft OS I'm happy!

Speaking of Russian jets, there's one actually sitting no more than a mile or two from my house. I live on the former K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Sawyer was part of the cold war Strategic Air Command setup, and had B-52s flying in and out of here like crazy, up til the mid 90s. The county took over the base, and Bart Stupak helped get developers to rent out the properties here. Anyway, five Ukrainians decided to drop here from Texas on their way from Pakistan to fuel up with this Ilyushin Il-78. Five members of the crew had expired visas, were subsequently arrested and the plane has been grounded here ever since, due to the fact that the owners of the plane never paid their maintenance bills before the plane left Texas. The jet has been sitting here since July of '09. After doing some investigation, the owners kind of snuck away in the middle of the night because they owed nearly $100k for maintenance in Texas. Originally, the Ukranians were going to land this big thing in Oshkosh, WI, but couldn't due to the big AirVenture fly-in, so they diverted to Sawyer.

Here's the plane in Texas, being grounded for unpaid bills

And here's Michigan, sitting here for over a year for the same reason:

Just do a search on the tail number (N78GF) and you'll find a lot of stuff about this thing.

 

[JaySwear]

that thing's tail is ridiculously large.

 

[Cagey]

Seems like $100K would be front pocket money for somebody who owns a jet that probably cost many millions of dollars. But, I followed the lead you gave of searching on the tail number, and the thing has a storied history. Looks like it's going to be "sold" to creditors for $60K. Seems like a shame, but it's probably worth a lot more than that just in parts and scrap metal. Can't exactly pick up big fluffy jet engines like that at the local scrapyard <grin>

 

[Cagey]

that thing's tail is ridiculously large.

It's a tanker, so it's not designed for speed, it's designed to be stable and carry heavy loads.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Could $60K even fill up the tanks?

 

[Cagey]

Dunno, but I don't think so. Thing can carry 188,000 lbs. of the stuff, and I think the specific gravity of avgas is about .70, so that would be roughly 33,000 gallons. Locally, avgas runs roughly $4.50/gal, so to fill that puppy up it would cost over $148K. I doubt it runs on avgas, though, now that I think about it. It probably drinks JP5, but a spot check of local pricing doesn't have jet fuel pricing too far off avgas.