21 Apr
2005
21 Apr
'05
4:07 p.m.
Randy McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com>
wrote:
I don't remember all the details but I read that while NASA always tried to
solve problems with $ and technology.
The Russians used something better: thought. The biggest problems were
heat and pressure. Solid state devices shut down when heated. The
spacecraft was open on the flight to Venus and sealed up before landing.
This kept the insides under vacuum which slowed down heat transference.
Smart, very smart.
Reminds me of joke I was told when I visited my relatives in Canada:
"One of the first big problems of manned space flight was that ball-point pens
would not work reliably in zero gravity.
NASA started a huge research project and after more than a year the 'space pen'
was developed.
This was a ball point pen that could write upside down and in zero gravity.
(BTW: These pens were sold to the public and widely advertised when I was a kid)
The russian cosmonauts, on the other hand, simply used a pencil :-)