Gregory's Server@gom The gyros were originally filled with helium, but for Minuteman II they switched to hydrogen to reduce gas drag. Then in Minuteman III they added baffles to reduce gas turbulence. Every bit of accuracy is important!
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Top-level
 @gom The gyros were originally filled with helium, but for Minuteman II they switched to hydrogen to reduce gas drag. Then in Minuteman III they added baffles to reduce gas turbulence. Every bit of accuracy is important! 1 comment
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@kenshirriff
Well, the switch to hydrogen not only lowers drag but also the load bearing capabilities (by a lot). Compensation is possible by increasing relative speeds between bearing surfaces and/or decreasing the gap.
Sounds simple, but really isn't.
Nerdsnipe (paper about gas lubricated bearings):
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/applsci/applsci-12-06432/article_deploy/applsci-12-06432-v3.pdf?version=1656985140
For comparison, modern HDDs are Helium filled to lower the flight height of the read/write head to ~5nm . >>
@kenshirriff
Well, the switch to hydrogen not only lowers drag but also the load bearing capabilities (by a lot). Compensation is possible by increasing relative speeds between bearing surfaces and/or decreasing the gap.
Sounds simple, but really isn't.
Nerdsnipe (paper about gas lubricated bearings):
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/applsci/applsci-12-06432/article_deploy/applsci-12-06432-v3.pdf?version=1656985140