Gregory's ServerBut why does the globe have dots indicating NASA communication sites such as Goldstone, Bermuda, and Merritt Island? This Globus must be from the Apollo-Soyuz project (1975), where an Apollo spacecraft docked with Soyuz in orbit.
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 This photo shows the Globus in the Soyuz-TM control panel (1986). Soviet control panels were very different from American ones, grids of buttons instead of masses of switches and meters. Here's a closer look at three sets of differential gears. The Globus made heavy use of differentials to add or subtract rotational values. Although mostly mechanical, the Globus used relays to control the landing position motor. Pairs of diodes across the relays absorbed inductive kickback. A potentiometer to output the orbital position as a voltage. This view of the Globus shows the wiring bundles. There are a lot of wires for a device that is mostly mechanical. For more details on the Globus INK, see my blog post: https://www.righto.com/2023/01/inside-globus-ink-mechanical-navigation.html. @kenshirriff looks like the link doesn't work because it needs www. for the domain
 @HeNeArXn It should work now; the original link didn't survive cut-and-paste. @kenshirriff The Mercury spacecraft had a similar mechanical globe called the Earth Path Indicator: https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/340932005505026 @emgre @kenshirriff interestingly that one doesn't seem to be driven at a great circle, so I wonder how that works reliably (since then it can't be fixed to the globe and be able to show every position?) @kenshirriff this is so fascinating. Thank you for the stellar write up on it! @kenshirriff I suspect that its accuracy would have been poor, going by the mechanical nav kit I’ve used or seen used in Jaguar and Harrier. @kenshirriff I'm fascinated by #9, which is right at the intersection of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. The nearest big city near the mark is San Pedro Sula, Honduras. But the closet *soviet-aligned* country would be Nicaragua, even though the mar is really too far west for that. But in 2017 ROSCOSMOS opened a GLOSNASS station in Laguna de Nejapa, Nicaragua, so its not impossible there was earlier coordination. |
To determine the landing position, the globe rotated through a specified angle, simulating a partial orbit. A drive motor did this rotation, stopping when the swing arm hit the adjustable angle limit switch. A second limit switch handled rotation back to the orbital position.