Gregory's ServerThis 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.
Source: https://web.mit.edu/slava/space/essays/essay-tiapchenko4.htm
|
Top-level
 20 comments
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. |
Here's a closer look at three sets of differential gears. The Globus made heavy use of differentials to add or subtract rotational values.