Gregory's ServerThe rotating globe of the Globus INK (1967) showed Soviet cosmonauts their location in orbit. I reverse-engineered this analog gear-driven computer. We tested the "landing position" feature that rapidly spins the globe to show where they would land. Then it spins back to orbit.🧵
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Inside the Globus, ten differential gear assemblies add together rotations to determine the globe's position. Cams compute the nonlinear latitude and longitude functions.  Inertial navigation systems, gyroscopes, gimbals, etc.—one of the best examples of military research contemporaneously contributing to science research, and then also aerospace industry! Still exists a history book to be written about, with a central chapter for Draper Laboratory ;) You should log/vlog this!! @kenshirriff It's amazing what was done with the newest technology that was available at that time. Probably nobody could imagine then that all that gets replaced by a generic screen and some super fast calculations done by billions of tiny transistors controlling the screen. But it's the same today; we just use the latest technology at hand and nobody knows what the future brings. |
The Globus advances its position every second. That's the annoying clicking sound, solenoids ratcheting the gears forward. For the landing position, a separate motor (upper right) spins the globe, stopping when an arm hits the limit switch. The relay board controls the motor.