Ken Shirriff in Elk: "How did Russian cosmonauts know where ..."

How did Russian cosmonauts know where they were? The Globus INK (1967) showed the position of their Soyuz spacecraft on a rotating globe. It is an analog computer built from tiny gears. I reverse-engineered the wiring (which inconveniently had been cut) and we powered it up.

February 23, 2023 at 5:24:17 PM

The Globus is driven by solenoids. We "overclocked" the Globus and ran it at 10 hertz instead of 1 hertz because its motion is too slow to see otherwise: 90 minutes for an orbit and 24 hours for the Earth to rotate. Here's a clip showing the Globus running at its correct speed.

For more about the internals of the Globus, see my blog post:
https://www.righto.com/2023/01/inside-globus-ink-mechanical-navigation.html

www.righto.com

Inside the Globus INK: a mechanical navigation computer for Soviet spaceflight

The Soviet space program used completely different controls and instruments from American spacecraft. One of the most interesting navigati...

That is AMAZING, I need one! Were the cosmonauts also constantly hearing that sound? Could they discern velocity or change in position by listening to the clicks?

Note that we're running the Globus at 10 hertz to make the motion more visible. In use, it just clicks once per second. Also, it's probably quieter when the case is on and it is installed in the console.