Yes, a very unique period in history. I remember going to the school cafeteria in elementary school to watch the first Mercury mission.
Sputnik raised some very negative emotions in our scientific and engineering community.
JFK wanted to make the moon shot a joint US/USSR mission. I suspect this is why he was killed.
I haven’t been there in many years. There was a backup Mercury capsule in the Houston Science Museum. Lots of incandescent panel lamps and toggle switches. Nothing micro about it. There are some documents in the NASA archive about the early digital computers in the capsules. I recall that the first ones required a manual boot sequence and had very little memory. The memory wiped clean if powered down. Probably had some analog computers on board too to send data back to Mission Control............”Houston ,we have a problem.”
I wonder if there were some of the subminiature tubes used in the capsules. Motorola had a line of logic chips in 1963, but in 1961 I don’t think they had much more than transistors and an impressive line of diodes. I recall that it was a few more years before the first CPU was developed. Some of the industrial four-number tubes are “computer rated”, evidently for logic in computers (such as the 5965). Possibly some of the subminiatures were computer rated too.
I have several phonograph records of the early space program launches etc. There is a distinct absence of corporate influence.
Sputnik raised some very negative emotions in our scientific and engineering community.
JFK wanted to make the moon shot a joint US/USSR mission. I suspect this is why he was killed.
I haven’t been there in many years. There was a backup Mercury capsule in the Houston Science Museum. Lots of incandescent panel lamps and toggle switches. Nothing micro about it. There are some documents in the NASA archive about the early digital computers in the capsules. I recall that the first ones required a manual boot sequence and had very little memory. The memory wiped clean if powered down. Probably had some analog computers on board too to send data back to Mission Control............”Houston ,we have a problem.”
I wonder if there were some of the subminiature tubes used in the capsules. Motorola had a line of logic chips in 1963, but in 1961 I don’t think they had much more than transistors and an impressive line of diodes. I recall that it was a few more years before the first CPU was developed. Some of the industrial four-number tubes are “computer rated”, evidently for logic in computers (such as the 5965). Possibly some of the subminiatures were computer rated too.
I have several phonograph records of the early space program launches etc. There is a distinct absence of corporate influence.
Back in 1989-1990, while the Soviet Union still existed, they sent a very comprehensive museum exhibit across the US called "Soviet Space". I had the opportunity of seeing it on the Forth Worth museum of science. If you think that the US technology at the time was primitive, the Soviets were a couple of steps behind.
Yet they still had a unique ruggedness, perhaps born out from the rough conditions that they were created. We in the West now enjoy some of their ultra-rugged and awesome vacuum tubes, created back in that era.
Another positive windfall from the cold war, I guess.
Yet they still had a unique ruggedness, perhaps born out from the rough conditions that they were created. We in the West now enjoy some of their ultra-rugged and awesome vacuum tubes, created back in that era.
Another positive windfall from the cold war, I guess.
What tubes did the Soviets develop? They made some that we didn’t make? I was under the impression that they stole most of their technology from us. We might not have the freedom to write these comments if 007 hadn’t done such a great job of “keeping the British end up.”
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