Topic: =/\= russians launch "spektr-r radio telescope

[stoneyface]

congratulations to the russians who have successfully launched a new deep space observatory radio telescope. it is called "spektr-r and many have dubbed it the "russian hubble" it's mission is an interesting one for me as it is going to be looking at black holes as part of it's mission. trying to peer further into black holes than ever before. it should be an interesting ride!

articles here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/russians-launch-space-telescope/story-e6frg6so-1226097482531
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1107/18spektr/index.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spektr_r.html

[Strat]

I'm a little taken aback by something in the picture.

Next to the satellite was a work station that looked like a Pentium I with a CRT monitor. I wonder was that was used for!

[stoneyface]

lol good spot! i love how the side is off of the tower! lol i would point out that the russians are the kings of recycling technology and using what they have until it is broken permanently. where techies in the usa and other countries would order all new components for a projects including computers and such, the russians will just reuse old pcs no longer being used on other projects. definitely a mindset thing. they are used to not having anything, so they use everything

[marstone]

remember back in the space race.  When we were getting up there and found out that pen's will not work in zero g.  We ran ahead and designed a pen that was pressurized so the ink will flow in zero-G, costing alot of money.

The Russians, used pencils.

[Strat]

To speak of reusing old technology, at this rate I would not be surprised if they still had the vacuum tubes that calculated the trajectory of sputnik!  Perhaps its used today to download the new images from their new digital space camera.

While funny, in reality I think it very sensible to try and reuse old hardware. Admittedly though, it's got to be hard with the way things get exponentially faster AND cheaper... a modern day cell phone could whoop that thing...

Perhaps they were using it as a test platform for the software that's running on the satellite itself, you know, since all modern day cpu's have all these new fangled instruction sets.. I don't know? Still scary.. I just can't imagine what realistic use it had...

I wouldn't put it past them to have put it there in the photo just for kicks.

[knightstorm]

I don't see how the Russians using old computers in their space program is unique.  I mean, the space shuttles used the same ancient computers during their entire service life.

[Tus-XC]

remember back in the space race.  When we were getting up there and found out that pen's will not work in zero g.  We ran ahead and designed a pen that was pressurized so the ink will flow in zero-G, costing alot of money.

The Russians, used pencils.

Actually there is a good reason to have a pen. The graphite in the pencil creates dust which causes problems with the electrical components, not so good when said electronics keeps you alive.

[marstone]

remember back in the space race.  When we were getting up there and found out that pen's will not work in zero g.  We ran ahead and designed a pen that was pressurized so the ink will flow in zero-G, costing alot of money.

The Russians, used pencils.

Actually there is a good reason to have a pen. The graphite in the pencil creates dust which causes problems with the electrical components, not so good when said electronics keeps you alive.

while for long term space travel I would agree.  At the time it was for one off space shots that last only alittle time.  Even in the space shuttle, the air runs through a filter system that would remove the dust before it could 'cling' to electronics.  Since it wouldn't settle out of the air, how the air is handled would remove the lions share of graphite from the air.

[Bonk]

CRT display technology is superior. LCDs are a compromise on quality and space.

That old Pentium probably runs applications much faster than many modern PCs. Put a well written app in assembler or pascal on a pentium running DOS5 or HP-UX and the machine will scream through its tasks. The overhead of multithreading in many applications is ridiculous overkill, it actually slows things down. Not to mention modern OSs - they're built to paint pretty pictures, not do work.

The best GC-MS data system I have ever worked with ran on DOS5 on a Pentium.... awesome data cruncher. Windows 7 could not possibly compete. Just not possible. I have not seen a more efficient and effective data aquisition and processing system yet.

An OS that is designed to be used by a 4 year old is not appropriate for hard science tasks. Simple as that.