View Full Version : Apollo Command Module?
tony draper
6th May 2003, 15:20
To fly again?.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=9031
Cool. Maybe they should look at bringing back the Saturn V while they're at it...
tony draper
6th May 2003, 21:31
Concidering how much things have progressed since then, I would think only the outside shell would be as original spec,.
the command and service module was prolly 16k pre 286 computer technology, although I believe it was the first vehicle to utilise fly by wire.
I thought Dick Rutan had the brief to design a lifeboat for the ISS, I have seen a clip of his vehicle, looks like a very small lifting body with a para wing deploying in the lower atmosphere.
Rutan usualy does good work.
lunkenheimer
7th May 2003, 04:53
I think you're right about that Drapes, but IIRC the computer in the CM had 256 bytes (0.256 k) of 'core' i.e. the tiny magnetic doughnuts strung on wires, and the cpu was made of individual transistors and very crude chips. Amazing what they did with what they had, though!
Shaggy Sheep Driver
7th May 2003, 18:18
I used to work with Dec PDP 11s that had real core memory. Great stuff - it had the useful characteristic of retaining content without the need for power. No need for a hard disk. Very useful in harsh environments, where hard disks might 'crash' - and in those days hard disks were massive for not much capacity, and unreliable.
SSD
vintage ATCO
8th May 2003, 01:05
We were still using PDP11's until only a few years ago!
VA
Iron City
8th May 2003, 01:40
I worked with ARTS IIIAs with core memory a few years ago at DCA and IAD. Worked fine except there was too much software and proccessing to do. Obviously inefficiently written code.
tony draper
8th May 2003, 06:20
As I understand it the Shuttle still uses 386 computers, apparently the reletivly lare size of the internal structure of the CPU makes it less suseptible to cosmic ray damage.
I did not have time to read the whole article when I posted it, is it their intention to carry the CMS up in the Shuttle bay?, or launch it on a rebuilt Saturn 4B ?.
As I said I have seen a clip of Rutans lifeboat, it was dropped from high altitude and worked fine, so he must have been a long way along with the project, I wonder why it was abandoned.