Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ames.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!hplabs!ames!eugene
From: eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Soviet space technology
Message-ID: <1246@ames.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 12:27:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ames.1246
Posted: Thu Nov  7 12:27:26 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Nov-85 05:27:42 EST
References: <1292@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 42

> > Back in the late '70's, the US appeared to trail the space race; it is clear
> > now that we were in fact preparing a dramatic leap forward.  By contrast it
> > is incredible to observe how little technical advancement appears to have
> > been made in Soviet space technology since Gagarin's day.
> > 
> > Richard Irving, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill NJ		mhuxm!rhib
  
> I think that "little technical advancement" depends on how you look at it.
> For example, I could contend that there has been little technical advancement
> in airliner technology since c. 1957 since the B707 right up through the
> 767 are all quite similar in terms of basic design principles.  The point
> is that commercial airplanes have been passing through EVOLUTIONARY change
> rather than REVOLUTIONARY change.

Don't forget the concept of EVOLUTION is changing, too.
 
> This is not to say that either approach is WRONG.  They are just DIFFERENT.
> 
> Burns

I would like only to add a couple things since I posted Marcia Smith's analysis
of Soviet Space to the Usenet a couple of years ago.  The Soviet Union has
a very sophisticated  space station technology and boost technology.
Their space station's solar panels are GaAs, not Si.  The Soviet Union does
more launches per year than the US which also reflects their philosophy
of short-lived satellites rather than the US longer-life satellites, so they
have a wider-range of booster experience.  They have done inflight zero-G
refueling which we have yet to do.  You just don't hear about it in the US
media, but it is public information.  We learned of the Soviet space shuttle
effort because a Californian listening to Radio Moscow called up a talk show
and asked the chief of the Soviet Space Program about their shuttle projects
in 1978.  He gave precise dimensions over the radio and prior to that
the West knew nothing about it.  I still have Marcia's viewgraphs, but
I don't have time to mail copies to requesters.  Marcia was one of
the people interviewed in the reent 3-part series Spaceflight.  She works
for Congress at the Library of Congress.

From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
--eugene miya
  NASA Ames Research Center
  {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene
  emiya@ames-vmsb