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From: fisher@dvinci.DEC (Burns Fisher, MRO3-1/E13, DTN 231-4108.)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Soviet space technology
Message-ID: <1292@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 10:26:09 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1292
Posted: Wed Nov  6 10:26:09 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 21:02:11 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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> 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.

The Soviet space program, as I have read about it, is quite analogous.  The
boosters they use are similar in many ways to that which sent Yuri Gagarin
into orbit in 1961, and Sputnik I in 1957.  But look at what they have gotten
in return!  A stable program under which they have gained invaluable experience
through an increasingly-closer-to-continuous presence in space.  We, on the
other hand, have gone in fits and starts, producing the shuttle only at a cost
of $tens-of-billions and of about 9 years with only four manned flights (or 6
years with none, if that sounds more impressive :-)).  I doubt that we have
caught up to the Soviets person-hours-in-space even with launching 7 and 8
people at a time on the shuttle.

This is not to say that either approach is WRONG.  They are just DIFFERENT.
Both approaches have succeeded in their own way.  My point is that we must
be careful when we start thinking that only the newest technology can be
effective.  After all, the Soviet's "old technology" has sent some pretty
jazzy machines to places like Venus and Halley's Comet!

Burns


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