[AR] Re: Falcon 9 flight today
- From: Henry Spencer <henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 16:37:20 -0400 (EDT)
On Sun, 6 Oct 2013, Chris Jones wrote:
> The Soviets used to be the masters of this...
> On Voskhod 1, it was announced that ion devices were used to aid the
> control of the orientation of the spacecraft. Analysts jumped to the
> conclusion that the Soviets had developed ion engines, when in reality
> the devices were sensors to try to detect (not control) the orientation.
In fairness, this one *might* not have been deliberately deceptive. The
incorrect conclusion came about partly because the West had neglected the
idea of using ion sensors for attitude measurement, so people didn't think
of that option. (In fact, it's still a neglected technology in the West,
despite the Soviet/Russian use and some successful Western experiments.)
Henry Spencer
henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
(regexpguy@xxxxxxxxx)
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