tube technology and EMP

[Kapteyn, Rob]

> Randy McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com> wrote:
>
> I don't remember all the details but I read that while NASA always tried to 
> solve problems with $ and technology.
>
> The Russians used something better:  thought.  The biggest problems were 
> heat and pressure.  Solid state devices shut down when heated.  The 
> spacecraft was open on the flight to Venus and sealed up before landing. 
> This kept the insides under vacuum which slowed down heat transference.
> 
> Smart, very smart.

Reminds me of joke I was told when I visited my relatives in Canada:

"One of the first big problems of manned space flight was that ball-point pens
would not work reliably in zero gravity.
NASA started a huge research project and after more than a year the 'space pen'
was developed.
This was a ball point pen that could write upside down and in zero gravity.

(BTW: These pens were sold to the public and widely advertised when I was a kid)

The russian cosmonauts, on the other hand, simply used a pencil :-)