A view of the Globus, a gray box with a rotating globe on the front. It also has switches and dials. The video shows gears and mechanisms inside rapidly clicking and moving.

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Ken Shirriff (kenshirriff@oldbytes.space)'s status on Friday, 24-Feb-2023 16:35:28 JST Ken Shirriff

How did Russian cosmonauts know where they were? The Globus INK (1967) showed the position of their Soyuz spacecraft on a rotating globe. It is an analog computer built from tiny gears. I reverse-engineered the wiring (which inconveniently had been cut) and we powered it up. 🧵

In conversation Friday, 24-Feb-2023 16:35:28 JST from oldbytes.space permalink