Thread

1. rkagerer · 1791013893 · focus · HN ↗

   I almost skipped the videos embedded in this article, but they are well curated gems. A few tidbits I found amazing:

   - 800°F (and above) was the temperature of their cooling air

   - the engine ran too hot for electronics, so they designed a hydraulic mechanical computer responsible for regulating various inputs

   - the roar from the two external 400 cubic inch Buick V8 engines originally used to start the aircraft was so irresistible to the hotrod enthusiasts running them that they sometimes neglected to disconnect in time before the starter engines overran RPM limits and "puked their guts out under the airplane" - they had to buy up so much replacement stock as to deplete every single junkyard across the USA of that particular model (so the story goes - probably hyperbole but a fun tale!)

   1. snickerbockers · 1791120737 · focus · HN ↗

      > the engine ran too hot for electronics, so they designed a hydraulic mechanical computer responsible for regulating various inputs

      There was a proposal at one point for NASA to deploy a 21st-century automaton to Venus because the atmosphere is too corrosive for an electronic computer. Supposedly it would have delivered its data to an orbiter using a balloon and then the orbiter transmits the information over radio. I really wish they'd do that, I would love to see what could be done with mechanical computing using modern technologies.

      Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of situations where clockwork logic makes more sense than semiconductors.

      1. api · 1791142789 · focus · HN ↗

         Don’t we have some better high temp electronics now? I have a Bluetooth meat thermometer that works up to like 600F.

         1. usefulcat · 1791143597 · focus · HN ↗

            In the one that I'm familiar with, they put the battery and all electronics in the part of the probe that sticks inside the meat so that the temperature of that part never exceeds ~212F. The part that sticks out and gets really hot is probably just an antenna.

            A clever design to be sure, but still a long way from electronics that can survive anything near your typical oven temperature, much less the surface of Venus.

            1. gomox · 1791144616 · focus · HN ↗

               Indeed. As a corollary of this design, trying to use the tip of such a thermometer to gauge frying oil temperature will kill it pretty much instantly.
            2. jedbrooke · 1791167489 · focus · HN ↗

               what I’m getting from this is that we need to send our space probe to venus encapsulated inside a steak :)

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