On 7/2/2010 2:46 PM, Rick Jones wrote:
In sci.space.history Pat wrote:
On 7/2/2010 10:37 AM, Rick Jones wrote:
Space.com's article claims it "veered out of control"

It's now apparently drifting away from the station while slowly
spinning.

Not unlike Frank Poole?-)

Oh joy - so it is on the verge of being a big honking peice of space
junk. With an orbit not far from that of the ISS.

If that's the case it will have to be liquidated, or sent into a "Gulag
Orbit" until it reenters.
For a real laugh, get ready to meet the Argon-16 Soyuz-Progress
computer, which uses magnetic core memory...you know, all the little
iron donuts on the wire grid:
http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/argon16.htm
NASA had started getting past this technology by the time Apollo 7 flew.
Imagine for a second if your PC had the computing power of a good
electronic calculator...and weighed over 150 pounds.
HAL would have been around the size of the Mall Of America. :-D

Pat