Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!grebyn!macom1!larry
From: larry@macom1.UUCP (Larry Taborek)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR Microcomputers: How far behind US?
Message-ID: <4849@macom1.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 89 17:03:56 GMT
References: <476@bnr-fos.UUCP>
Organization: CENTEL Federal Systems, Reston, VA. 22091-1506
Lines: 29

From article <476@bnr-fos.UUCP>, by schow@bnr-public.uucp (Stanley Chow):
> In article <4366@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:

[all sorts of stuff]

> 
> So, the USSR tests their shuttle with computer controlled landing,
> and the USA tests theirs with people.
> 
> This says either the USSR trusts their computers more, or values their
> pilots more. To send pilots up on the first flight sounds to me a little
> "gutsy", especailly when you have computer that can land the shuttle.
> 
Their are lots of reasons that can be read into this.  Maby the
USSR doesn't have any pilots that trust their computers! :-)

The USSR has had a history of controlling their space craft from
the ground and involving their pilots more as passengers or cargo
then anything else.  This is a reflection that they were in the
past incapable of developing computing systems that could fit in
a spacecraft.  That their present space craft is still remotly
piloted by computers on the ground is an extension of their past
history of spacecraft control, and their continuing lack of
computing power.
-- 
Larry Taborek	..!uunet!grebyn!macom1!larry	Centel Federal Systems
		larry@macom1.UUCP		11400 Commerce Park Drive
						Reston, VA 22091-1506
						703-758-7000