On 2008-07-11, Gerhard HOLTKAMP <grd.holtkamp@t-online.de> wrote: > > On Friday 11 July 2008 21:11, Jeff Umbarger wrote: > > Also, there have been a number of recent technology shows on TV here in the > > US about the "Space Race", that show that animation we may all be familiar > > with of the Sputnik separting from it's nose cone. It's interesting to note > > that there appears, in the animation, a puff of gas between the nose cone > > and the satellite body. I never noticed it before but is anyone familiar > > with the separation mechanism? > > > > > There have been various backup systems to set Sputnik 1 free. In an excellent > article about Sputnik 1 in the November 2007 issue of Spaceflight magazine > Asif A. Siddiqi mentiones the following details: There was a mechanical > pushing system on the launcher to impart a relative velocity of 2.73 m/sec to > the satellite. There also was a pyrotechnical system to separate the > satellite at a relative speed of 1.45 m/sec and also a spring-loaded > mechanism that would separate the protective nosecone at a relative speed of > 0.643 m/sec. Yet another system involved a nozzle installed on the upper > surface of the oxydizer tank that would vent gas from the oxygen tank at the > moment of satellite separation to slow down the booster and also to change > its attitude to prevent it from colliding with the payload. > > So the Russians put a lot of thought into this seemingly simple satellite! Well, no matter what its payload (and the design payload was a hydrogen bomb), it was likely to need a separation mechanism (or two, or three, or...). Given all these backup systems, it seems very likely that the Soviet story is true that they always intended to keep Sputnik 2 attached to the launcher, and the fact that they remained joined was not due to a separation failure, as some Western accounts had it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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