I must confess, this system always struck me as a triumph of ingenuity over "common sense", and I mean that in a good way. Rather like the "bat bomb" program, it's a prime example of how valuable an unusual viewpoint on a problem can be.
Not that the unusual solution is always a good idea, but it generally points you down an line of thought you would never have embarked upon otherwise.
In this case, I think the important innovation is the idea of redundancy in the guidance system - in this case, using 3 pigeons and averaging out their inputs. Sounds remarkably similar to the way the shuttle's fly-by-wire system uses multiple computers running the same software to generate control commands.
Absolutely true. Of course, the ORCON system probably had its own version of "software conflicts", since a major problem would be training the pigeons not to peck each other; they get irritable when confined in a harness.
And of course, the small problem of dealing with the pigeons', err, "exhaust products" in the guidance package.
3 comments:
Um..., these pigeon bites I had on Crispin's day?
I must confess, this system always struck me as a triumph of ingenuity over "common sense", and I mean that in a good way. Rather like the "bat bomb" program, it's a prime example of how valuable an unusual viewpoint on a problem can be.
Not that the unusual solution is always a good idea, but it generally points you down an line of thought you would never have embarked upon otherwise.
In this case, I think the important innovation is the idea of redundancy in the guidance system - in this case, using 3 pigeons and averaging out their inputs. Sounds remarkably similar to the way the shuttle's fly-by-wire system uses multiple computers running the same software to generate control commands.
Cthel;
Absolutely true. Of course, the ORCON system probably had its own version of "software conflicts", since a major problem would be training the pigeons not to peck each other; they get irritable when confined in a harness.
And of course, the small problem of dealing with the pigeons', err, "exhaust products" in the guidance package.
;-)
cheers
eon
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