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Comment by detourdog | Hacker News Reader

I feel compelled to post some images of inertial guidance systems. Most of these parts are from the Minuteman 1 although there are some earlier and later guidance system components.

The white backplane and the gyroscopes are Minuteman 1 parts.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YG4TcsmGWIVSf

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>The MGS is an inertial guidance system which directs the flight of the missile. The guidance system operates continuously while the missile is in alert status, thus enabling the missile to be launched in less than one minute.

I wonder how often the missile is in alert status? Presumably regular testing?

For those just skimming the guidance system info (for Minuteman III) starts on page 49. Looks like they miniaturized it some and that giant moon lander backplane seems to be substantially reduced?

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing!

> I wonder how often the missile is in alert status?

In 1972-74 when I was a Minuteman I launch officer (DMCCC) our 10 missiles were /always/ on alert. You would expect to see 10 green "Strategic Alert" lights across the crew commander's (MCCC's) console unless something was wrong (requiring maintenance or a brief calibration).

IIRC we were in a perpetual state of DEFCON 4 in those days.

Interesting -

As a Minuteman launch officer, I'd be curious what are your thoughts on the incursion accounts of launch officers Robert Salas & David Schindele? (I understand there were comparable reports going into the 1970s as well but I'm not as familiar with those)

Salas @ Malmstrom https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos-dea...

Schindele @ Minot: https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2023/06/forme...

I was gonna say, they were always on alert. It's in the book. The inertial platforms at least were always spinning because it took a long time (minutes) to spin them up, or down.

Apart from regular testing, I would imagine anything at or above DEFCON 3 would put missiles in alert status. That level requires the USAF to be ready to go in 15 minutes.

During the Cuban missile crisis SAC went to defcon 2 while the rest of the armed forces stopped at defcon 3. The wiki page is an amazing read.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

Regular testing is one of the few times a US ICBM would _not_ be in alert status.

Ground-based launchers are not survivable and must be ready to fire promptly after attack warning.

What do you mean aground based launch isn’t survivable?

They mean the launch sites aren’t, because they are are obvious, high priority, targets for the enemy.

I get it now. I was fixated on our own missiles, sometimes I forget the context of these objects.

Thank you.

Good ole' Autonetics.

BTW you can see some of these at the Air and Space Museum in DC, and a smaller set at the Computer Science Museum in ... Palo Alto? Mountain View? (that area)

Mountain View

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10268625...

These are great, how did you come across / where did you get them?

I have been collecting Autonetics material since the early days of eBay.

Would love to see any/all other albums/photos that you are willing to share.

I’m working on it. Many projects but documenting this collection is bubbling up to the top.

Here is a Nixdorf 820 with the ROD memory

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y59UlCqNHCjx

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/...

This computer earned listing for this innovation.

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/...

Which puts into context.

I also included the story of it's previous life.

My thinking is we are focused on making circuits too small. We need big circuits that make big but simple decisions. I was collecting pre-microprocessor computing artifacts for a while. I now need to get sit down and figure out what I have.

In the meantime I use them as reference idea to feed my development of a 100 year computer.

So interesting, thanks for sharing

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