Soviet Laser Pistol
The Soviet laser pistol was a prototype handgun-shaped energy weapon designed for use by cosmonauts in a low or zero-gravity environment that renders conventional firearms ineffective. The weapon was magazine fed and used pyrotechnic flashbulb technology to project its beam. Another type of the gun was a six-shot laser revolver. History and design With the development of the Space Shuttle, the Soviets began to worry that the US would be able to snatch satellites from orbit and carry them back to Earth. This fear prompted the development of the laser gun. The weapons were designed to either disable optical sensors on enemy spacecraft or to flash-blind enemy astronauts when engaged in an orbital combat aboard or out of spacecraft. The last scenario was considered implausible, however, and the gun had no deadly force. Its energy output was sufficient to inflict damage on optical devices and cause eye injuries. Because of the environment of its intended use, the gun had to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light which is ''coherent''. Spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances (collimation), enabling applications such as laser pointers and lidar (light detection and ranging). Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with a very narrow spectrum. Alternatively, temporal coherence can be used to produce ultrashort pulses of ligh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Optical Sensor
A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor. Sensors are always used with other electronics. Sensors are used in everyday objects such as touch-sensitive elevator buttons (tactile sensor) and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base, and in innumerable applications of which most people are never aware. With advances in micromachinery and easy-to-use microcontroller platforms, the uses of sensors have expanded beyond the traditional fields of temperature, pressure and flow measurement, for example into MARG sensors. Analog sensors such as potentiometers and force-sensing resistors are still widely used. Their applications include manufacturing and machinery, airplanes and aerospace, cars, medicine, robo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Pistols Of The Soviet Union
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, and is derived from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife. In colloquial usage, the word "pistol" is often used to describe any type of handgun, inclusive of revolvers (which have a single barrel and a separate cylinder housing multiple chambers) and the pocket-sized derringers (which are often multi-barrelled). The most common type of pistol used in the contemporary era is the semi-automatic pistol, while the older single-shot and manual repeating pistols are now rarely seen and used primarily for nostalgic hunting and historical reenactment, and the fully automatic machine pistols are uncommon in civilian usage due to generally poor recoil-controllability and strict laws and regulations governing their manu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Military Lasers
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
TP-82 Cosmonaut Survival Pistol
The TP-82 (russian: ТП-82) was a triple-barrelled Soviet combination pistol carried by cosmonauts on space missions. It was intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness. Features The pistol could be used for hunting, to defend against predators and for visible and audible distress signals. The detachable buttstock was also a machete that came with a canvas sheath. The upper two shotgun barrels used special 12.5×70 mm ammunition (40 gauge), and the lower single rifled barrel used 5.45×39mm ammunition developed for the AK-74 assault rifle. The TP-82 had a large lever on the left side of the receiver that opens the action, and a small grip safety under the trigger guard that resembled a secondary trigger. According to NASA astronauts, the gun was highly accurate. History The TP-82 was the result of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's concerns after being stranded in the Siberian wilderness when his Voskhod capsule malfunct ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
New Political Thinking
New political thinking (or simply new thinking) was the doctrine put forth by Mikhail Gorbachev as part of his reforms of the Soviet Union. Its major elements were ideologization of international politics, abandoning the concept of class struggle, priority of universal human interests over the interests of any class, increasing interdependence of the world, and mutual security based on political rather than military instruments, which constituted a significant shift from the previous principles of the Foreign relations of the Soviet Union, Soviet foreign politics."Gorbachev's New Thinking" by David Holloway, ''Foreign Affairs'', vol.68 no.1 USDOS archive [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "reconstruction", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system, in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation. Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced many market-like reforms. The alleged goal of perestroika, however, was not to end the command economy but rather to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet citizens by adopting elements of liberal economics. The process of implementing perestroika added to existing shortages, and created political, social, and economic tensions within the Soviet Union. Fu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Flash Blindness
Flash blindness is an either temporary or permanent visual impairment during and following exposure of a varying length of time to a light flash of extremely high intensity, such as a nuclear explosion, flash photograph, lightning strike, or extremely bright light, i.e. a searchlight, laser pointer, landing lights or ultraviolet light. The bright light overwhelms the retinas of the eyes and generally gradually fades, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. However, if the eyes are exposed to a high enough level of light, such as a nuclear explosion, the blindness can become permanent. Flash blindness may also occur in everyday life. For example, the subject of a flash photograph can be temporarily flash blinded. This phenomenon is leveraged in non-lethal weapons such as flash grenades and laser dazzlers. Cause Flash blindness is caused by bleaching (oversaturation) of the retinal pigment. As the pigment returns to normal, so too does sight. In daylight the eye's p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Tekhnika Molodezhi
''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' (russian: Техника — молодёжи, "Technology for the Youth") is a Soviet Union, Soviet, and eventually Russian popular science magazine which has been published monthly since 1933. History and profile ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' was established in 1933. During the Soviet era, it was often the first publisher of foreign science fiction authors in the USSR. The magazine had a science fiction section. References External linksOfficial website Journal Archive 1933-2012 1933 establishments in the Soviet Union Magazines established in 1933 Popular science magazines Russian-language magazines Monthly magazines published in Russia Science and technology magazines published in Russia Magazines published in the Soviet Union Soviet science fiction Science and technology in the Soviet Union {{Russia-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype (a process sometimes called materialization) is the step between the Formal specification, formalization and the evaluation of an idea. A prototype can also mean a typical example of something such as in the use of the derivation 'prototypical'. This is a useful term in identifying objects, behaviours and concepts which are considered the accepted norm and is analogous with terms such as stereotypes and archetypes. The word ''wikt:prototype, prototype'' derives from the Greek language, Greek ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Nauka (publisher)
Nauka (russian: Наука, lit. trans.: ''Science'') is a Russian publisher of academic books and journals. Established in the USSR in 1923, it was called the USSR Academy of Sciences Publishing House until 1963. Until 1934 the publisher was based in Leningrad, then moved to Moscow. Its logo depicts an open book with Sputnik 1 above it. Nauka was the main scientific publisher of the USSR. Structurally it was a complex of publishing institutions, printing and book selling companies. It had two departments (in Leningrad and Novosibirsk) with separate printing works, two main editorial offices (for physical and mathematical literature and oriental literature) and more than 50 thematic editorial offices. Nauka's main book selling company ''Akademkniga'' ("Academic Book" in English) had some 30 trading centers in all major cities of the country. Nauka was the main publisher of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its branches. The greater part of Nauka's production were monographs. It al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |