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Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

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Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#11

Post by kurthr »

sonicanatidae wrote: post #8
WalterBright wrote: post #5

Why aren't such things connected with a lanyard to the spacecraft?

They usually are. I suspect this was a missed step by someone.

There's a giant swimming pool in Galveston which has a full underwater replica of the ISS for astronaut training. There are other scuba divers that work with the astronauts when they practice maintenance. One of their jobs (like the invisible waiter at a high end restaurant that makes dirty utensils go away) is to "retrieve" anything that the astronauts "put down". Often the maintenance jobs are multi-hour "space walks".

Apparently, it basically happens every training and the divers take great joy in putting the items on the Lost Wall for everyone to see.

Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#12

Post by kortex »

kurthr wrote: post #11
sonicanatidae wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They usually are. I suspect this was a missed step by someone.

There's a giant swimming pool in Galveston which has a full underwater replica of the ISS for astronaut training. There are other scuba divers that work with the astronauts when they practice maintenance. One of their jobs (like the invisible waiter at a high end restaurant that makes dirty utensils go away) is to "retrieve" anything that the astronauts "put down". Often the maintenance jobs are multi-hour "space wal…

> One of their jobs (like the invisible waiter at a high end restaurant that makes dirty utensils go away) is to "retrieve" anything that the astronauts "put down".

This is fascinating. I'm not quite following what is meant by retrieval though. I assume from context the divers aren't retrieving to return the tools to the astronaut, and rather are emulating the drift that occurs in a frictionless vacuum? "Oops I set it 'down' and now it's 200m away".

> Lost Wall

I presume this is a "Wall of Shame" of sorts?

Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#14

Post by thedaly »

EA wrote: post #7
fouronnes3 wrote: post #3

Anyone got a link to an official report detailing what happened? The article is kinda light on details, but I assume this is a major mishap that can only happen if multiple things go wrong simultaneously? Everything m they do up there is a precisely choreographed dance so it would be interesting to read a technical report on that.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2023/11/01/astronauts-en...

There aren't very many details in that post either.

> During the activity, one tool bag was inadvertently lost. Flight controllers spotted the tool bag using external station cameras. The tools were not needed for the remainder of the spacewalk. Mission Control analyzed the bag’s trajectory and determined that risk of recontacting the station is low and that the onboard crew and space station are safe with no action required.

Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#17

Post by munk-a »

p1esk wrote: post #15

Tool bag “valued at $100,000”? What could possibly be in there?

Probably just regular stuff but of a high enough quality that we'd consider sending it to space? Defense and space equipment procurement is usually a lot more expensive than normal because 1) companies exploit the bidding system 2) you really don't want a screw driver that fails when you're re-attaching a solar panel to something floating in LEO since the run to the local Lowe's is going to be quite expensive.

Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#19

Post by Mizza »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #3

Anyone got a link to an official report detailing what happened? The article is kinda light on details, but I assume this is a major mishap that can only happen if multiple things go wrong simultaneously? Everything m they do up there is a precisely choreographed dance so it would be interesting to read a technical report on that.

There's a copypasta floating around - badum tish - giving an account of a particular US astronaut - https://futurism.com/the-byte/russia-threatens-nasa-astronau... - who caused this and a lot of other major problems. Accusations of misinformation, yada yada yada, but it sounds like it might have been a case of the roommate from hell, only in space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vXdRUIZ_EM

whoops

Re: Astronauts drop tool bag into orbit that you can see with binoculars

#20

Post by crazygringo »

kristianp wrote: post #13

They need a drone to go and pick these dropped items. How much fun that would be!

Now you've got me genuinely curious -- does something like that exist? A space drone with gas propulsion and a grasping hand?

It seems like it would be "relatively" simple, and useful for basic tasks that don't need a full human.

I mean, now that you mention it, it really seems like that ought to be a thing, and that this would be a perfect use case for it. (Visual inspection of the ISS exterior would be another.)

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