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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

#41

Post by smegger001 »

kortex wrote: post #12
kurthr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

Why not put magnets on the tools handle so they can be quickly anchored near the working space when not in use? Similar to how we would set our tools down in full gravity astronauts could set the tool "down" without it floating away.

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

#43

Post by space_fountain »

Mizza wrote: post #19
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

The video was of a different incident right and the person mentioned in the first link hasn't been on the station in years?

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

#44

Post by iwontberude »

smegger001 wrote: post #41
kortex wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

Why not put magnets on the tools handle so they can be quickly anchored near the working space when not in use? Similar to how we would set our tools down in full gravity astronauts could set the tool "down" without it floating away.

I am a layperson but I imagine it would be because then you have magnets capable of moving around the entire craft that you have to consider the interactions of.

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

#45

Post by sundvor »

hotpotamus wrote: post #28
sieste wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's a bit light on details. But they do point out the most important facts, namely what gender the astronauts are and that it has not been officially confirmed whether the tool box contained a 10mm wrench. Personally, that's everything I needed to know about the situation.

If you've ever worked on a modern car, you'd know the importance of the 10mm wrench. Maybe they had some Toyota guys consult on the ISS.

Context, possibly: https://youtu.be/2jlxO6s5N6Q?si=7iled4EV7nWWyb-A

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

#46

Post by nerpderp82 »

jstanley wrote: post #40
Groxx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> does something like that exist? Technically: yes. Practically: it's so expensive to launch anything , much less a cleanup-bot, that it basically isn't done outside of research. This will probably change, but costs are unavoidably high so it'll probably always be rare. There's a decent summary of the area in this, from a quick googling: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/tech/space-junk-robot-esa-int... For small near-s…

But if you lose something from the ISS, couldn't you chuck the drone out the airlock of the ISS and get it back before it's gone very far?

A drone would potentially be an ISS damaging missile. It could cause a whole lot more problems than it might solve. Ever have your foot nailed by an RC car? That times 100.

Also its propulsion gas could also setup oscillations in the station itself. So a lot of math would have to go into counteract this little bee flying around outside the station.

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

#47

Post by RetpolineDrama »

Mizza wrote: post #19
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

For a highly trained astronaut that "oops" in the video seemed extremely careless.

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

#48

Post by avianlyric »

smegger001 wrote: post #41
kortex wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

Why not put magnets on the tools handle so they can be quickly anchored near the working space when not in use? Similar to how we would set our tools down in full gravity astronauts could set the tool "down" without it floating away.

That would require nearby surfaces to be ferromagnetic, which generally means steel. I doubt there’s much exposed steel on the outside of the ISS. Steel is crazy heavy compared to other materials like titanium or aluminium, and given the cost of putting mass into space, it’s unlikely there’s much steel at all on the ISS.

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

#50

Post by MrPatan »

sieste wrote: post #25
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.

Yes it's a bit light on details. But they do point out the most important facts, namely what gender the astronauts are and that it has not been officially confirmed whether the tool box contained a 10mm wrench. Personally, that's everything I needed to know about the situation.

Does it contain a drill?
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