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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

#101

Post by aftbit »

Fwirt wrote: post #32
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…

It seems that much like we become able to delegate tasks like setting down a coffee cup to our subconscious on Earth, after a while in microgravity astronauts become accustomed to "setting things down" in midair. It's could be that just like in a shop on the ground, "where did I set down that wrench" is an issue; an astronaut might "set down" a tool in midair on a spacewalk and forget that they're not in a confined s…

That video is a joke. Read the description.

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

#104

Post by oooyay »

p1esk wrote: post #15

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

You're getting voted down but this is a pretty good question!

I had a tool kit in the Marines that was a basic split case with DeWalt looking hand tools and a soldering kit in it. The thing cost somewhere on the order of $60k and replacing individual parts was often more expensive than the sum of the collection. I constantly had to inventory the thing every time I took it out and I'd never let anyone use my tools or leave them laying around.

The reason is that military tools and parts are built according to a spec and often in batches. That spec has to be reaffirmed for every batch and is often specified within the item spec. There's pretty normal specs in there like size and thread count, but then there's other that require destructive testing like tensile strength, material composition, heat tolerance, etc... When you make a big order the price per unit is pretty cheap because one destroyed item per item in the collection is amortized across the rest of them. When you order a single one they make one plus one for each destructive test.

One of the most memorable examples I can think of is that I operated a special truck in Afghanistan that cost ~$1.5M. In order to build and deploy that one truck they built 4 more including all internals and hit it with rockets, explosives, and bullets to durability test the configuration of the internals. In the end, one $1.5M truck is actually $7.5M in order to ensure the safety of everyone inside.

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

#105

Post by gumballindie »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #102

Military officers, brilliant scientists, physically fit and operating in perhaps the most demanding environment we've asked of the human body... and all anyone remembers is they dropped the spanner.

Beats combing the desert.

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

#108

Post by jtriangle »

eggy wrote: post #93
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.

An all-female space walk and the last time a toolbag was lost it was a woman...just saying...really plays into stereotypes of women around tools. But it was reported the male astronauts couldn't find a can opener in the kitchen drawer so even stevens!

I swear, the can opener has some kind of Y chromosome activated cloaking device.

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

#110

Post by jtriangle »

hotpotamus wrote: post #69
sundvor wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hadn't seen that one, but it is a bit of a meme. I'm not joking about working on cars though - my 2001 Toyota Corolla was full of 10mm bolts, and I have on occasion needed to pick one up from the hardware store only to find an empty spot between the 9mm and 11mm sockets.

Honda dirtbikes were almost exclusively 10mm, which was handy, because you can carry a very limited set of tools/parts and fix basically everything aside from running out of gas.
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