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Astronauts Lost Tools in Space, Forced to Improvise

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lost-in-time-lost-in-space...and-meaning dept.

Ant writes "Neatorama and Popular Science share a CNN story about Russian astronauts repairing the International Space Station (ISS) with improvised tools because they lost the real ones. How? 'It's a lot like your house,' said Paul Boehm, lead spacewalk officer. 'You set your car keys down somewhere and hopefully you find them again later when you try to remember it.' Uh, yeah, but we're idiots -- you're astronauts. Nonetheless, nice to see the Do It Yourself (DIY) spirit at work in space."

7 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Pffft by MyLongNickName · · Score: 2, Funny

    I lose my tools all the time -- "where did that damn socket set go?" I've been forced to use all sorts of things - pliers, my wife's spatula set (don't tell her), and my son's toy dinosaur. Betcha none of those astronauts would have thought of THAT.

    Clearly I am much more intelluhgent then those NASA dudes. And don't even get me started on that Bo Villa guy. If I had 527 different types of wood vices like him, I could HAND CARVE my own six bedroom Colonial..

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. I'm in Sync with the ISS guys by Quirk · · Score: 2, Funny
    My mountain bike is now in many pieces with three different tool kits broken open and scattered among the bike parts. I know the tools are there, it's just, I don't know exactly where.

    I think the way to go is to have different multitools for particular jobs.

    I love working on my bike, but man o man what I wouldn't give for a shot to work on the ISS. Of course getting the beer and bong onto the station could be difficult.

    --
    "Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
    Cohen
  3. space psychology by dalutong · · Score: 3, Funny

    You set your car keys down somewhere and hopefully you find them again later when you try to remember it.

    That's the problem with earthlings going to space -- we can't deal with space-based habits that contradict our own. On Earth we can hope to find our keys where we set them down. In space they float away.

    --

    What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
  4. Chewing gum wrapper, Swiss Army Knife, Duck Tape by strikeleader · · Score: 4, Funny

    MacGyver would be proud.

  5. Article headline is ambiguous... by GreenPenInc · · Score: 4, Funny

    For a sec, I thought they were insulting the astronauts, calling them a bunch of tools who couldn't find their way back to Earth.

  6. In Rod We Trust by tehlinux · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did they improvise with an inanimate carbon rod?

    --
    Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
  7. Oh, that explains it... by corbettl · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's why I had a slightly melted rench & racket set stuck in my windshield this morning!