Astronauts Lost Tools in Space, Forced to Improvise

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."

Comments

My Favourite

[MichaelSmith]

Was the mudguard repair (I know, no mud on the moon but I refuse to say "fender" like an American) on apollo 17. Maps and sticky tape really came in handy that time.

uh, It's nothing like your house

[192939495969798999]

first of all, it's not like you can take something to work, leave it in the other car, etc. If it's on the station, it's on the station still. If you didn't find it in 5 minutes, then your method for looking/putting away is failing. There should be a process, etc. etc. AFter all, you can't even "set something down" in space. "Setting down" a wrench would just make it float away, and then it would smack you in the head later on.

Re:Bob Villa?

[Anonymous Coward]

And as for tools... I'm guessing I'd do a little bit better on the woodworking projects I do.

Over the 12 years he's lived in his house, my father has built his garage, deck, shed, and finished off his basement. He's built or repaired a good chunk of the furniture in his house. He designed and built from scratch the kitchen table and set of chairs in my apartment.

He has no formal training in woodworking (though he did work as a carpenter framing houses one summer while putting himself through college) and his is tool set is only modestly larger than that of the average joe.

His favorite quote? "It is a poor workman who blames his limitations on his tools."

I guess maybe I see this in a different light.

[member57]

As a tax payer, I am pissed that they are "misplacing" tools that cost way more than tools I have in my garage. Just think about how much it cost to supply them with those tools, testing, purchasing then launching them into orbit. NASA doesn't just go to Sears to get a wrench then load it onto a lauch vehicle and away it goes. The damn thing is spec'd out, high priced contractors offer up prototypes, testing, redesigned, retested, etc. costing thousands even millions of dollars for EACH tool. The press then makes light of it like it was a show on DIY network. I don't find it even remotely fascinating or funny.

DIY is part of the space program

[thewiz]

Nonetheless, nice to see the Do It Yourself (DIY) spirit at work in space."

DIY has been part of the space program since Chuck Yeager used a broom handle to close the door on the X-1 after breaking his arm in a horse riding accident. I think the best example is when the Apollo 13 astronauts rigged an air scrubber and used their lunar module as a propulsion system to get home after the service module blew up.

Nice to see the tradition being carried on.