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Astronaut to Attempt Spacewalk Record

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the moonwalk-record-still-strong dept.

MattSparkes writes "Two residents of the International Space Station will take a spacewalk tomorrow to try to jam a stuck antenna on a docked cargo ship back into place. The spacewalk will set a US record of over 65 hours spacewalk experience. During the spacewalk, the astronauts will "use a hammer and a chisel to try to pound the antenna into place". Precision engineering at its very best I'm sure you'll agree."

30 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. A Hammer? by Architect_sasyr · · Score: 3, Funny

    They're going to use a Hammer and a Chisel... I thought these pieces of equipment were highly delicate...

    Apparantly they're more like IBM computers...

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    1. Re:A Hammer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      well, at least it is not a hammer and a sickle, now that the MIR has gone the way of the dodo...

      besides, it would be unamerican.

    2. Re:A Hammer? by networkBoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      From what I understood of TFA, they're simply trying to get the antenna back into place before they can destroy the whole cargo ship by letting it burn in the atmosphere. does anyone else think it odd that an antenna must be put back in place so it can burn up in the atmosphere? Reminds me about the guy on death row in California that got a heart transplant. Except at least I can see the astronauts wanting to get the "most spacewalking hours" record. I can't imagine the surgeon wanting the "most pointless and morally wasteful surgery ever"* award.
      -nB

      *While the merits of the death penalty are debatable, that's not the point. This guy failed his appeals and will be (was?) put to death. Giving him a heart that could save someone else not guilty of murdering another human is simply wrong.
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  2. Houston... by Kalendraf · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...we need a bigger hammer!

    1. Re:Houston... by MrFlibbs · · Score: 2, Funny

      This just reinforces an old mechanical engineering maxim:

            "If you have a large enough hammer, anything can be made to fit."

  3. Bah! by Masa · · Score: 5, Funny

    64 hours should be enough for anyone.

  4. It's the Chisel part... by kaysan · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can understand the practical applications of, and use for, packing a hammer aboard a space cargo flight, but i can't for the life of me imagine what they would do with a chisel?.. maybe they hid it inside of a cake?

  5. Please... by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not a hammer.
    It's a highly specialized kinetic-energy inertial impartion implement.

    After all, it cost far more than a mere hammer...

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    1. Re:Please... by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      Of course it costs more! It has to be radiation hardened! *groan*


            Not to mention the Inertialess Tethering Point and Coupling (ie a hole drilled in the handle and a bit of string, to tie it to the suit) and the Point Acceleration Minimization Device (velcro on the handle). Those technological leaps alone are worth at least $25k.

      --
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    2. Re:Please... by bartyboy · · Score: 2

      After all, it cost far more than a mere hammer...

      Of course it did - it's ambidextrous! Can't be sending left-handed hammers into space with right-handed astronauts...
    3. Re:Please... by Nf1nk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I know you are joking, but try to use a dead blow hammer sometime. its kind of creepy to have the hammer just sort of die on impact. It wouldn't surprise me if they were using dead blows for this job to minimize the bounceback.

      --
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  6. Just A Hammer and Chisel? by Zeek40 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did they forget about the BB gun, pepper spray, 6" knife and rubber tubing? Oh... Wrong astronaut...

  7. What was that saying? by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

    When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

    Imagine spending 65 hours playing whack-a-mole.

    --
    Task Mangler
    1. Re:What was that saying? by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 3, Funny

      The hammer in my house is helpfully labelled "Emergency Repair Procedure #1" in sharpie on the handle.

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    2. Re:What was that saying? by Centurix · · Score: 2, Funny

      haha, if I hadn't posted in here already this would've got a +1 funny. I get this picture of an eager astronaut waiting for the mole to appear, hitting it and flying away into orbit shouting "damn you Newton!"

      --
      Task Mangler
  8. Replace Alpha Echo 35 unit prior to failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Stuck Antenna? It's not the AE-35 unit that's failed, by any chance?

  9. Spacewalk record? I'm unimpressed. by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now if he was breaking the moonwalking record, that'd be more newsworthy.

  10. A US record? Yawn by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, a record for US astronaut spacewalks? Yawn. That Russian has 80+, you know? US triumphs are not so special as to be noteworthy compared to the superior exploits of other nations. This mind-set isn't new - I recall learning about the space race in grade school and god help you if you remembered who Yuri Gagarin was but forgot that first American guy in space, whoever he was.

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  11. Life immitating Art. ( Armageddon (1998)) by arthurpaliden · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When the Russian cosmonaught takes a hammer to the fuel systems saying "this is how we fix things in Russia". Or something to that effect.

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  12. Stop. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hammer Time.

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  13. Re:A US record? Yawn by Chacham · · Score: 2, Informative

    This mind-set isn't new - I recall learning about the space race in grade school and god help you if you remembered who Yuri Gagarin was but forgot that first American guy in space, whoever he was.

    Of course. Because he went on to other things. His name was "Alan Shepard", which should ring a bell in most Americans. He also walked on the moon.

    --
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  14. Hammer Time by rodney+dill · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If it doesn't work, hit it with a Hammer.
    If you break it, it didn't work anyway.
    (usually as applied to delicate electronic equipment)

    --

    Use your head, can't you, use your head,
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  15. well... by jemminger · · Score: 3, Informative

    if anyone actually RTFA, you'd know that the ship with the faulty antenna is a trash barge that's going to burn up in the atmosphere as soon as they can hammer the antenna out of the way, or cut it off. i'm sure they wouldn't try to fix the ISS's communications antennae with a hammer and chisel.

  16. Not what it sounds like by slasho81 · · Score: 2, Informative
    It's not a continuous spacewalk record. And it's also not an accumulative spacewalk record. From the article:

    Lopez-Alegria has already spent more than 61 hours spacewalking during his astronaut career. This spacewalk, his 10th, should add about six more hours to his total - making him the US astronaut with the most spacewalks performed and the most total time spent walking in space. Only Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov has spent more time outside the hatch, racking up 82 hours of spacewalking time.
  17. Related metalworking question- by mikeasu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not a metalworker, so I'll ask a stupid question here...

    If you're chiselling a piece of metal, aren't pieces of the metal going to flake off? I'm just thinking of the orbiting debris issue - would the specks be too small to worry about?

    1. Re:Related metalworking question- by multipartmixed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That depends on how you use the chisel.

      If you use it to flake bits of metal off, then yes, there will be flakes. But chances are, they're just going to use the chisel as an impromtu guillotine to cut through the antenna legs. Chiselling away at them would serve no purpose.

      --

      Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  18. Re:A US record? Yawn by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Yes, because PR has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the continuance of manned spaceflight.

    You're right, the mind-set isn't new, sports records are also kept by country. In my high school, we even had state and local records! But God forbid that anyone else than America be chastised for it. I'm sure that my principal should have looked up the times of that Kenyan fellow who was faster than any of our track team.

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  19. Over kill by GigG · · Score: 5, Funny

    The chisel is over kill. You only need to tools in aerospace. A hammer and a roll of duct tape. If it moves and it isn't supposed to use the duct tape, if it doesn't move and is supposed to use the hammer.

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  20. Re:A US record? Yawn by GigG · · Score: 3, Funny

    Of course the Russians had more space walk experience. They had to keep in shape because there was always a pretty good chance they were going to have to walk home from the Mir.

    --
    Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
  21. It better have cost more! by c6gunner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When you're paying about $20,000 to lift that hammer into orbit, I sure as hell hope that they'll splurge, instead of going for the $5 Walmart model. Ditto for their food. When each meal costs that much to lift to orbit, they may as well eat caviar, lobster, and Dom Perignon. The added cost is insignificant.