Slashdot Mirror


Astronaut to Attempt Spacewalk Record

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."

15 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...

    --
    Me failed English...
    FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
  2. Houston... by Kalendraf · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...we need a bigger hammer!

  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 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.

      --
      I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
  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.

  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. 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.

    --
    Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
    altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
  10. 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.

  11. 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.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  12. 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.

    --
    Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
  13. 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?