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How Duct Tape Saved Apollo 17's Moon Buggy

Posted by timothy on from the these-pictures-clearly-faked dept.

Ant points out a story spotted on Boing Boing in which NASA "shares a story that turns back the clock 36 years to reveal the "key roll of duct tape in the Apollo program." The quality of the photographs from the moon always grabs me, and the duct-taped fender here is no exception.

19 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Duct Tape by maz2331 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It just proves the old adage that "If you can't fix it with duct tape, then it's broken."

    1. Re:Duct Tape by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually that's not entirely true. A few years ago we were working in the field in the Arctic. I stumbled down a hill and broke my arm. The satellite phone wasn't working at the time, so our solution was to make an elaborate splint made entirely out of duct tape. It took 3 days to hike back to civilization but my arm didn't even need to be reset by the doctor.

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    2. Re:Duct Tape by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Can we fix the broken CSS on the idle section with some duct tape?

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Duct Tape by Schwartzboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, I thought that it went "If you can't duck it..." and then ends with a two-word suggestion that I'm very very glad they didn't have to do to the moon buggy. I would think that it'd be physically impossible to do and not at all fun unless the buggy was, in fact, really cute.

      --
      "Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
    4. Re:Duct Tape by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "If you can't fix it with duct tape, then it's broken." You forget about WD40.

      If it moves and is not supposed to, use Duct Tape.
      If it doesn't move and is supposed to, use WD40.

      If both of those fail, then I guess you can savely assume it's broken.
    5. Re:Duct Tape by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Works on earth buggies, too. I can't count the number of times a coolant hose or a heater hose (coolant goes through the heater hose?) has gotten a hole and been patched with duct tape "to get to the auto parts store", and was still on the unreplaced hose when I sold or traded the car.

      It may be urban legend, but I heard the military calls it "hundred mile per hour tape" because once in some godforsaken jungle somewhere a helicopter broke a rotor (gunshot or something) and the mechanic duct taped it together, telling the pilot to "keep it under a hundred miles an hour".

      They used to seal ducts with the stuff.

      Has anyone ever taped ducks together with it?

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    6. Re:Duct Tape by smellsofbikes · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have taped a duck with duct tape. It was a pet duck that had been attacked by a dog and had a huge oozing wound on its back. We were trying to get bandages on it so it wouldn't get (as much) dirt and debris in the wound while it was healing, and gauze and medical tape wasn't enough. We used a combination of duct tape and vet wrap and basically made a sort of suit for the duck that wrapped around its chest and under its wings, to hold the bandages in place. It worked.

      Your coolant system patches must've used different duct tape than mine: the hot water melted the adhesive and it was leaking like a sieve in a dozen km. I managed to get home, barely.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    7. Re:Duct Tape by AragornSonOfArathorn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Duck Tape is only for taping ducks back together, or to each other. Why tape ducks together, you ask? Why not?

      Any other use is unsupported by the manufacturer.

      --
      sudo eat my shorts
    8. Re:Duct Tape by marklark · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My experience with _gray_ duct-tape in the Antarctic is that it's absolutely pathetic in the cold.

      For this story to be true, the splint must have been applied indoors and kept under clothing.

    9. Re:Duct Tape by Zencyde · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ew. I don't think ANYONE claimed to be fucking McGyver. Why such accusations?

      --
      What day is it? Could you please tell me?
    10. Re:Duct Tape by brunokummel · · Score: 4, Funny

      Schrodinger, is that you?

      Yes and No!

      --
      What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
  2. ObRedGreen Ref by amccaf1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember, if the aliens don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

    --
    "Flag on the moon. How did it get there?"
  3. The voids... by dauthur · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can't hear duct tape rip in the vacuum of space. That is a sad fact.

  4. Re:Duct tape great for everything BUT ducts. by jafiwam · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sealing ammo cans with cloth tape. Though the origin of the name is a controversy, the term is originally "Duck Tape" because water is repelled by the outside surface, thus making it good for ammo cans. You can get the can wet, pull it out of the wet, and since the water rolled off, open the can right away without getting much water in the can. Or, so the story goes.

  5. photos by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Informative

    The quality of the photographs from the moon always grabs me, and the duct-taped fender here is no exception.

    Medium-format sized negatives. Shitloads of light (large depth of field and high shutter speeds.) No atmosphere to bend light between subject and camera.

    Also, you've got really hard shadows because the light isn't diffused at all by an atmosphere.

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  6. KEY roll of duct tape? by corsec67 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would say that the roll of tape used on the Apollo 13 was much more important.

    It is interesting to think about dust in a vacuum, where if it is kicked up with a large forward velocity, it will fall back down on you or even ahead of you, whereas on Earth it would get pushed behind you by friction...

    --
    If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
  7. Filthy astronauts. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    They also used duct tape to fix the stereo, so they could keep driving their moon buggies through our neighborhoods at all hours of the night playing that theme from "2001" real loud.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  8. Three things you need to fix anything by cwills · · Score: 4, Funny
    The three things you need to fix anything in the universe.
    1. Duct Tape
    2. WD-40
    3. A Hammer

    • If it moves and it shouldn't - use Duct Tape
    • If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40
    • If neither of those work, use the hammer
  9. Re:Cameras by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Informative
    Didn't NASA have a preference back then for Hasselblad medium-format cameras with really good Zeiss lenses?


    Yup. Swedish engineered camera with German lenses. Pretty much the best of both worlds. For your information.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower