Astronaut Loses Tools While Performing an EVA

tpheiska writes "NASA press release states that 'At approx. 3:33 p.m. EST, Piper reported that one of the Braycote lubrication guns had released grease into her toolbag. As she was cleaning the bag and wiping the tools and equipment inside, the bag floated away. Another bag carrying identical equipment is now being shared by Piper and Bowen.' Luckily they had a spare."

Comments

I was just wondering

[black_lbi]

Why isn't the tools bag somehow linked to the suit? with a strap or something ...

Re:I was just wondering

[ILikeRed]

The rope came undone. What they need is a spacesuit with a magnetic grappling gun built into the arm of the suit to grab things like this before they float too far away. (Yes, like the Samus suit - who would not want to see that in space?)

Re:I was just wondering

[Konster]

Except they are not on Earth.

You don't want a tether on a bag full of stuff in orbit because it can act in pretty unpredictable ways, flailing about and risking the life of the person that's holding the bag is the first consideration. Guys, this isn't changing the oil on your car. A stray object can damage any one of the many couplings on the suit and rendering that suit inoperable very quickly. Bad news if you happen to be that person inside the suit at that time. Failure on Earth means you pick up the wrench and go back at it. Failure up there is a dead person on a mission with a multiples of billions of dollars pricetag hung off to the side.

Further, they are trained on instrument loss...tools floating off, et cetera. Again, this is not Earth wherein you can grasp around with complete impunity looking for whatever tool that just spun out on the garage floor. Space walkers especially are trained far more on what they cannot do than what they can do. They can reach out very slowly to try and recover something that is drifting off, but any large effort means that they may also join that tool bag on its long, lonely orbit around the Earth. In the small and large scheme of things, an astronaut is of far more value than a wrench or any multitudes thereof.

Also, yes, NASA knows a little bit about redundancy and especially so on space walks.

Give our astronauts a bit of credit here. Tough job. Worst pay on the planet (or near it) for the risk. Awesome view, but colossal vertigo.

A bit of trivia: space walker's microphones are muted for the first 30 seconds of their first space walk. Reason is this: in space, no one can hear you scream. And with the mic off, neither can Houston.

Re:I was just wondering

[F�an�ro]

A bit of trivia: space walker's microphones are muted for the first 30 seconds of their first space walk. Reason is this: in space, no one can hear you scream. And with the mic off, neither can Houston.

[[citation needed]]

Being unable to call for help if something goes wrong sounds like a major danger, no way nasa would do this.

Re:I was just wondering

[bedammit]

Having worked at NASA... I'd like to clarify. There are definitely difficulties when items are tethered, to a space suit or a vehicle while in space, however these are details which are resolved. Astronauts use an MMWS (modified mini-workstation tool stowage) caddy. This keeps tools from floating away as well as has tethers. You can see an image of the hooks used here. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/122027main_hooks.jpg Additionally, You can see a repair bag here. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/122016main_crack_repair_bag.jpg Note the loops and elastic bands. This is how tools are contained in a repair bag. The way the bag was lost was when astronaut Piper was pulling items out of the crew air lock bag. While searching the bag the tool bag (which was in side the larger bag) floated up and out and she lost control of it. It then floated away. I may have been missed when transferring items. In the video the bag lost looks like an MMWS. Which is sorta like a utility belt. Things like this happen... Fault or no fault.. BeDammit

Re:I was just wondering

[Kagura]

Found a video of the astronaut losing the tool bag. After it got out of reach, there was simply no going after it.

Laurel & Hardy?

[eldavojohn]

As she was cleaning the bag and wiping the tools and equipment inside, the bag floated away. Another bag carrying identical equipment is now being shared by Piper and Bowen.

Do we have any humorous black & white silent space footage of this skit?

Seriously, NASA's gotta come up with financing somehow ... add some hokey 1920's ragtime music to the it, speed it up just unnaturally fast and they just might be sitting on a viral video here!

Come on, it practically writes itself:

Setting: Exterior of shuttle.
A lanky beanpole Bowen discovers that grease has been dispensed into her bag. Not wanting to alert the portly Bowen and face his wrath, she quickly empties the contents of the bag to wipe them off. As she cleans each tool, she sets it back down on the shuttle but soon realizes that they merely float back up. She rotates through each tool, setting it back on the shuttle but forgets about the bag! Bowen hears the heavy breathing in his earpiece and turns around in time to see the bag floating away while Piper is pre-occupied with the tools. He scowls and makes a move for the bag but slips on grease and tumbles out into space, tethered only by his life support ...

And THIS is why

[falcon5768]

The Enterprise was built on the ground folks. If highly trained astronauts cant hold onto their tools, you think a bunch of steel workers can?

Footage of the incident

[rawagajah]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7736996.stm

Re:Footage of the incident

[Media Tracker]

Longer version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flZRps0pBEo

What about the EVA retriever robot?

[Robotbeat]

NASA had a robot in development JUST FOR THIS SORT OF THING. In the early 1990s/late 1980s they were working on an autonomous robot that responds to voice commands that would fly around in space near a space station to retrieve tools or astronauts and such. It would be released and lock on to the tool or whatever and fly to it and fly back to the station. I have a picture of it in a kids book about robots, but I can't find one online.

Here's a fact sheet on the project:

http://cd.textfiles.com/spaceandast/TEXT/STATION/STF_EVA.TXT

EVA RETRIEVER FACT SHEET

Johnson Space Center (JSC)

March 25, 1988

          The EVA Retriever concept is an autonomous free flying robot
for retrieving equipment or a spacewalking astronaut drifting in
separated flight near the Space Station. The device combines the
proven manned maneuvering unit (MMU) with a robot latched in
where an astronaut normally would be. The MMU was flown eight
times from the Space Shuttle's cargo bay in test flights and for
satellite repair spacewalks.

          Responding to voice commands from the Space Station crew,
the EVA Retriever would activate and check itself out, search for
and lock onto the "target," thrust toward, rendezvous with and
grapple the target -- automatically avoiding any obstacles en
route such as Space Station structures. After grappling the
target, the EVA Retriever would search for the Space Station and
finding it, return home.

Radio silence

[ErkDemon]

You don't want the world listening in to a conversation between a bunch of macho guys who've just realised that they're all alone in a sealed capsule with nothing to lose, no chance of escape and a few hours left to live.

Mission Control:
"And so, the world waits and listens, as the brave astronauts consider how to spend their last few hours of precious life. We can no longer communicate with the heroic crew, but we have one last audio feed still working. We can hear them, but tragically, they can't hear us ... "

Audio feed:
"Chuck?"
"Yeah, Tony?"
"We're gonna die, ain't we?"
"Yeah, Tony. We are."
"Is there anything you really wished you'd tried, just once, when you had the chance?"
"A few things, Tony. Yeah. A few."
"Have you ever wondered what, like, it'd be like to 'do it' with another guy? Because ..."

Mission Control:
"Aaargh! Aargh! Noooooo! Turn it OFF!"