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Space Station Spacewalkers Stymied By Stubborn Bolt
Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that astronauts at the International Space Station ran into problems after removing the station's 100-kg power-switching unit, one of four used in a system that distributes electrical power generated by the station's solar array wings, and were stymied after repeated attempts to attach the new device failed when a bolt jammed, preventing astronauts from hooking it up into the station's power grid. Japanese Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide got the bolt to turn nine times but engineers need 15 turns to secure the power-switching unit. 'We're kind of at a loss of what else we can try,' said astronaut Jack Fischer at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston after more than an hour of trouble-shooting. 'If you guys have any thoughts or ideas or brilliant schemes on what we can do, let us know.' Hoshide suggested using a tool that provides more force on bolts, but NASA engineers are reluctant to try anything that could make the situation worse and as the spacewalk slipped past seven hours, flight controllers told the astronauts to tether the unit in place, clean up their tools and head back into the station's airlock. NASA officials says the failure to secure the new unit won't disrupt station operations but it will force engineers to carefully distribute electrical power from three operating units to various station systems and says another attempt to install the power distributor could come as early as next week if engineers can figure out what to do with the stubborn bolt. 'We're going to figure it out another day,' says Fischer."
You could try WD-40, but I suspect that Newton's Third Law outlaws use of aerosol cans in space.
They should have used self-sealing stem bolts, they don't have this problem.
A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
Just hammer it in with a crescent wrench.. what's the matter with these people?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Oh, come on, this thing weights zero in orbit, they can just scotch-tape it in place! ;)
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Sounds like they got the bolt cross threaded.
Just need to back out the bolt, run a thread chaser through to clean up the threads and try again.
And if NASA has an Amazon Prime membership, Amazon will have it delivered to the space station by Wednesday (if they pay the $3.99 overnight delivery fee). There may also be a small surcharge for orbital delivery.
Take it outside and do it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
They wouldn't have lasted 4 months on MIR, let alone a decade. That thing was held together by duct tape and lubricated by vodka. It seems the good ol' russian approach to technology applied here too: If force doesn't fix it, use more force.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yep. I predict a whole bunch of armchair engineers telling NASA how to unscrew a bolt on a trillion dollar space station.
Duct tape, WD40, ... I think I'll skip this one.
No sig today...
Not only that, how is the heat transferred to the bolt going to behave without convection to carry it away? How are you going to heat it in the first place? Can you do that in a space suit? Can you do that safely in a space suit? "Space is tricky. Really, really tricky. Honestly, you have no idea how mind-bogglingly tricky it is, I mean, you think it's tricky having to manufacture cadmium free tools to work on titanium coated hypersonic jet aircraft? That's a doddle compared to space..." (with apologies to DNA)
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
If anybody bothers to read the article it mentions "metal shavings on one of its bolts and around the housing" when they removed the bolt and now it won't go back in again.
Boy, that's an awfully polite way of saying "Damn Jimmy, now look what you dun did! You stripped the dagum bolt out!"
Yes, even in space, redneck rules apply.
If you guys have any thoughts or ideas or brilliant schemes on what we can do, let us know.
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Have gnu, will travel.